Cyprus

Cyprus ( SY-prəss), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country situated in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies between the continental mainlands of Europe and Asia, but is culturally and geopolitically Southeast European. Cyprus is the third-largest and third-most populous island in the Mediterranean. It shares a land border with the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia; otherwise, Cyprus is located north of Egypt, east of Greece, south of Turkey, and west of Lebanon and Syria. Since the Turkish Invasion of 1974, Cyprus exerts no de-facto control of its northeasternmost territory, which is instead governed by the internationally disputed state of Northern Cyprus. Nicosia is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Limassol. The earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC; it is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in the 2nd millennium BC, who left a lasting impact on the island's culture, language, and architecture; to this day the majority of Cypriots identify as ethnic Greeks, and Cyprus is the only country other than Greece where Modern Greek is an official language. As a strategic location in the Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus has been contested and occupied by various powers since antiquity; it was successively ruled by the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Persians before Alexander the Great seized it in 333 BC. Cyprus subsequently formed part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom until it was annexed by Rome in 58 BC. For the next thousand years, the island was part of the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empire, albeit intermittently coming under Arab control, sometimes jointly with the Romans. The French Lusignan dynasty took control of the island during the Third Crusade of the late 12th century, succeeded by the Venetians in the late 15th century, from whom Cyprus was subsequently conquered by the Ottomans in 1571. The Ottoman period saw major demographic, political, and cultural changes, including the emergence of Greek nationalism, following the Greek War of Independence in 1821. Cyprus was secretly placed under the United Kingdom's administration based on the Cyprus Convention of 1878, and was formally annexed by the U.K. in 1914. During British rule, the future of Cyprus became a matter of disagreement between the island's inhabitants: The Greek Cypriot majority, which comprised 77% of the total population, sought union with Greece (Enosis), while the Turkish Cypriot minority of 18% initially favoured British rule and later the partition of Cyprus.Following an armed campaign in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. The crisis of 1963–64, which escalated intercommunal violence between Greeks and Turks, resulted in the displacement of more than 25,000 Turkish Cypriots into enclaves: 56–59  and led to the withdrawal of Turkish Cypriots from government and other state institutions. On 15 July 1974, a coup d'état was staged by Greek dictator Dimitrios Ioannidis with the support of Greek Cypriot ultranationalists and mutineers in the Cypriot National Guard, in an attempt at enosis; this action precipitated the Turkish invasion of the island on 20 July, which displaced over 150,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots. The military occupation of Northern Cyprus culminated in the establishment of a separate Turkish Cypriot state 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 continuing dispute. Today, the Republic of Cyprus is a democracy with an advanced, high-income economy and a very high Human Development Index. It has been a member of the Commonwealth since 1961 and was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement until joining the European Union in 2004, adopting the euro in 2008. Owing to its climate, scenic beauty, and cultural heritage, Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean.