An Island in Turbulence: A Historical Review

The historical narrative continues with the acquisition of Cyprus by Britain in 1878 and the granting of constitutional rights; this marks the starting point for Greek-Cypriot aspirations for unification with the Greek state (“Enosis”), which turn into demands following the territorial expansion of Greece after the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1912–1913. The chapter further explores the conversion of the island first into a British protectorate and, later, into a British colony, and the subsequent imposition of an authoritarian rule on the island for almost a decade following the Greek-Cypriot uprising in 1931. The Greek-Cypriot armed struggle against the British rule in 1955–1959 and subsequent independence declaration of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960 is then explicated. It is followed by the inter-communal clashes of 1963 and 1967, culminating in the Greek-Cypriot coup d’état and Turkish invasion of 1974 that led to the island’s partition maintained to this day.