Historical Perspective
The Island of Cyprus is situated in the far eastern end of the Mediterranean at the crossroads of three continents – Europe, Africa and Asia. As a result of a geological subsidence during ancient geological periods, Cyprus separated from Anatolia and became an island. It is estimated that the island’s first inhabitants arrived around 7000 BC from Anatolia. The similarity between artifacts found in ancient settlements on the island and those in Anatolia is presented as evidence supporting the idea that the first inhabitants of Cyprus came from Anatolia. Due to its strategic location, it was ruled by many civilizations throughout history, namely the Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Romans, Arabs, Knights Templar, Lusignans, Venetians, Ottomans and the British.
The first Islamic influences in Cyprus emerged in the 7th century, during the early period of the spread of Islam. This process was particularly strong during the Umayyad and Abbasid periods. With the initial Islamic influence, Islamic culture gradually began to take root on the island. The Hala Sultan Tekke, built between AD 647–649 and later expanded into a religious complex during the Ottoman period, became one of the island’s most important religious centers and stands as a symbol of Islamic influence during this era.
Ottoman Rule (1570-1878)
Cyprus was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1571, and the Ottoman administration ended the material and spiritual oppression, as well as the violations of rights, that the Orthodox population had suffered under 80 years of Venetian rule. The Ottomans introduced the Millet System to the island, which granted tolerance and autonomy to different religious groups. Following the conquest, the Ottoman Empire recognized the independence of the Orthodox Church and accepted the Archbishop as the communal leader (Ethnarch) of the Greek Cypriots. During this period, Greek Cypriots were able to live in an atmosphere of tolerance, preserving their identity, language, and religion.
During the Ottoman period, Turkish settlement on the island gained momentum through migrations from various regions of the empire, particularly from Central and Southern Anatolia.
During the rule of the Ottoman Empire between 1571 and 1878, two distinct peoples of Cyprus, namely the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot peoples, despite their differences in terms of ethnicity, religion, language, culture and traditions, lived in peace and harmony, under the Ottoman Millet System.
During the Ottoman period, various infrastructure and public works were carried out with the aim of strengthening the island’s economic structure, ensuring military and administrative control, and improving the living standards of the people in Cyprus. These structures not only supported economic development but also reinforced the Ottoman administration’s cultural and administrative framework, leaving significant marks on the island's historical heritage.
The Greek uprising against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829, and the subsequent emergence of Greece as an independent state, paved the way for the revival of the Hellenistic Megali Idea —which sought to expand Greece’s borders at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, including Cyprus—and thereby led to the strengthening of Greek nationalism on the island.
British Rule (1878-1960)
In 1878, pursuant to the 1878 Cyprus Convention, the British Empire assumed the administration of the island, while the island still remained de jure part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1914, when the Ottoman Empire entered World War I with the Central Powers, Great Britain, which was one of the Entente Powers, unilaterally annexed Cyprus, and the island was formally declared a Crown Colony later in 1925.
The period following the formal annexation of Cyprus by the British Empire can be characterized as the high tide of Greek nationalistic ambitions in Cyprus, during which, the Greek Cypriot side intensified its demand for enosis —the union of Cyprus with Greece.
In order to achieve enosis, the Greek Cypriot people started rioting against the British presence on the island, which culminated in the burning of the British Governor’s House in 1931. Under the guidance of Greek Orthodox Church and the support of the rulers in Greece, the Greek terrorist organization EOKA was established with the specific aim of mounting a military campaign to end the status of Cyprus as a British crown colony and achieving the island’s unification with Greece. Soon after its establishment on 1 April 1955, EOKA launched a violent campaign and indiscriminately murdered everyone in their way, including the then colonial rulers (the British), the Turkish Cypriot people and even some of the Greek Cypriot people who dared question the idea of enosis. EOKA was not merely an anti-colonial movement; rather, it was a terrorist organization aiming for the union of Cyprus with Greece, carrying out attacks against both the British and the Turkish Cypriots.
The Turkish Cypriot people, as co-owners of the island, refused the annexation of the island to Greece, and rightfully sought equal say over the future of Cyprus, and, thus, resisted the Greek Cypriot ambitions. The Greek Cypriot armed attacks against the British administration were also directed toward Turkish Cypriot people, and these attacks, as a result, led to the deterioration of relations between the two peoples. By 1959, the situation on the island became intolerable to both Turkish Cypriot people and the British administration.
The Partnership Republic of Cyprus (1960-1963)
Following the Greek Cypriot violence in the 1950s, a compromise was reached by Turkish Cypriot Leader, Greek Cypriot Leader, Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom through the London and Zürich agreements. As a result of this compromise, the partnership Republic of Cyprus was established in 1960 between the Turkish Cypriot people and Greek Cypriot people, in accordance with the international treaties, namely the Treaties of Establishment, Guarantee and Alliance. Through this compromise, Cyprus gained its independence; guarantor rights were given to Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom; while the United Kingdom retained two sovereign military base areas (Sovereign Base Areas – SBA) at Akrotiri and Dhekelia, under its jurisdiction.
The 1960 Republic of Cyprus recognized the political equality of the Turkish Cypriot people and Greek Cypriot people as co-founding partners. The 1960 Republic of Cyprus was designed, in effect, as a functional federation under the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus. Communal affairs, such as birth, death, marriage, education, culture, sporting foundations and associations, some municipal duties as well as taxes, were managed separately by the respective administrations of each community.
The legitimacy of the 1960 Republic laid in the joint presence and effective participation of both peoples in all organs of the State. Neither of the parties had the right to rule the other. Neither of them could assume the right to be the government of the island as a whole, in the absence of the other in the organs of the State and its government.
