Cyprus

Island in the Mediterranean Sea, off the south coast of Turkey and west coast of Syria.

Government

Under the 1960 constitution, power is shared between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, but in 1963 the Turks ceased participating and in 1964 set up a separate community in northern Cyprus, refusing to acknowledge the Greek government in the south. The Greek Cypriot government claims to be the government of all Cyprus and is generally accepted as such, except by the Turkish community. There are, therefore, two republics, each with a president, council of ministers, legislature, and judicial system. The ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ has its own representatives overseas. Greek Cyprus has a president, elected for five years by universal adult suffrage, and a single-chamber legislature, the 80-member house of representatives, also elected for five years. The president appoints and heads a council of ministers. Under the separate constitution adopted by Turkish Cyprus in 1985, there is a president, council of ministers, and legislature similar to that in the south. Turkey is the only country to have recognized this government.

History

The strategic position of Cyprus has long made it a coveted territory, and from the 15th century BC it was colonized by a succession of peoples from the mainland. In the 8th century it was within the Assyrian empire, then the Babylonian, Egyptian, and Persian. As part of Ptolemaic Egypt, it was seized by Rome in 58 BC. From AD 395 it was ruled by Byzantium, until taken in 1191 by England during the Third Crusade. In 1489 it was annexed by Venice, and became part of the Ottoman empire in 1571. It came under British administration in 1878 and was annexed by Britain in 1914, becoming a crown colony in 1925.

Enosis

In 1955 a guerrilla war against British rule was begun by Greek Cypriots seeking enosis, or unification with Greece. The chief organization in this campaign was the National Organization of Cypriot Combatants (EOKA), and its political and military leaders were the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, and Gen Grivas. In 1956 Makarios and other enosis leaders were deported by the British government. After years of negotiation, Makarios was allowed to return to become president of a new, independent Greek-Turkish Cyprus, retaining British military and naval bases.

Greek-Turkish conflict

In 1963 the Turks withdrew from power-sharing, and fighting began. The following year a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force was set up to keep the two sides apart. After a prolonged period of mutual hostility, relations improved and talks were resumed, with the Turks arguing for a federal state and the Greeks wanting a unitary one.

In 1971 Gen Grivas returned to the island and began a guerrilla campaign against the Makarios government, which he believed had failed the Greek community. Three years later he died, and his supporters were purged by Makarios, who was himself deposed in 1974 by Greek officers of the National Guard and an enosis extremist, Nicos Sampson, who became president. Makarios fled to Britain.

At the request of the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktaş, Turkey sent troops to the island in 1974, taking control of the north and dividing Cyprus along what became known as the Attila Line, cutting off about a third of the total territory. Sampson resigned, the military regime that had appointed him collapsed, and Makarios returned. The Turkish Cypriots established an independent government for what they called the ‘Turkish Federated State of Cyprus’ (TFSC), with Denktaş as president.

In 1977 Makarios died and was succeeded by Spyros Kyprianou, who had been president of the house of representatives. In 1980 UN-sponsored peace talks were resumed. The Turkish Cypriots offered to hand back about 4% of the 35% of the territory they controlled and to resettle 40,000 of the 200,000 refugees who had fled to the north, but stalemate was reached on a constitutional settlement.

The Turks wanted equal status for the two communities, equal representation in government, and firm links with Turkey. The Greeks, on the other hand, favoured an alternating presidency, strong central government, and representation in the legislature on a proportional basis.

Seeking a solution

Between 1982 and 1985 several attempts by the Greek government in Athens and the UN to find a solution failed, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), with Denktaş as president, was formally declared, but recognized only by Turkey.

In 1985 a meeting between Denktaş and Kyprianou failed to reach agreement, and the UN secretary-general drew up proposals for a two-zone federal Cyprus, with a Greek president and a Turkish vice-president, but this was not found acceptable. Meanwhile, both Kyprianou and Denktaş had been re-elected.

In 1988 Georgios Vassiliou was elected president of the Greek part of Cyprus, and in September talks began between him and Denktaş, but these were abandoned in September 1989. They were resumed in August 1992 under UN auspices but collapsed again in November.

In February 1993, Glafkos Clerides, leader of the Dimokratikos Sinagermos (DISI; Democratic Coalition), narrowly won the second round of the Greek Cypriot presidential election to replace Vassiliou. A UN report, published in 1994, placed the blame for the collapse of the peace talks on the Turkish Cypriot side, and in July 1994 the European Court of Justice ruled that all direct trade between northern Cyprus and the European Union was illegal. Denktaş was re-elected in April 1995. In June 1996 it was announced that peace talks would be resumed. However, tension mounted in September following the murder of a Turkish Cypriot soldier on the line dividing the Turkish and Greek communities.

The Greek Cypriot government's decision to buy Russian anti-aircraft missiles increased tension in Cyprus. The USA and UK attempted to defuse the issue, and in February 1997 a coordinated US-European Union plan to solve the island's problems was announced. UN-mediated peace talks between Clerides and Denktaş in 1997 failed. In February 1998, President Clerides was narrowly re-elected. In the same month Denktaş refused to meet Sir David Hannay, the British envoy to Cyprus, and in April US mediator Richard Holbrooke declared his mission to Cyprus a failure.

Rauf Denktaş, leader of the Turkish part of Cyprus, proposed, in August 1998, a confederation with the island's Greek south. Greece and Greek Cyprus rejected the idea. In October 1998, the EU agreed to include Cyprus in the list of six potential members. In December 1999 a meeting between Clerides and Denktaş took place in New York, sponsored by the UN. Denktaş was re-elected as the Turkish president for a fourth five-year term in April 2000.

In May 2001, the communist Anorthotikon Komma Ergazemenou Laou (AKEL; Progressive Party of the Working People) won 35% of the vote, narrowly defeating President Clerides' DISI. In the same month, the Ulusal Birlik Partisi (UBP; National Unity Party (UBP) of Dervis Eroglu, prime minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, withdrew from the ruling coalition with the Toplumcu Kurtulus Partisi (TKP; Social Liberation Party).

In December, Clerides and Denktaş held their first direct talks in four years, and agreed to restart negotiations on the island's future in January. The move was seen as a rare chance to reunite an island, and could pave the way for EU membership backed by both Greece and Turkey.

Clerides was defeated in presidential elections in 2003, and replaced by Tassos Papadopoulos. A referendum was held in April 2004, voting on a plan to reunite the island. Turkish Cypriots voted in favour, but the proposed plan was rejected by Greek Cypriots. Cyprus became a member of the EU on 1 May 2004, but remained divided.