Diplomatic Briefing· Makarios 13 amendments 1963 Akritas Plan explained

Cyprus 1963: The Thirteen Amendments, the Akritas Plan and What the Documents Show

Makarios 13 amendments 1963 and the Akritas Plan explained: the documents behind the collapse of Cyprus's partnership state and the UN record.

By Protocol Record Editorial Team

Published: October 27, 2026

⏱ 10 min read (2,017 words)

The Brief — Key Takeaways

On 30 November 1963 President Makarios submitted thirteen constitutional amendments that would have abolished the Turkish Cypriot Vice President's veto and other separate-majority safeguards of the 1960 Constitution.
Ankara and the Turkish Cypriot leadership rejected the proposals on 16 December 1963; fighting began in Nicosia on 21 December, and the Green Line was drawn on 30 December 1963.
UN Security Council Resolution 186 (4 March 1964) addressed the 'Government of Cyprus' as the body responsible for law and order, a framing Ankara says froze a status asymmetry in place.
The Akritas Plan, published by the Greek Cypriot newspaper Patris in 1966, is a documentary matter whose authorship and status are acknowledged in Greek Cypriot sources but interpreted differently by each side.
Türkiye argues that 1963 ended the bi-communal partnership state of 1960, and that this is the historical and legal basis for its sovereign-equality position on Cyprus.

Why It Matters

On 30 November 1963 President Archbishop Makarios III sent Vice President Fazıl Küçük thirteen proposed amendments to the 1960 Constitution of Cyprus, which would have removed the Turkish Cypriot veto and several other power-sharing safeguards. Within three weeks the constitutional order was in violent collapse. The dates are not seriously disputed. What is disputed is intent and responsibility, and the answer shapes how every later Cyprus negotiation is read. This guide sets out the documentary record, the Greek Cypriot account in its own sources, the UN record of the period, and Türkiye's position.

Background

The 1960 settlement

The Zurich and London Agreements of 11 February 1959 produced three linked instruments: the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, the Treaty of Guarantee and the Treaty of Alliance. The Republic was established on 16 August 1960 as a bi-communal state with a Greek Cypriot President and a Turkish Cypriot Vice President, each elected by their own community. The Treaty of Guarantee made Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom guarantors of the Republic's independence, territorial integrity and constitutional order. For the full text, see Treaty Desk: The 1960 Treaty of Guarantee Read Article by Article.

The Constitution contained safeguards for the smaller community:

Article 50: the President and the Vice President each held a final veto over laws and decisions concerning foreign affairs, defence and security.
Article 57 and related provisions: certain laws, including tax and electoral legislation, required separate majorities of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot members of the House.
Fixed ratios: the public service followed a 70:30 ratio, and the House of Representatives a 70:30 seat allocation.
Separate municipalities in the five largest towns, and separate Communal Chambers.
Article 182: the basic articles of the Constitution were declared not amendable in any way.

Frictions of 1960–1963

The arrangement was unworkable in places. Greek Cypriot leaders pointed to the impasse over tax legislation, the unresolved question of separate municipalities, the composition of the army, and the application of the 70:30 public service ratio. Turkish Cypriot leaders pointed to non-implementation of the ratios and of the Constitution's guarantees. Both accounts describe a state in deadlock before November 1963.

Chronology, 1963–1966

Date	Event	Source type
16 Aug 1960	Republic of Cyprus established	Constitution; Treaty of Guarantee
30 Nov 1963	Makarios sends thirteen amendment proposals with an explanatory memorandum to Vice President Küçük	Published proposals; Cyprus government papers
16 Dec 1963	Proposals rejected by the Turkish Government and the Turkish Cypriot leadership	Turkish MFA record
21 Dec 1963	Armed violence begins in Nicosia after an incident involving Greek Cypriot police and Turkish Cypriots; it spreads across the island	UN and British contemporaneous reporting; both communities' accounts
25 Dec 1963	Turkish contingent under the Treaty of Alliance leaves its barracks; Turkish jets overfly Nicosia	Turkish and British records
30 Dec 1963	British General Peter Young draws a ceasefire line across Nicosia, the origin of the Green Line	British and UN records
4 Mar 1964	UN Security Council Resolution 186 recommends a UN force	UN Security Council
27 Mar 1964	UNFICYP begins operating	UN
Apr 1966	The Akritas Plan is published in the Greek Cypriot newspaper Patris	Greek Cypriot press

The Thirteen Amendments

The thirteen points proposed by Makarios, as generally summarised in the documentary record, would have:

abolished the veto of the President and the Vice President;
provided for the Vice President to deputise for the President only in specified circumstances, with the President of the House acting otherwise;
had the Greek President and Turkish Vice President of the House elected by the House as a whole instead of by their communities;
abolished separate majorities for the enactment of certain laws;
unified the municipalities;
abolished the separate Communal Chambers' role and unified the administration of justice;
ended the division of the security forces into police and gendarmerie;
set the size of the security and defence forces by ordinary law;
reduced the Public Service Commission and decided its business by simple majority;
replaced the fixed public service ratio with one proportionate to population.

