Cyprus

Cyprus The third largest island in the Mediterranean, strategically situated off Turkey and Syria. Despite its situation, and its rule by the Ottoman Empire from 1571, it was overwhelmingly inhabited by Greeks. It was occupied and administered by the British from 1878, and formally annexed by them at the beginning of World War I (1914), an act that was recognized in the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923. A British Crown Colony from 1925, it served as an important military base during World War II and the Suez Crisis. In the 1950s the movement against foreign rule, and for union (Enosis) with Greece picked up momentum, against the background of decolonization worldwide. It was led by Archbishop Makarios III, the head of the Cypriot Orthodox Church. In addition, a second movement, EOKA, started a violent campaign against British rule in 1955. Britain was eager to retain some influence on the strategically important island, so that in 1959 it offered independence and membership of the Commonwealth instead of union with Greece. This was accepted by Makarios, who proclaimed independence in 1960. It entered the Commonwealth in 1961, and the UK retained sovereignty over its two military bases there.

Since independence, the central question in Cypriot politics has been the relationship between the Greek majority and the Turkish minority living on the island. The latter began to form self-governing enclaves, while the Greeks (almost 80 per cent of the population) dominated the island's political life. In a desperate bid for greater domestic popularity, the Greek colonels instigated a coup against Makarios in 1974, in order to achieve Enosis. As this fundamentally threatened the rights of the Turkish minority, Turkish troops invaded the island's north-eastern half on 20 July 1974. Subsequently, over 200,000 Greeks were expelled from the Turkish-occupied areas, and replaced with members of the Turkish army and settlers from mainland Turkey. Separated from the Greek areas by the ‘Blue Line’ running across the island, the Turkish Federated State of Cyprus was founded on 13 February 1975, but was not recognized by the UN or the international community. Renamed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, it was governed from 1976 by President Rauf Rasit Denktas, who was confirmed in office again on 22 April 1995. In the unoccupied part of Cyprus, Makarios returned to power until his death in 1977. His successors have continued to claim unity for the whole island, even though as a result of the events of the 1970s the Greek and Turkish inhabitants of Cyprus had little in common in ethnic, religious, cultural, or linguistic terms.

Relations between the two parts remained tense, while under its head of state, Glafkos Klerides, the unoccupied part of the island was brought under Greek military protection in 1993. Owing to its isolation, Northern Cyprus experienced a stagnant economy in the 1990s, which increased its dependence on transfer payments from Turkey. Whereas Northern Cyprus was slow to develop its tourist industry, the southern Republic of Cyprus experienced steady economic growth. From 2000, its desire to join the EU led to negotiations between both parts of Cyprus, as well as its guarantor nations, Greece and Turkey, about the island's future and possible reunification. It was doubtful, however, whether these talks would be successful before the Republic's projected accession to the EU in the first wave of south-eastern enlargement from 2004.