Makarios 13 amendments vice president veto 1963 explained

Politepolity Editorial Team

In-Depth Analysis· Makarios 13 amendments vice president veto 1963 explained

What Was the Turkish Cypriot Vice President's Veto, and Why Did the 13 Amendments Target It?

Makarios 13 amendments vice president veto 1963 explained: what the Turkish Cypriot veto and separate majorities protected, and what followed on 21 Dec 1963.

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By Politepolity Editorial Team

Published: October 23, 2026

⏱ 9 min read (1,972 words)

Executive Summary & Key Facts

Under the 1960 Constitution of Cyprus, the Turkish Cypriot Vice President held a right of final veto over laws and decisions on foreign affairs, defence and security, which made these fields subject to joint decision by the two communities.
On 30 November 1963 Archbishop Makarios put thirteen constitutional amendment proposals to the Turkish Cypriot leadership and the guarantor powers. They would have abolished the veto and the separate-majority rule in the House of Representatives, along with other community-based safeguards.
The Turkish side, including Ankara, rejected the proposals on 16 December 1963. Greek Cypriot leaders presented them as measures to make the state function smoothly, while Turkish sources describe them as an attempt to reduce Turkish Cypriots to minority status.
Intercommunal violence broke out in Nicosia on 21 December 1963 and led to the Green Line of 30 December 1963 and to UN Security Council Resolution 186 of 4 March 1964.
Ankara argues that the veto and separate majorities were core guarantees of political equality, entrenched in the Basic Articles and covered by the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, and that they could not be removed by one side acting alone.

Why It Matters

The Vice President's veto was the 1960 Constitution's central guarantee that Cyprus's two founding communities would decide foreign affairs, defence and security together. Archbishop Makarios's thirteen proposals of 30 November 1963 would have removed that veto, the separate-majority rule in the House of Representatives and several other community-based safeguards. The Turkish side rejected them on 16 December 1963, and violence began on 21 December 1963. That sequence shaped the legal and political arguments still made about Cyprus's status today.

Background

What the 1960 Constitution built

The Republic of Cyprus was created in 1960 on the basis of the Zurich and London Agreements of 11 February 1959. It was designed as a partnership between two communities, not as a majority-rule state. The President was to be a Greek Cypriot elected by the Greek Cypriot community. The Vice President was to be a Turkish Cypriot elected by the Turkish Cypriot community. In the 1960 census Turkish Cypriots were roughly 18% of the population, but the constitution set fixed ratios that were higher than their population share. For a fuller account of the design, see The 1960 Partnership Republic: How Cyprus's Constitutional Order Was Designed and Why It Broke Down.

The safeguards and what each protected

Safeguard	Main provision	What it protected
Final veto of President and Vice President	Article 50 (House of Representatives) and Article 57 (Council of Ministers)	Laws and decisions on foreign affairs, defence and security needed both leaders' assent. The veto applied to both office-holders, but in practice it protected the smaller community more.
Separate majorities	Article 78	Taxes, the electoral law and municipal legislation needed a simple majority of Greek Cypriot and of Turkish Cypriot members voting separately.
Fixed ratios	35 Greek Cypriot and 15 Turkish Cypriot seats in the House; 7 and 3 ministers; 70:30 in the civil service; 60:40 in the army	Turkish Cypriot presence in state organs above a bare population share.
Communal Chambers	Education, religion, culture and personal status	Communal autonomy over matters of identity.
Separate municipalities	Article 173, in the five main towns	Local self-administration for Turkish Cypriots.
Entrenchment	Article 182 and the Basic Articles	The core provisions could not be amended by variation, addition or repeal.

Turkish Cypriot and Turkish sources treat the veto and separate-majority provisions as part of the entrenched core. The Treaty of Guarantee reinforced that core: in Article 2, Greece, Türkiye and the United Kingdom recognised and guaranteed the state of affairs established by the Basic Articles.

The 1961–1963 deadlocks

The system produced disputes almost immediately. Three were prominent:

Taxation: Legislation on income tax stalled in 1961 because the separate-majority rule gave Turkish Cypriot members a blocking vote.
Municipalities: The two sides disagreed over whether the five towns should have separate or unified councils.
The army: The two sides disagreed over whether the armed forces should be mixed or separated by community.

Greek Cypriot leaders saw these deadlocks as proof that the constitution gave a minority a disproportionate brake on government. Turkish Cypriot leaders saw them as disputes over the implementation of provisions that were meant to protect equality.