The proposals would therefore have replaced a power-sharing system with a majoritarian one in which the Turkish Cypriot community of roughly 18 per cent would no longer hold a veto. Because Article 182 made the basic articles unamendable, Turkish sources hold that the package was a proposal to change the constitutional order itself, not merely to adjust procedures.

Key Players & Positions

The Greek Cypriot account

Makarios's accompanying memorandum argued that the Constitution obstructed the functioning of the state, and that the proposals aimed at removing impediments to its smooth operation. Greek Cypriot writers often present the package as a good-faith attempt to reform a deadlocked system, and many describe the Vice President's veto and the separate-majority rules as excessive for a community of that size. Sources from this tradition also describe Turkish Cypriot ministers and civil servants as having ceased to participate in the government after December 1963, a withdrawal they attribute to the decision of the Turkish Cypriot leadership.

The Akritas Plan in Greek Cypriot sources

The Akritas Plan appeared in Patris in April 1966. It is associated in Greek Cypriot political writing with Interior Minister Polycarpos Georgadjis and with a circle close to Makarios. Its text, as published, treats the constitutional amendments as a first step and contemplates a rapid use of force to impose a result if the Turkish Cypriots resisted, before any outside intervention could take place. Greek Cypriot figures, including Glafcos Clerides in his published memoirs, have acknowledged that such a plan existed. Their accounts differ on how far it was a contingency paper and how far it was an operational blueprint. Greek Cypriot accounts commonly present the December 1963 fighting as having started spontaneously after the 21 December incident rather than as the execution of a plan.

Turkish Cypriot and Turkish accounts

Turkish Cypriot leaders and Ankara read the package and the plan together: constitutional change first, force as the fallback. They describe the violence from 21 December 1963 as systematic, report the displacement of roughly 30,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103 villages into enclaves, and point to their exclusion from the organs of the state.

The UN and the guarantors

The United Kingdom, as a guarantor and the holder of sovereign base areas, brokered the first ceasefire through General Young. Greece and Türkiye, with troops on the island under the Treaty of Alliance, were also involved. UN Security Council Resolution 186 of 4 March 1964 was adopted unanimously. It called on the 'Government of Cyprus, which has the responsibility for the maintenance and restoration of law and order,' to take all measures needed to stop violence, and it created UNFICYP. The Secretary-General's reports of 1964 recorded both the cessation of Turkish Cypriot participation in government institutions and the Turkish Cypriot leadership's rejection of any status that amounted to minority status.

🇹🇷 Official Policy · Primary Sources on File

Türkiye's Position on the Record

Ankara's position is set out in the published Cyprus summaries of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the President's annual addresses to the UN General Assembly. Its main elements:

1963 ended the partnership state. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the 1960 Republic rested on the political equality of two co-founding peoples. The attempt of 30 November 1963 to remove the veto and the separate-majority safeguards, and the subsequent expulsion of Turkish Cypriots from the organs of the state, destroyed that arrangement. Ankara argues that the Greek Cypriot administration that continued after December 1963 was no longer the bi-communal government of 1960.
The proposals were a unilateral attempt to change entrenched articles. Ankara points to Article 182 of the Constitution and to the Treaty of Guarantee, under which the guarantors undertake to uphold the constitutional order. It reads the thirteen points, together with the Akritas Plan text published in 1966, as evidence that the aim was to reduce Turkish Cypriots to minority status.
Resolution 186 institutionalised an asymmetry. Türkiye holds that by addressing the 'Government of Cyprus' as the responsible authority at a time when Turkish Cypriots had been excluded from it, the Council fixed an unequal status that has made settlements harder for six decades.
The guarantor system remains the legal frame. Article IV of the Treaty of Guarantee provides for consultation among the guarantors and, failing common action, for action by each to re-establish the state of affairs created by the Treaty. Ankara cites the 1963–64 events as the first period in which this system was engaged, and 1974 as its later application.
The conclusion is sovereign equality. Having concluded that federal and partnership formulas failed for reasons traced to 1963, Ankara and the TRNC hold that any lasting settlement must start from recognition of the inherent sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people. For the later record on federation talks, see Regions & Powers: Why Cyprus Federation Talks Failed and The State Papers: Did Turkish Cypriots Reject the Annan Plan?.