Greek Cypriot atrocities against Turkish Cypriot people (1963-1974)
Since the Greek Cypriots did not abandon their ambitions for uniting the island to Greece, instead of preserving the existing structure of the 1960 Republic, they took steps to change this structure, which led to the collapse of the 1960 partnership after only three years. On 30 November 1963, the Greek Cypriots proposed a constitutional amendment aimed at eliminating the equal founding partner rights of the Turkish Cypriots on the island. This proposal, known as the "Thirteen Articles," sought to reduce the Turkish Cypriot people to a minority status and included the removal of the veto power of the Vice President, who, according to the Constitution, was supposed to be a Turkish Cypriot.
However, since the implementation of these amendments targeted by the Greek Cypriots was prohibited by the existing constitution and the guarantee system established in 1960, it could only be achieved through the forcible seizure of the partnership state, with the aim of dismantling the legal order.
When the Turkish Cypriot people objected to the unilateral amendment of the constitution, civilian massacres were waged against the Turkish Cypriot people under the notorious “Akritas” plan, which was a project for the extermination of the Turkish Cypriots and the annexation of the island to Greece. In December 1963 a planned “ethnic cleansing” was launched against the Turkish Cypriot people across the island, during which many men, women, and children were killed, maimed or wounded by armed Greek Cypriot paramilitaries and a quarter of the Turkish Cypriot population were rendered refugees. Hundreds more were abducted, never to be seen or heard of again. Those lucky enough to survive the Greek Cypriot atrocities were confined to small enclaves. Approximately 30,000 Turkish Cypriots had to take refuge for years in these areas, which correspond to almost 3 percent of the island, with no access to the sea and under constant siege.
In a short period of time, the Greek Cypriot side forcibly usurped the 1960 partnership Republic of Cyprus, and Turkish Cypriot members of Parliament, judges, and other officials were ejected from all state organs. Greek Cypriot side illegally took over the partnership state. Shortly after, the Greek Cypriot administration unilaterally changed the basic and un-amendable articles of the 1960 constitution.
The foregoing historical facts are recorded in the relevant reports of the UN Secretaries-General submitted to the Security Council during the period between 1963 and 1974. In fact, the inhuman living conditions, being deprived of their freedom of movement and basic needs, forced upon the Turkish Cypriot population were once described as a “veritable siege” by the then UN Secretary-General in his Report of 10 September 1964 (S/5950) to the Security Council.
As a result of this unprecedented cruelty, violence and human rights violations directed against the Turkish Cypriot people by the armed Greek Cypriot militia, the “Green Line” which separates the island into two zones was established in 1963 and the United Nations Peace-keeping Force (UNFICYP) was stationed on the island on 4 March 1964 with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 186 (1964).
Turkish Cypriot people were forced to live in small enclaves for more than a decade between 1963-1974, 103 Turkish Cypriot villages were destroyed before the eyes of the international community, including UN peacekeeping forces on the ground.
Since 1963, there has not been a joint central administration in the island capable of representing the whole Cyprus, either legally or factually.
Since the destruction of the constitutional order by the Greek Cypriot side in 1963, the two peoples have had their own separate administrations. But the Greek Cypriot regime, which had usurped the “Republic of Cyprus” in 1963, has continued to claim illegitimately that it is the “government of the Republic of Cyprus”. Indeed, that State was not, and still is not, the partnership Republic established in 1960, either by law or in practice. Thereafter the “Republic of Cyprus”, which was established in 1960 as a bi-national “functional federation”, was converted into a purely Greek Cypriot state.
Greek military coup d’etat and Türkiye’s Response (15 – 20 July 1974)
On 15 July 1974, the Greek military junta in Athens, in collaboration with Greek Cypriot terrorist organization EOKA, staged a coup d’état in Cyprus aimed at realizing immediate enosis. Even Archbishop Makarios, in his address to the UN Security Council on 19 July 1974, defined the Greek coup as “an invasion which violated the independence and sovereignty of the Republic.” With the imminent danger of further bloodshed on the island, Türkiye militarily intervened on 20 July 1974 under Article IV of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee and prevented not only the annexation of the island to Greece but the total annihilation of the Turkish Cypriot people as well.
Population Exchange Agreement (2 August 1975)
In line with the Voluntary Exchange of Populations Agreement which was reached between the two sides at the third round of talks in Vienna on August 2, 1975, under United Nations auspices, both Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot peoples were respectively transferred to the North and South of the island. Both the Agreement as well as its implementation are well-recorded in relevant UN documents (S/11789 of 5 August 1975, S/11789/Add.1 of 10 September 1975).
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (15 November 1983)
Since the deliberate destruction, in 1963, of the bi-national Republic, there has not been a single constitutional government or state capable of representing both peoples of the island. For almost 60 years now, neither side has had jurisdiction over the other, and, each side has ever ruled itself.
While the Greek Cypriot side usurped the state organs of the partnership Republic and continued unlawfully to claim to be the “Government of Cyprus”, Turkish Cypriot people have been administering themselves in their own area.
Turkish Cypriot people in 1964 formed a General Committee that functioned until 27 December 1967. Subsequently, the Provisional Cyprus Turkish Administration (which was renamed as the Cyprus Turkish Administration on 21 December 1971) followed by the Autonomous Turkish Cypriot Administration was established in 1974. Judiciary, executive and legislative authorities of the Turkish Cypriot people continued to evolve to the Turkish Federated State of Cyprus in 1975 and eventually, in exercise of their inherent sovereign rights and right to self-determination, culminated in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on 15 November 1983.
Today, the TRNC has an effectively functioning state mechanism, democratically elected Government and legislature, and independent judiciary and all other state institutions intact.