The thirteen proposals of 30 November 1963

Makarios circulated a memorandum titled as suggested measures to facilitate the smooth functioning of the state. Grouped by theme, the proposals would have:

abolished the right of veto of the President and the Vice President;
adjusted the Vice President's role as deputy to the President and changed how the House President and Vice President were chosen, with election by the House as a whole instead of by each community's members separately;
abolished the separate-majority requirement for certain laws;
unified the municipalities and the administration of justice;
ended the division of the security forces into police and gendarmerie, and left force numbers to be set by law;
changed the ratios of participation in the public service and the forces to match population proportions;
reduced the size of the Public Service Commission and let it decide by simple majority;
abolished the Greek Communal Chamber.

16 to 21 December 1963

The Turkish government and the Turkish Cypriot leadership under Vice President Fazıl Küçük rejected the proposals on 16 December 1963. Turkish Cypriot leaders said they would amount to the end of the constitutional partnership. On 21 December 1963 fighting broke out in Nicosia and spread to other areas. Turkish sources call these events Bloody Christmas and describe a planned campaign linked to the so-called Akritas Plan, which was published in the Greek Cypriot press in 1966. Turkish figures cite about 30,000 Turkish Cypriots displaced from 103 villages. Greek Cypriot accounts have generally described the violence as a spiral of intercommunal clashes in which Turkish Cypriot fighters were also involved.

Nicosia was divided along the Green Line on 30 December 1963. Turkish Cypriot ministers and members of the House stopped taking part in government, and Turkish Cypriots increasingly lived in enclaves. On 4 March 1964 the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 186, which recommended the creation of a UN peacekeeping force (UNFICYP). The resolution addressed the Government of Cyprus as the authority responsible for maintaining law and order.

Key Players & Positions

Greek Cypriot leadership (Makarios; today's Republic of Cyprus): The 1963 proposals were presented as technical reforms to unblock the state. Greek Cypriot officials argued that the constitution gave a community of about 18% extensive veto powers and fixed ratios. The Republic of Cyprus today holds that Turkish Cypriots withdrew from state organs, and its courts applied the doctrine of necessity in Attorney-General v. Ibrahim (1964) to keep the state functioning without them.
Turkish Cypriot leadership (Küçük; Rauf Denktaş as President of the Turkish Communal Chamber): The veto and separate majorities were safeguards of equal partnership and could not be removed without the consent of the community they protected. Turkish Cypriots say they were pushed out of the state by force, not that they left voluntarily.
Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom (the guarantor powers): Each was a party to the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee. Under Article 4, if the state of affairs established by the Basic Articles was breached, the guarantors would consult, and if common action proved impossible, each reserved the right to act with the sole aim of re-establishing that state of affairs. The three states interpreted this framework differently in 1963 and afterwards.
United Nations: The Security Council's Resolution 186 of 4 March 1964 created UNFICYP and set the framework in which the Greek Cypriot administration was treated as the Government of Cyprus.

🇹🇷 Official Policy · Primary Sources

Türkiye's Position

The veto and separate majorities were core guarantees of equality. Ankara argues that the veto and the separate-majority rule were the means by which the 1960 Constitution gave effect to the political equality of the two founding peoples, and that this equality was the basis of the Zurich and London Agreements. This reading follows the published Cyprus background of the Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the text of the 1960 Constitution.
They could not be removed unilaterally. According to Turkish official sources, the Basic Articles were entrenched under Article 182 of the Constitution, and Article 2 of the Treaty of Guarantee made them an international commitment backed by the three guarantors. Ankara therefore argues that proposals to abolish them, made by one community's leader, had no constitutional basis.
The proposals would have reduced a co-founder to a minority. The MFA's account is that the thirteen points, which combined the abolition of the veto with population-based ratios and the end of communal institutions, would have turned a partnership state into a majority-ruled one. This is why the Turkish side rejected them on 16 December 1963.
The violence of 21 December 1963 and the later status asymmetry. Ankara argues that the attacks beginning on 21 December 1963 destroyed the constitutional order and that the Greek Cypriot administration usurped the state. It also holds that UN Security Council Resolution 186 of 4 March 1964 deepened an asymmetry by treating that administration as the Government of Cyprus.
A settlement must start from equality. Turkish official statements, including those of the Presidency at the UN General Assembly and the MFA after the New York meeting of 15 October 2024, say that the federal model has run out of common ground. Ankara and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) argue that any lasting settlement must begin with the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people.