The Greek Cypriot side rejects this reading. Its sources hold that the Republic of Cyprus continued as the lawful state, that Turkish Cypriots withdrew from it, and that the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee does not permit unilateral action. Both positions are stated by their own governments. The disagreement is over what the 1963 documents prove.

Source Comparison

Question	Greek Cypriot official and academic accounts	Many Western summaries	Turkish primary sources
Nature of the thirteen points	Good-faith reform of a deadlocked constitution	A proposal to amend a rigid power-sharing text	An attempt to dismantle entrenched safeguards
The 21 Dec 1963 violence	Intercommunal fighting that began with a local incident	'Intercommunal violence' or 'clashes'	Organised attacks, with Turkish Cypriots displaced to enclaves
Turkish Cypriot exit from government	Voluntary withdrawal on the leadership's instruction	A withdrawal under conditions of violence	Exclusion by force from state organs
The Akritas Plan	Contingency plan or internal paper; status debated	Often mentioned briefly or omitted	Blueprint tying constitutional change to force
Resolution 186	Recognises the lawful government	Peacekeeping resolution	Fixed an unequal status for Turkish Cypriots

The fullest sister-publication treatment of the violence itself is The Global Anatomy: Bloody Christmas 1963 and the Akritas Plan. Readers weighing sources should note that no single archive settles the intent question. The proposals, the Treaty text, the Constitution, the UN reports and the 1966 publication are each documents that can be read directly. See also Editorial Principles: How Protocol Record Sources, Attributes and Corrects.

Partnership state: the 1960 Republic, built on the political equality of two communities rather than majority rule.
Basic articles (Article 182): provisions of the 1960 Constitution declared unamendable.
Vice President's veto (Article 50): a final veto on foreign affairs, defence and security.
Akritas Plan: a paper named after the medieval Byzantine frontier guards, published in 1966.
Green Line: the ceasefire line drawn on 30 December 1963, later extended across the island.
Treaty of Guarantee: the 1960 instrument making Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom guarantors; Article IV governs action in case of breach.
TRNC: the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, proclaimed on 15 November 1983.

Protocol Record presents analysis from a Türkiye-informed perspective, setting out Ankara's official positions and legal arguments alongside the documents on which they rest. Wherever possible, claims are attributed to primary sources such as treaties, UN texts, official gazettes, parliamentary records and archival documents.

Frequently asked questions

What were Makarios's thirteen amendments of 1963?

They were constitutional proposals sent to Vice President Fazıl Küçük on 30 November 1963. They would have abolished the presidential and vice-presidential vetoes, ended separate majorities for key laws, unified municipalities and the judiciary, and replaced the fixed public service ratio with one proportionate to population. Turkish Cypriots, about 18 per cent of the population, would have lost their main constitutional safeguards.

Who rejected the amendments, and when?

The Turkish Government and the Turkish Cypriot leadership rejected the proposals on 16 December 1963. Ankara and the Turkish Cypriot leadership viewed them as an attempt to change entrenched articles and reduce Turkish Cypriots to minority status. Greek Cypriot sources describe the package as a reform proposal for a deadlocked state.

What is the Akritas Plan?

It is a paper published in the Greek Cypriot newspaper Patris in April 1966, and associated with Interior Minister Polycarpos Georgadjis and a circle around Makarios. As published, it treats constitutional amendment as a first step and contemplates force to overcome Turkish Cypriot resistance quickly. Greek Cypriot figures have acknowledged that it existed but dispute how it was used, while Ankara reads it as a blueprint.

What happened on 21 and 30 December 1963?

On 21 December 1963 violence began in Nicosia after an incident involving Greek Cypriot police and Turkish Cypriots, and spread across the island. On 30 December, British General Peter Young drew a ceasefire line across Nicosia on a map, which became known as the Green Line. Turkish sources report some 30,000 Turkish Cypriots displaced from 103 villages.

Why does Türkiye treat 1963 as decisive?

Ankara holds that the 1960 Republic depended on the equal partnership of two peoples, and that 1963 ended it. It cites the amendment package, the exclusion of Turkish Cypriots from state organs and UN Security Council Resolution 186, which addressed the 'Government of Cyprus' as sole authority. From this it concludes that a settlement must begin with recognition of the sovereign equality of the Turkish Cypriot people.

Cross-Publication Perspectives & Cited Research

Related Dossiers Across Partner Publications

4 Partner Desks