CYPRUS: Tense Aftermath of a Three-Day War

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After three days of brutal fighting, the war between Greek Cypriots and Turkish troops who invaded Cyprus by sea and air tapered off last week into a fitful ceasefire. Blue-helmeted United Nations soldiers, who frequently came under fire in the course of the fighting and suffered at least twelve Canadian wounded, finally managed to pry the two sides apart. In a decisive move, 500 United Nations soldiers, at the direction of Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, occupied the strategic Nicosia airport. The U.N. action denied the airport's runways to Greeks who had been using them to fly in reinforcements, and to Turks who sought control of the airport as a bargaining chip.

Still, there was concern that the fighting could erupt again. Greece charged that Turkey was continuing to land troops on the island in violation of the ceasefire. If the landings did not stop, warned the new civilian government in Athens, the country would go to war. Fears of renewed fighting were so grave that the U.N. Security Council called a special weekend session to seek a solution.

Though the war was brief, casualties on both sides were high. During the Athens-inspired coup that deposed Archbishop Makarios III as President of the island republic two weeks ago, perhaps three dozen people were killed. The dead were not even all buried, much less counted, when the Turkish invasion began. In the first day of fighting between Turks and Greeks, at least 150 were killed in the capital of Nicosia alone.

In addition to the dead and wounded, whose numbers were still being counted, Greeks were holding thousands of Cypriot prisoners, including 1,750 in the Limassol football stadium. Reportedly, hundreds of Greek P.O.W.s were taken off the island to Turkey. Both sides obviously hoped to use the prisoners as bar-gaming chips in peace negotiations that got under way last week in Geneva.

Fully Accepted. Most hopeful for the maintenance of the cease-fire was the emergence of highly respected Glafcos derides, 55, to replace Terrorist Nikos Sampson as acting President of Cyprus. Clerides is a British-educated lawyer who flew with the R.A.F. in World War II, was shot down over Europe, and finished the war in a P.O.W. camp. At the time of the coup he was president of the House of Representatives and one of the few Greek leaders on the deeply divided island who was fully accepted by the minority Turks. For seven years, Clerides has held a running series of friendly talks with Turkish Leader Rauf Denktas, 50, on ways to end the imbroglio between their ethnic communities. Denktas, to whom Clerides paid one of his first visits after being selected as President, said: "He is a man we can trust. He is reasonable and we can talk to him."

Later, during a 70-minute pipe-puffing press conference, Clerides fielded questions in flawless English and turned vague on only one essential subject. Makarios, the constitutional President, was welcome back, but Clerides added that the archbishop's immediate return "would be very unwise under the present conditions." When Makarios does return, or perhaps even before, Clerides said, the presidency would be "a question for the people of Cyprus to decide." He promised a quick election to facilitate their decision.