Cyprus

Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey.

Before granted control of the island to Britain in 1878 in return for British support in the Russian-Turkish War, Turkish Ottoman Empire ruled Cyprus for over 300 years. Cyprus gained independence from the UK in 1960 and became a Commonwealth republic in 1961. The Republic of Cyprus is a member of the European Union.

Cypriots are basically consist of two main ethnic communities, majority Greek with approximately 80% of the population and minority Turks with approximately 18% of the population. As the Greek Cypriot community, largely considering themselves Greeks living in Cyprus rather than Cypriots with Greek ethnicity, sought a Cypriot future based on Enosis, the ceding of Cyprus to Greece. However, the Turkish Cypriot community, likewise largely saw themselves as Turks living in Cyprus rather than Cypriots with Turkish ethnicity. For them the idea of handing Cyprus over to Greece after the end of British rule, and therefore becoming Greek citizens in a Hellenic republic, was anathema. Largely in response to calls from the Greek Cypriot community for enosis, the Turkish Cypriot community developed the concept of Taksim, the partitioning of Cyprus into a Greek Cypriot-controlled part, free to pursue enosis as it saw fit, and a Turkish Cypriot-controlled part. This was despite the fact that the two ethnic communities were geographically intermingled throughout Cyprus, and taksim by its very nature would have required mass population movements.

In 1974, following a period of violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and an attempted Greek Cypriot coup sponsored by the Greek military junta, Turkey invaded and occupied one-third of the island. This led to the displacement of thousands of Cypriots and the establishment of a separate Turkish Cypriot political entity in the north. This event and its resulting political situation is a matter of ongoing dispute. Today EU countries recognize the government of the Republic of Cyprus and officially treat the north as a militarily occupied region.