Portal:Cyprus

The Cyprus Portal

Cyprus (/ˈsaɪprəs/ ^ⓘ), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. It is geographically a part of West Asia, but its cultural ties and geopolitics are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the third largest and third-most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is east of Greece, north of Egypt, south of Turkey, and west of Lebanon and Syria. Its capital and largest city is Nicosia. Cyprus also shares land borders with Akrotiri and Dhekelia, a dependent territory of the United Kingdom. The northeast portion of the island is de facto governed by the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Cyprus was first settled by hunter-gatherers around 13,000 years ago, with farming settlements emerging a few thousand years later. During the late Bronze Age, Cyprus, known in contemporary sources as Alashiya, developed an urbanised society closely connected to the wider Mediterranean world. Cyprus experienced waves of settlement by Mycenaean Greeks at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. 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 was placed under the United Kingdom's administration based on the Cyprus Convention in 1878 and was formally annexed by the UK in 1914.

The future of the island became a matter of disagreement between the two prominent ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. From the 19th century onwards, the Greek Cypriot population pursued enosis, union with Greece, which became a Greek national policy in the 1950s. The Turkish Cypriot population initially advocated the continuation of the British rule, then demanded the annexation of the island to Turkey, and in the 1950s, together with Turkey, established a policy of taksim, the partition of Cyprus and the creation of a Turkish polity in the north. Following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. The crisis of 1963–64 brought further intercommunal violence between the two communities, displaced more than 25,000 Turkish Cypriots into enclaves and brought the end of Turkish Cypriot representation in the republic. On 15 July 1974, a coup d'état was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta. This action precipitated the Turkish invasion of Cyprus on 20 July, which led to the capture of the present-day territory of Northern Cyprus and the displacement of over 150,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots. A separate Turkish Cypriot state in the north was established by unilateral declaration in 1983; the move was widely condemned by the international community, with Turkey alone recognising the new state. These events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. (Full article...)

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The 1974 Cypriot coup d'état was a military coup d'état executed by the Cypriot National Guard and sponsored by the Greek military junta. On 15 July 1974 the coup plotters removed the sitting President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, from office and installed pro-Enosis nationalist Nikos Sampson. The Sampson regime was described as a puppet state, whose ultimate aim was the annexation of the island by Greece; in the short term, the coupists proclaimed the establishment of the "Hellenic Republic of Cyprus". The coup was viewed as illegal by the United Nations. (Full article...)

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Cyprus news

3 October 2024 – Israel–Hezbollah conflict: A Hellenic Air Force plane evacuates Greek and Cypriot nationals from Beirut–Rafic Hariri International Airport in Lebanon. (Ekathimerini)
24 September 2024 – Israel–Hezbollah conflict: The United Kingdom deploys 700 troops to Cyprus ahead of a planned evacuation of thousands of British nationals from Lebanon. The UK has advised all of its citizens to leave Lebanon immediately if they can. (Reuters)

