Cyprus dispute

The Cyprus dispute or Cyprus issue is an ongoing issue centred on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and dating back to at least the end of the 19th century. Ever since, it has been present under different forms. In its current phase, it is primarily an issue of military invasion and continuing Turkish occupation (since 1974) of the northern third of the island, a situation described and deplored in multiple UN reports and resolutions. Although the Republic of Cyprus is recognized as the sole legitimate state, sovereign over all the island, the north is de facto under the administration of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is under Turkish Cypriots and Turkish Armed Forces control.

Initially, with the annexation of the island by the British Empire from the Ottoman Empire, the "Cyprus dispute" was identified as the conflict between the people of Cyprus and the British Crown regarding the Cypriots' demand for self determination. The dispute, however, was finally shifted, under the British administration, from a colonial dispute to an ethnic dispute between the Turkish and the Greek islanders. The international complications of the dispute stretch far beyond the boundaries of the island of Cyprus itself and involve the guarantor powers (Turkey, Greece, and the United Kingdom alike), the United Nations and the European Union, along with (unofficially) the United States .

Cyprus

Cyprus (ⁱ/ˈsaɪprəs/; Greek: Κύπρος [ˈcipros]; Turkish: Kıbrıs [ˈkɯbɾɯs]), officially the Republic of Cyprus (Greek: Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία; Turkish: Kıbrıs Cumhuriyeti), is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, off the coasts of Syria and Turkey. Cyprus is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, and a member state of the European Union. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel, north of Egypt and east of Greece.

The earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, and Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC. As a strategic location in the Middle East, it was subsequently occupied by several major powers, including the empires of the Assyrians, Egyptians and Persians, from whom the island was seized in 333 BC by Alexander the Great. Subsequent rule by Ptolemaic Egypt, the Classical and Eastern Roman Empire, Arab caliphates for a short period, the French Lusignan dynasty and the Venetians, was followed by over three centuries of Ottoman rule between 1571 and 1878 (de jure until 1914).

Cyprus (disambiguation)

Cyprus may refer to:

Locations

Ships

Animals

See also

Cyprus (theme)

The Theme of Cyprus (Greek: θέμα Κύπρου, thema Kyprou) was a Byzantine military-civilian province, located in the island of Cyprus, established in the 960s after the reconquest of Cyprus by the Byzantine navy. Prior to this the island had been a Byzantine-Arab condominium for three centuries, except occasional short periods where it was occupied by either power. A rebellion by governor Theophilos Erotikos in 1042, and another in 1092 by Rhapsomates, failed as they were quickly subdued by imperial forces. At the end of the 12th century there were again separatist tendencies in Cyprus: Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus proclaimed himself as "basileus" (emperor) in 1185. Cyprus remained under his command until its conquest from Richard I of England in 1191.

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