The Greeks of Turkey within the axis of Turkish-Greek relations and their presentation in Turkish press within the context of 1964 Cyprus crisis

The Greek minority of Turkey has reached a stage of demographic extinction. The drift of this ethnic group, which maintained its existence in Anatolia and Thrace for centuries, to extinction is a result of the political developments experienced in the last two centuries. The birth of the Greek state and the rise of Turkish nationalism generated a nationalist rivalry which can be called the Turkish-Greek conflict in general terms. This conflict, which resulted in the abandonment of homes by the Greeks living in Eastern Thrace and Anatolia, started to experience a new phase in Cyprus in the middle of the 20th century. One of the groups which were affected by the conflict in Cyprus were the Greeks living in Turkey. Greeks, who were allowed to remain within the borders of the Turkish Republic according to the Population Exchange, have carried the weight of the conflictual history between the two states. As a result they were directly affected by the fluctuations of Turkish-Greek relations. The relationship of Turkey's Greeks with the Turkish state and Turkish society was determined by these two factors. Especially with the emergence of the Cyprus Conflict, the Greek perception in the Turkish public opinion has been reshaped by contemporary developments and memories of the previous period. This perception can be observed in the newspaper articles published during the 1964 Cyprus Crisis. This study examines the status of Turkey's Greeks depending on the general course of Turkish-Greek relations and the depiction of Greeks in the Turkish press during the Cyprus Crisis.