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| Cyprus History |
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The turbulent history of the island can be traced back well over 8000 years. Like many of the other Mediterranean islands, Cyprus has long been seen as an important strategic base and has suffered a variety of occupations. The Athenians, the Persians, the Egyptians, Alexander the Great and the Romans were the most important invaders during the ancient period.
After the partition of the Roman Empire in the fourth century AD, the island became part of the Eastern Byzantine Empire. It was subsequently a temporary casualty of the Arab invasions between 648 and 746. During the Third Crusade, Richard I of England conquered Cyprus and installed Guy of Lusignan (previously King of Jerusalem), whose house ruled up until the island passed to the control of Venice during 1489.
From 1571, the Ottoman Turks ruled Cyprus for over 3 centuries, before ceding it to Britain in 1878. Independence was achieved during August 1960, after a 4-year military struggle between the UK and the guerrillas of EOKA (National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters) who sought ‘enosis’ (union with Greece), which was anathema to the Turkish community.
The political leader of the liberation movement, Archbishop Makarios – who was also head of the island’s Greek Orthodox Church – returned from exile and was elected the President in December 1959. The island’s new constitution was an elaborate compromise between the British and the rival Greek and Turkish communities, between whom considerable distrust remained. As part of the deal, the British retained 2 large tracts of land for military purposes, known as ‘Sovereign Base Areas’ and accounting for 5 per cent of the island’s total area. It all fell apart during July 1974, when Makarios was deposed by a military coup. Within days, Turkish troops arrived on the northern coast of Cyprus, having been ‘invited’ by the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, to intervene in order to protect the Turkish community. The Greeks failed to respond effectively, not least because of the simultaneous collapse of the military junta in Athens, besides which the Greek-Cypriot-controlled National Guard was not well equipped to combat a fully mobilised army. After the Turkish army had taken control of the northern third of the island, a ceasefire was arranged under UN auspices. The island has remained partitioned ever since and United Nations peacekeeping forces maintain a truce between both sides.
In November 1983, the Turkish part of the island proclaimed itself the Kuzey Kibris Turk Cumhuriyeti (‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’, TRNC). However, formal recognition of the self-styled country only has been granted by Turkey and various other statelets.
For the vast majority of the international community, the legitimate government of Republic of Cyprus (Kiprikai Demokratika) is the Greek-Cypriot administration in Nicosia. Until February 2003, this had been led for a decade by President Glafkos Clerides. That month, he was deposed at the most recent presidential election by Tassos Papadopoulos, candidate of the centre-right Komma Dimokratika of the Democratic Party. The present government is a coalition of DIKO, AKEL – the Communist Party which has long been the single largest force in Greek-Cypriot politics – and the smaller KISOS party.
The principal issue for the Greek-Cypriot government remains the same, how to normalise relations with the ‘TRNC’ and reunify the island. Numerous diplomatic initiatives have ended with failure. The main sticking points are: the balance and concentration of power within any unified government; Turkish troop concentrations in the north and the return of property relinquished by Greek refugees and since occupied by the Turkish settlers. The ‘TRNC’ is still run by Rauf Denktash, who has been the dominant political figure in the enclave for almost thirty years. At the last two presidential elections, one in April 1995 and another in April 2000, he was re-elected with comfortable majorities.
President Papadopoulos will oversee the Republic of Cyprus’ entry, along with 9 others, into the European Union in May 2004 despite the absence of a political settlement between both parts of the island.
The most recent plan, proposed by the United Nations, has been rejected by both sides as well as the Turkish government. But more limited measures, notably relaxation of travel and trade restrictions, have recently brought about something of a thaw between both governments on the island. European Union membership, along with the growing economic disparity between the two parts of the island and, on the Turkish side, the impending end of Denktash era should improve prospects for a final resolution of the partition of Cyprus. |
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