EOKA

abbreviation of Ethnik Orgnosis Kipriako Agnos (Greek: National Organization of Cypriot Struggle) underground nationalist movement of Greek Cypriots dedicated to the expulsion of the British from Cyprus (achieved in 1960) and the eventual union (Greek nosis) of Cyprus with Greece. EOKA was organized c. 1955 by Col. Georgios Grivas, an officer in the Greek Army, with the support of Makarios III, Orthodox archbishop of Cyprus. Its terrorist campaign, begun early in 1955, reached a climax in 1956, with the exile of Makarios and the temporary depletion of British forces in the island because of the Suez crisis. By early 1957, however, a reinforced British army successfully attacked the terrorists' mountain hideouts, considerably weakening EOKA, which had never numbered more than 300 men. Violence subsided after Makarios' release in March 1957, though there was a recurrence in mid-1958, when EOKA clashed with Turkish Cypriot guerrillas. In 1958 Makarios announced he would accept independence for Cyprus rather than nosis, and in March 1959 Grivas reluctantly disbanded his organization after obtaining amnesty for its members. In 1971 Grivas, who had served for a time as commander of the Greek Cypriot National Guard but had been recalled by the Greek government, reentered Cyprus secretly to form EOKA B, to prevent a betrayal of nosis. After Grivas' death in January 1974, his followers vowed to continue the struggle. President Makarios officially proscribed EOKA B in April 1974, three months before he was ousted and before Turkish forces landed and divided the country in a brief civil war. Thereafter, EOKA disappeared.