Cyprus
Cyprus is an island state in the eastern Mediterranean. With an area of 9,251 square kilometers (3,572 square miles), it is the third largest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily and Sardinia. Its two mountain ranges, one running along the northern coast and the other in the center and southwest, are separated by the fertile Mesaoria plain.
In the thirteenth century B.C.E., the Mycenaean Greeks started settling in Cyprus, introducing the Greek language and culture, which have been preserved into the twenty-first century. In 1571 Cyprus was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, who held the island for more than three hundred years. It is to this period that the Turkish-Cypriot minority community is traced. Cyprus was ceded to Britain in 1878.
(MAP BY MARYLAND CARTOGRAPHICS/THE GALE GROUP)In 1955 the Greek Cypriots' liberation struggle against the British, which had the aim of uniting Cyprus with Greece, ended with the limited independence of Cyprus under agreements reached between Britain, Greece, and Turkey, which assumed the role of guarantor powers. Thus, the Republic of Cyprus was born. A presidential system of government was adopted, with executive authority being exercised by the republic's president, who appoints a council of ministers. In the view of the Greek-Cypriot majority, the constitution was not the outcome of the Cypriots' free will and gave excessive power to the Turkish Cypriots. The constitution proved unworkable and contributed to the governmental breakdown that occurred in December 1963. The Turkish Cypriots withdrew from the government and established their own administration. The Cypriot government brought the matter before the United Nations (UN), which has been involved in efforts to resolve matters ever since.
A July 1974 coup against Archbishop Makarios III (1913–1977), Cyprus's first president, organized by the military junta which then ruled Greece, gave Turkey a pretext to invade Cyprus a few days later. Turkey invaded and occupied almost 40 percent of the country and expelled 200,000 Greeks from the occupied territory. In 1983 Turkish Cypriots established what they called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which is recognized only by Turkey.
Following the Turkish invasion, negotiations resumed under the UN with the purpose of seeking a solution based on a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation. Although they produced no tangible results, renewed efforts—which started in 1999 and were strongly supported by the United States—culminated in the Annan Plan. In simultaneous and separate referendums in April 2004, the plan was accepted by the Turkish Cypriots but rejected by the Greek Cypriots. The latter felt that the plan was unbalanced and favored the Turks.
The Republic of Cyprus joined the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004, and efforts subsequently continued to resolve the Cyprus question. Cyprus's membership in the EU, the Turkish Cypriots' desire to share the benefits of accession with the Greek Cypriots, as well as Turkey's own effort to join the EU may yet generate conditions favorable for the reunification of the island.
Thanks to a vibrant free market economy, socioeconomic conditions in the Republic of Cyprus compare favorably with the EU average. The population in the area under the Republic of Cyprus's control is almost 800,000. In the Turkish-controlled area of Cyprus, the majority of the population consists of recent settlers from Turkey (estimated at about 130,000), with the number of native-born Turkish Cypriots having shrunk to less than 90,000. Socioeconomic conditions in the Turkish-controlled area lag behind those of the Republic of Cyprus: 2004 gross domestic product per capita was an estimated $5,600 in the former and $16,500 in the latter.
In the early 2000s, the Republic of Cyprus's citizens enjoyed the full freedoms and rights of a Western-type democracy, and citizens actively participated in the country's political life. Political parties representing all sections of the political spectrum served in the republic's House of Representatives, and, as of 2004, in the European Parliament.
European Union; Greece; Peacekeeping Forces; Presidential Systems; Turkey.
Bibliography
Christodoulou, Demetrios. Inside the Cyprus Miracle: Labours of an Embattled Mini-Economy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1992.
Holland, R.F. Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus 1954–1959. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1998.
O'Malley, Brendan, and Ian Craig. The Cyprus Conspiracy: America, Espionage and the Turkish Invasion. London: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 1999.
Panteli, Stavros. Historical Dictionary of Cyprus. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1995.
Theophanous, Andreas. The Cyprus Question and the EU: the Challenge and the Promise. Nicosia, Cyprus: Intercollege Press, 2004.
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