History of Cyprus

The name ‘Cyprus’ of the third largest island in the Mediterranean after Sardinia and Sicily comes, arguably, from the word ‘copper’, of which there was, and possibly still is, an abundance on the island. The island of Cyprus has had a tumultuous history, it’s strategic location on the crossroads of East and West has always caused invasions, conquests, and strife for her inhabitants. Before its annexation to Rome in 58 BC, Phoenicians, Achaeans, Assyrians, Egyptians, and Persians colonized Cyprus. However, the first inhabitants of the island date back much further: they are proved to have settled on the island around 7000BC.

A major part of the population of Cyprus accepted Christianity around 43 AD, and some three hundred years later, Cyprus came under the rule of the Byzantine Empire, following the division of the Roman Empire. The Byzantine rule over Cyprus lasted until 1192, when Richard Lionheart took possession of the island as a revenge for the misbehavior by the rulers of Cyprus towards his fleet which she was on its way to the Third Crusade. After marrying Berengaria of Navarre in Cyprus, where she was crowned the Queen of England, Richard sold the island to the Knight Templars, who soon after it to Guy de Lusignan, the deposed King of Jerusalem. That marked the beginning of the Lusignan (Frsnkish) Period in Cyprus, during which the island was ruled on the feudal system, and the population was under severe suppression. The Lusignan Era ended when Queen Cornaro ceded Cyprus to Venice, in 1489. Venetians viewed the island as the last bastion against the Ottoman Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean, so they left mark on Cyprus by destroying many palaces and buildings in order to suffound the major cities with fortified walls, which at the time were considered works of art of military architecture. Although the Ottoman army captured almost all of Cyprus in 1570, with the help of there walls, the Venetians managed to hold their posts in Famagusta, where the Ottoman siege of the city lasted for more than a year, until late 1571.

The Ottoman Period in Cyprus lasted for more than three hundred years, during which the Ottoman population of Cyprus originally gained its own Cypriot identity, bringing to existence two communities in Cyprus instead of one; Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot.

In 1878, under the Cyprus Convention, the Ottoman Empire let Britain assume the administration of Cyprus in return for military support against Russia. In 1814, Britain annexed the island as the Ottoman joined the First World War on Germany’s side. In 1925, Cyprus was declared Crown Colony. In the early 1950s, the Greek Cypriot population of Cyprus, in order to reach their goal of ‘Enosis’ (union with Greece) formed an underground combat organization called ‘EOKA’ to fight the British of the island, ignoring the needs and wants of the Turkish Cypriot population. Soon, the fight the Greek Cypriot towards the British turned into a more complicated and much more violent civil war between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Even though the independent Republic of Cyprus was established in 1960, when the Greek Cypriot president of Cyprus attempted to make several amendments to the Constitution in 1963, injuring the already limited rights of the Turkish Cypriots, the young republic ceased to function. Turkish Cypriots withdrew from the government, and were also forced to flee many villages, coming to live in guarded enclaves around the island. Sporadic fighting lasted until 1967, yet Turkish Cypriots continued to be confined to a number of enclaves occupying a mere 3% of the island. In 1974, following a Greek coup d’etat against the President (Archbishop Makarios) of Cyprus, Turkey intervened in order to restore peace on the island, using its right to guarantee according to the 1960 Cyprus Constitution.

Since then, Cyprus has remained divided into two autonomous states. The Turkish Cypriot population, most of whom had been forced to flee between 1963-1974, definitively moved to the North, whereas the Greek Cypriot fled to the South as a result of the Turkish Peace Operation. In 1983, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was established, a democratic and secular republic state based on the social justice and the rule of law. The boundary know as the ‘Green Line’, which runs through Nicosia, the capital of both the North and the South, still separates the two states and the two communities. Negotiation for a definite resolution are still going on under the supervision of the UN.