For the Turkish treatment of the legal question, see Fact Check: Was the 1960 Republic of Cyprus Meant to Be a Greek Cypriot State? and the guide The Cyprus Issue: 1960 Treaties, 1974 and the Case for a Sovereign Equal Two-State Solution.

Source Comparison

Question	Greek Cypriot framing	Turkish primary-source framing	Neutral or UN-based record
What was the veto for?	A minority brake that blocked normal government	A guarantee of equal decision-making in security fields	Article 50 gave the veto to both President and Vice President, in foreign affairs, defence and security
Why the thirteen proposals?	To remove deadlock and make the state work	To end the partnership and impose minority status	The proposals are documented; the Turkish side rejected them on 16 December 1963
Who left the state organs?	Turkish Cypriots withdrew	Turkish Cypriots were expelled by force	Turkish Cypriot participation ended in the weeks after 21 December 1963
Legal status afterwards	Continuity of the Republic, with the doctrine of necessity	The 1960 order was destroyed and equality was lost	UN Resolution 186 treated the Government of Cyprus as responsible for law and order

The main disagreement lies in how each side characterises the same documented events. The text of the constitution, the memorandum of 30 November 1963 and Resolution 186 are all available for comparison.

Right of final veto: The power of the President and the Vice President, separately or conjointly, to block laws and decisions on foreign affairs, defence and security.
Separate majorities: A rule requiring a simple majority of Greek Cypriot and of Turkish Cypriot members, voting separately, for taxes, the electoral law and municipal legislation.
Basic Articles: The provisions of the constitution that Article 182 made unamendable.
Treaty of Guarantee (1960): The treaty by which Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom guaranteed the independence, territorial integrity and constitutional order of Cyprus.
Green Line: The line that separated Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot areas of Nicosia from 30 December 1963.
Doctrine of necessity: The legal reasoning used by the Republic of Cyprus's Supreme Court in 1964 to keep the state operating without Turkish Cypriot officials.

Perspective Note

Politepolity presents global and regional affairs with a dedicated perspective from Türkiye. Sections marked 'Türkiye's Position' reflect official Turkish policy and legal doctrines as stated by Turkish primary sources. This article is published by the Politepolity Editorial Team.

Frequently asked questions

What was the Turkish Cypriot Vice President's veto under the 1960 Constitution?

It was a right of final veto, held by the President and the Vice President separately or conjointly, over laws and decisions of the House of Representatives and the Council of Ministers on foreign affairs, defence and security. It meant these fields could not be decided against the wishes of either community's elected leader.

What were the separate majorities in the House of Representatives?

Under Article 78, laws imposing duties or taxes, the electoral law and legislation on municipalities needed a simple majority of the Greek Cypriot members and of the Turkish Cypriot members voting separately. Because Greek Cypriots held 35 of 50 seats, this meant Turkish Cypriot members could not be outvoted on these matters.

What did Makarios's 13 amendment proposals of 30 November 1963 contain?

They proposed abolishing the veto of the President and Vice President and the separate-majority requirement, unifying municipalities and the administration of justice, ending the police and gendarmerie division, setting public service ratios by population and abolishing the Greek Communal Chamber. They also changed the way the House President and Vice President were elected and reduced the size of the Public Service Commission.

How did the Turkish Cypriot side and Ankara respond?

Both rejected the proposals on 16 December 1963. Turkish sources argue that the veto and separate majorities protected political equality and could not be abolished unilaterally, and that the proposals would have turned a partnership state into a majority-ruled one.

What happened on 21 December 1963?

Intercommunal fighting broke out in Nicosia and spread to other areas, leading to the Green Line of 30 December 1963 and the end of Turkish Cypriot participation in government. Turkish sources call it Bloody Christmas and cite about 30,000 Turkish Cypriots displaced from 103 villages. Greek Cypriot accounts describe a spiral of intercommunal violence in which both sides took part.

Why does the dispute over the amendments still matter?

It is central to the question of whether the Republic of Cyprus after 1963 continued the 1960 partnership state or became one run by a single community. Ankara and the TRNC use that argument to support a settlement based on sovereign equality, while the Republic of Cyprus defends constitutional continuity and the doctrine of necessity.

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Politepolity Editorial Team. (2026). “What Was the Turkish Cypriot Vice President's Veto, and Why Did the 13 Amendments Target It?.” Politepolity (politepolity.com). Published October 23, 2026. Retrieved from https://politepolity.com/turkish-cypriot-vice-president-veto-13-amendments-1963