Georgios Grivas

Georgios Grivas (born May 23, 1898, Trikomo, Cyprus—died Jan. 27, 1974, Limassol) was a Cypriot patriot who helped bring Cyprus independence in 1960. His goal was enosis (union) with Greece, and in this he failed; indeed, he was a fugitive at the time of his death.

Grivas organized EOKA (Ethnikí Orgánosis Kipriakoú Agónos, the “National Organization of Cypriot Struggle”) about 1955, after leading a right-wing resistance group in the Athens area during the German occupation of World War II. With his friend, afterward his enemy, the Orthodox cleric Makarios III, Grivas conducted a guerrilla war against the British that led to the independence of Cyprus but not to the enosis that was always his objective. Grivas, who had been serving as commander of the Greek Cypriot National Guard, was recalled by the Greek government in 1967 following clashes between the National Guard and Turkish Cypriots near Larnarca. In 1971 he returned to Cyprus to revitalize the underground movement against Makarios (then president of Cyprus). On his death, his followers vowed to continue his armed campaign for enosis.