General images

The following are images from various Cyprus-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A British soldier facing a crowd of Greek Cypriot demonstrators in Nicosia (1956) (from Cyprus)
Image 2Atatürk Square, North Nicosia in 2006 (from Cyprus problem)
Image 3The Walls of Nicosia were built by the Venetians to defend the city in case of an Ottoman attack. (from Cyprus)
Image 4Cypriot Halloumi (from Cyprus)
Image 5Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan was the creator of the Annan plan. (from Cyprus problem)
Image 6The "Green Line" in Nicosia, Cyprus (from Cyprus problem)
Image 7Ioannis Kigalas (c. 1622–1687) was a Nicosia born Greek Cypriot scholar and professor of philosophy who was largely active in the 17th century. (from Cyprus)
Image 8Population growth, 1961–2003 (numbers for the entire island, excluding Turkish settlers residing in Northern Cyprus) (from Cyprus)
Image 9Cyprus in 1482 (from History of Cyprus)
Image 10Cypriot meze (from Cyprus)
Image 11Faneromeni School is the oldest all-girl primary school in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 12Archaeological site of Khirokitia with early remains of human habitation during the Aceramic Neolithic period (reconstruction) (from Cyprus)
Image 13Welcoming ceremony of the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev by the soldiers of the Cypriot National Guard (from Cyprus)
Image 14
  Under the control of the Republic of Cyprus
  The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
  Turkey
  Greece
(from Cyprus problem)
Image 15The entrance of the historic Pancyprian Gymnasium (from Cyprus)
Image 16Laouto, dominant instrument of the Cypriot traditional music (from Cyprus)
Image 17Opening of Ledra Street in April 2008 (from Cyprus problem)
Image 18Ottoman admiral, geographer and cartographer Piri Reis' historical map of Cyprus (from Cyprus problem)
Image 19A Greek Cypriot demonstration in the 1930s in favour of Enosis (union) with Greece (from Cyprus problem)
Image 20Limassol General Hospital (from Cyprus)
Image 21Central Bank of Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 22Kyrenia Castle was originally built by the Byzantines and enlarged by the Venetians. (from Cyprus)
Image 23Khirokitia archeological site. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 24Zeus Keraunios, 500-480 BC, Nicosia museum (from History of Cyprus)
Image 25Greek Cypriot demonstrations for Enosis (union with Greece) in 1930 (from Cyprus)
Image 26Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Centre in Limassol (from Cyprus)
Image 27Hoisting the British flag at Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 28The Armenian Alphabet at the Melkonian Educational Institute. Armenian is recognised as a minority language in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 29Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, consecrated in 1328, the largest medieval building in Famagusta, where the Kings of Cyprus were crowned also as Kings of Jerusalem. In 1571 having fallen to the Ottoman Empire it became the Mosque of Mağusa, and remains a mosque today (from History of Cyprus)
Image 30Varosha (Maraş), a suburb of Famagusta, was abandoned when its inhabitants fled in 1974 and remains under Turkish military control. (from Cyprus)
Image 31Statue of Liberty symbolising the independence of Cyprus. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 32Nikos Christodoulides, President of Cyprus since February 2023 (from Cyprus)
Image 33Cypri insvla nova descript 1573, Ioannes á Deutecum f[ecit]. Map of Cyprus newly drawn by Johannes van Deutecom, 1573. (from Cyprus)
Image 34Ethnic map of Cyprus according to the 1960 census (from Cyprus)
Image 352010 population by age and gender (from Cyprus)
Image 36
Accession of Cyprus to the European Union in 2004
(from Cyprus problem)
Image 37Cypriot demonstrations for Enosis (Union) with Greece. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 38Foreign Ministers of the European Union countries in Limassol during Cyprus Presidency of the EU in 2012 (from Cyprus)
Image 39Street in the divided capital of Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 40Cyprus is part of a monetary union, the eurozone (dark blue) and of the EU single market. (from Cyprus)
Image 41Zeno of Citium, founder of the Stoic school of philosophy (from Cyprus)
Image 42Büyük Han, a caravanserai in Nicosia, is an example of the surviving Ottoman architecture in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 43Proposed flag of the United Republic of Cyprus (from Cyprus problem)
Image 44Sea caves at Cape Greco (from Cyprus)
Image 45Cypriot style café in an arcade in Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 46The Troodos Mountains experience heavy snowfall in winter. (from Cyprus)
Image 47Typical Cypriot architecture in old part of Nicosia, Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 48UN tower in the buffer zone (from Cyprus)
Image 49Greek Cypriot negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis and the Turkish Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Feridun Sinirlioğlu, in Ankara, within the scope of the 2014 Cyprus talks (from Cyprus problem)
Image 50Base ring vessel of Late Bronze Age (from History of Cyprus)
Image 51Cypriot cult image. 'Red Polished Ware', 2100–2000 BC. Museum zu Allerheiligen (from History of Cyprus)
Image 52Kouris Dam overflow in April 2012 (from Cyprus)
Image 53A copper mine in Cyprus. In antiquity, Cyprus was a major source of copper. (from Cyprus)
Image 54A Sentinel-2 image of Cyprus taken in 2022 (from Cyprus)
Image 55Zeus Keraunios, 500–480 BC, Nicosia museum (from Cyprus)
Image 56A map showing the division of Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 57Ayia Paraskevi Byzantine church in Yeroskipou, Cyprus (from History of Cyprus)
Image 58Presidential Palace, Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 59Turkish rally in Nicosia in January 1958 (from Cyprus problem)
Image 60"TAKSİM" (division) graffiti on a wall in Nicosia in the late 1950s (from Cyprus problem)
Image 61Red-polished ceramics from Enkomi, 1900–1725 BC. St. Barnabas Archaeological Museum, Salamis, Cyprus (from History of Cyprus)
Image 62Supreme Court of Justice (from Cyprus)
Image 63Street close to the Nicosia border (from Cyprus problem)
Image 64Dhekelia Power Station (from Cyprus)
Image 65The north–south checkpoint has been open since 2003. (from Cyprus problem)