INTERNATIONAL LAW AND DIPLOMACY ON THE CYPRUS QUESTION

CHAPTER I: DIPLOMATIC CONTEXT TO THE CYPRUS QUESTION 9 the island and for the regulating of its commercial and consular relations and affairs. 21 In July 1878 Cyprus was occupied by Great Britain. The main purpose of this short historical narrative has been to show that during all the years of foreign occupation many conquerors passed through Cyprus and she came across many cultures. Although they left their traces, which may be witnessed by the various silent monu- ments, nevertheless Cyprus never has lost its own character or identity. 22 1.2. Legal Questions arising out of the British Occupation There is no unanimity as to the legal position of Great Britain in respect of Cyprus during the period from its occupation in 1878 till the annexation in 1914 . A viewwas expressed that Great Britain acquired a de facto though not a de jure sovereignty over Cyprus under the Convention. The concept of sovereignty, as supreme authority which is independent of another authority, coincides with that of the political power and has different aspects. In so far as it excludes the dependence upon any other form of authority of another state, sovereignty is independence. It is external independence with regard to the liberty of action outside the borders of a state in its intercourse with other states and internal independence with regard to the liberty of action inside the borders. As regards the power of a state to exercise authority over all per- sons and things within its territory, sovereignty is territorial supremacy (dominion, territorial sovereignty). 23 With respect to the territorial sovereignty three theories were expounded especially in international law. One theory supports that the territory is the object of state power .According to the writers supporting this theory (Oppenheim, Lauterpacht in the U.K.) the territory is an object over which the state exercises a true right. According to the second theory, which extensively is accepted in Germany (by Jellinec) and was introduced in Greece by the late Professor Saripolos, the territory is constituent element of the concept of the state. The territory is not a part of the possessions of the state but a prerequisite of its existence. A third theory inspired by the Austrian school (Kelsen, Verdross) maintains that the territory should be immune from any juristic or geographical element and should be approached from the angle of the exercise of the competence of the state ratione loci. Under this theory the relations of the colonial territories to the metropolitan state territory could be better explained. The supreme authority which the state exercise over its territory would seem to suggest that on one and the same territory there can exist only one full sovereign state and that two or more sovereign states on one and the same territory are an impossibility. But the controversy 21. The text of the Convention is given in Hill, A History of Cyprus vol. IV (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 1952 pp. 300-301, of the Annex at p.301-302 and of the Additional Article at p.302. 22. Stanley Casson correctly observes that it will be incorrect to say that Cyprus has absorbed anything, she rather absorbed and then transformed (Ancient Cyprus, ante , p.2). 23. Oppenheim-Lauterpacht p. 286; Starke, An Introduction to International Law (London, 1972), p.106; Hall, A Treatise in International, law (Oxford, 1924), pp. 56-58.