Today marks 75 years since the historic day of the Enosis referendum in 1950, when 95.7% of Greek Cypriots, under British rule at the time, voted in favour of the island’s union with Greece. Between 15–22 January 1950, out of 224,757 eligible voters, 215,108 signed in favour, including an estimated 44 Turkish Cypriots. For the first time, women were also allowed to vote.
AKEL’s stance
The referendum was organised through the collection of signatures in churches and was supported not only by the Ethnarchy and the Right but also by AKEL. In the spirit of unity, AKEL abandoned its initial plans and called on its members to vote in favour.
Earlier, in the autumn of 1948, a meeting was held in the Gramos Mountains between party representatives (Fifis Ioannou and Andreas Ziartides) and Nikos Zachariades of the Greek Communist Party (KKE). According to Ziartides, Zachariades told the AKEL representatives:
“We are fighting with arms against reactionaries and British imperialism, and you, in Cyprus, are collaborating with the British over a Constitution. Your tactics must change. You must fight for the union of Cyprus with Greece. We are confident of our victory, and when we prevail, your problem will be resolved!”
Ziartides later met with Harry Pollitt of the Communist Party of Great Britain in England, who dismissed Zachariades’s views as nonsense. Nevertheless, in September 1949, AKEL’s leadership issued a statement urging Greek Cypriots to “make January 15 a day of triumph for Enosis and a crushing defeat for the foreign imperialist regime.” The front page of AKEL’s newspaper, Neos Demokratitis, on 15 January 1950, reflected this sentiment.
British threats
On 8 December 1949, Archbishop Makarios II officially announced the referendum through a circular to the people. The announcement sparked a frenzy of enthusiasm, with associations, parties, organisations, and intellectual institutions issuing statements calling for a national mobilisation. The options were: “We demand the union of Cyprus with Greece” or “We oppose the union of Cyprus with Greece.”
The British colonial authorities refused to recognise the referendum and implemented a plan to intimidate the population. They threatened to dismiss teachers and public servants who supported the Enosis movement.
Missions to Athens, London, and the USA
Participants signed four copies of the referendum. Four volumes were created, one of which was kept by the Church of Cyprus, while the other three were sent abroad to internationalise the demand: one to New York, one to London, and one to Athens. Following the referendum, the Ethnarchy travelled to Athens but was met with hesitation from the Plastiras government, which was unwilling to confront London. Despite widespread public support for the Cypriots’ demands in Greece, the statement by Vice President Georgios Papandreou reflected Athens’s stance:
“Greece breathes today with two lungs, one British and the other American. It cannot risk asphyxiation over the Cyprus issue.”
In London, the Ethnarchy’s delegation faced closed doors, as expected, while the United States showed a warmer reception, albeit without tangible results.
The National Liberation Coalition (EAS), a leftist political formation controlled by AKEL, also conducted an awareness tour in Britain, Paris, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, and Poland. Although the Cypriots’ aspirations and vision were not realised through the Enosis referendum, this event is considered a precursor to the heroic national liberation struggle of EOKA, which began five years later.
