Republic of Cyprus

Overview

The Republic of Cyprus is an island state in the eastern Mediterranean — the third-largest Mediterranean island at about 9,251 km² — with Nicosia as its divided capital. Though geographically in West Asia, it is culturally and politically European, an EU member since 2004 and eurozone member since 2008.

History

Settled by hunter-gatherers ~13,000 years ago, Cyprus hosted the Bronze Age kingdom of Alashiya, famed for copper (the metal's name derives from the island). Mycenaean Greek settlement after 1100 BC gave the island its predominantly Greek character; it was ruled successively by Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Alexander the Great, the Ptolemies, Rome and Byzantium, then by the Lusignan crusader kingdom (1192–1489) and Venice before three centuries of Ottoman rule (1571–1878), which planted the Turkish Cypriot community. Britain took over administration in 1878, annexed the island in 1914, and made it a crown colony in 1925.

Greek Cypriot demands for enosis (union with Greece) led to the EOKA guerrilla campaign (1955–59), while Turkish Cypriots backed taksim (partition). The Zürich–London agreements produced independence on 16 August 1960 under a power-sharing constitution with Archbishop Makarios III as president and Britain, Greece and Turkey as guarantors. Intercommunal violence in 1963–64 displaced thousands of Turkish Cypriots into enclaves and brought UN peacekeepers (UNFICYP). On 15 July 1974 the Greek junta staged a coup aiming at enosis; Turkey invaded five days later and occupied the northern third, displacing over 150,000 Greek Cypriots. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, declared in 1983, is recognised only by Turkey.

Later history and present status

The internationally recognised Republic — effectively governing the Greek Cypriot south — built a high-income service and tourism economy, surviving a severe banking crisis in 2012–13, and has developed offshore gas fields. Reunification talks, including the 2004 Annan Plan (approved by Turkish but rejected by Greek Cypriots), have repeatedly failed, and the island remains partitioned by the UN-buffered Green Line. Nikos Christodoulides has been president since 2023.