a year later eoka revived its attempts to achieve the union of cyprus with greece. turkish cypriots were recruited into the police by the british forces to fight against greek cypriots, but eoka initially did not want to open up a second front against turkish cypriots. however, in january 1957, eoka forces began targeting and killing turkish cypriot police deliberately to provoke turkish cypriot riots in nicosia, which diverted the british army's attention away from their positions in the mountains. in the riots, at least one greek cypriot was killed and this was presented by the greek cypriot leadership as an act of turkish aggression. the turkish resistance organisation (tmt, "türk mukavemet teşkilatı") was formed initially as a local initiative to prevent the union with greece, which was seen by the turkish cypriots as an existential threat due to the exodus of cretan turks from crete once the union with greece was achieved. it was later supported and organised directly by the turkish government, and the tmt declared war on the greek cypriot rebels as well.