🇨🇾 Cyprus

Dating of sites such as Aetokremnos on the south coast and inland Vretsia Roudias places the first human arrival on Cyprus around 13,000–12,000 years ago. Their arrival coincided with the extinction of the Cypriot pygmy hippopotamus and Cyprus dwarf elephant, the island's only large native mammals.

Farming communities emerged on the island around 10,500 years ago, marking the transition to settled agrarian life. A grave containing an eight-month-old cat buried with a human, dated to about 7500 BC, records the earliest known feline-human association.

The remarkably well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia dates to approximately 6800 BC. It stands as one of the best-documented early settled communities in the eastern Mediterranean and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From around 1650 BC, Cyprus — identified as Alashiya in contemporary texts — became deeply connected to Mediterranean commerce through copper extracted from the Troodos Mountains. The trade stimulated urbanised settlements and produced kings who corresponded with the pharaohs of New Kingdom Egypt, as recorded in the Amarna letters.

Mycenaean Greek traders started visiting Cyprus around 1400 BC, the first of two waves of Greek settlement at the end of the Bronze Age. This contact laid the groundwork for the island's later Hellenic character.

Following the collapse of Mycenaean Greece, a major wave of Greek settlement reached Cyprus between 1100 and 1050 BC. The island's predominantly Greek character dates from this period and has shaped its identity and politics ever since.

Literary evidence indicates an early Phoenician presence at Kition, under Tyrian rule at the start of the 10th century BC. After around 850 BC the Phoenicians rebuilt and reused the sanctuaries at the Kathari site, establishing a lasting non-Greek element in the island's population.

Cyprus fell under Neo-Assyrian control from 708 BC for roughly a hundred years. This began a long succession of imperial overlordships arising from the island's strategic position in the eastern Mediterranean.

After a brief spell under Egyptian rule, Cyprus came under Achaemenid control in 545 BC. The Cypriot city-kingdoms retained semi-autonomous status and dealt directly with the Great King rather than through a satrap.

The Cypriots joined their fellow Greeks of the Ionian cities in the unsuccessful revolt of 499 BC. Though suppressed, Cyprus retained a high degree of autonomy and remained oriented towards the Greek world.

Evagoras I ruled Salamis from 411 to 374 BC and was praised by Isocrates as a model ruler. From 391 BC, aided by Athens and the Egyptian king Hakor, he extended his rule over most of Cyprus, took cities in Phoenicia including Tyre and persuaded the Cilicians to revolt.

Following Alexander's death and the division of his empire, Cyprus became part of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic Kingdom. It was under Ptolemaic rule that the island was fully Hellenised, entrenching Greek language and culture.

Cyprus came under Alexander's rule by 333 BC, ending Persian overlordship. The Cypriot fleet assisted at the siege of Tyre in 332 BC, and two Cypriot generals from Soli, Stasander and Stasanor, became satraps in Alexander's empire.

The Roman Republic annexed Cyprus in 58 BC. After Cleopatra, who had reclaimed the island, died, Cyprus was formally constituted as Roman Cyprus in 22 BC.

When the Roman Empire was divided into Eastern and Western parts in 286, Cyprus fell to the East and remained Byzantine for roughly nine centuries. Byzantine rule cemented the strong Hellenistic-Christian character that remains a hallmark of the Greek Cypriot community.

From 649 Cyprus endured recurrent Arab attacks, some large-scale, killing many Cypriots and carrying off great wealth. The city of Salamis was destroyed and never rebuilt, and Byzantine control weakened in the south.

The 688 treaty required Cyprus to pay equal tribute to the Caliphate and tax to the Empire while remaining politically neutral, though administered as a Byzantine province. The arrangement coincided with impoverishment; no Byzantine churches survive from the period.

Nikephoros II Phokas defeated Arab forces and returned Cyprus to undivided Byzantine control in 965. This ended nearly three centuries of shared and contested authority over the island.

Guy of Lusignan's brother and successor Aimery gained imperial recognition as King of Cyprus, founding the Latin kingdom. Lusignan French aristocracy remained the dominant social class throughout the medieval period, though Greek Cypriots increasingly entered the upper and middle ranks.

The 1156 occupation involved systematic plunder, extraction of tribute and the capture of prominent citizens for ransom. The devastation crippled the island's economy for decades and Greek priests were mutilated and deported to Constantinople.

A member of the imperial family, Isaac Komnenos took control of Cyprus in 1185 and severed it from Constantinople. His breakaway rule left the island isolated and vulnerable to crusader conquest six years later.

Richard I took the island from Isaac Komnenos in 1191 and used it as a major supply base relatively safe from the Saracens. A year later he sold it to the Knights Templar, who after a bloody revolt sold it on to Guy of Lusignan.

James II died in 1473 and Venice took effective control, with his Venetian widow Catherine Cornaro reigning as figurehead. This transferred Cyprus from a crusader monarchy to a mercantile Italian empire.

Venice absorbed the kingdom outright in 1489 and developed Nicosia as an important commercial hub, building the Walls of Nicosia. Facing Ottoman raids, the Venetians also fortified Famagusta and Kyrenia after the Ottomans destroyed Limassol in 1539.

Under the millet system non-Muslims were governed by their own religious authorities, and the head of the Church of Cyprus became leader and mediator for the Greek Cypriot population. This reversed the position under Latin rule and enabled the Orthodox Church to halt Catholic expansion, giving it enduring political weight.

Despite stiff resistance at Nicosia and Famagusta, Ottoman forces took the island in 1570, massacring many Greek and Armenian Christians and destroying the Latin elite. Soldiers, Turkish peasants and craftsmen from Anatolia settled, creating a Muslim community and the first significant demographic change since antiquity.

The 1777–78 count showed Muslims outnumbering Christians on the island. By 1872 the balance had reversed sharply, with 44,000 Muslims and 100,000 Christians in a population of 144,000.

When the Greek War of Independence broke out in 1821, Greek Cypriots left to join the Greek forces and the governor responded with mass arrests and executions, including the Archbishop and four bishops. The repression became foundational to Greek Cypriot nationalist memory.

Modern Greece's first president publicly advocated enosis in 1828, and numerous minor uprisings followed. Reaction to Ottoman misrule and taxation fuelled Greek nationalism until, by the 20th century, union with Greece was firmly rooted among Greek Cypriots.

After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 and the Congress of Berlin, the Ottoman Empire leased Cyprus to the British Empire, which assumed de facto administration in 1878 while formal sovereignty remained de jure Ottoman until the First World War. In exchange Britain guaranteed to use the island as a base protecting the Ottoman Empire from Russian aggression; the arrangement began more than eight decades of British rule.

With the harbour finished by 1906, Cyprus became a strategic naval position overlooking the Suez Canal, the main route to India. The island served Britain as a key military base for its colonial routes.

On 5 November 1914 Britain annexed Cyprus outright, ending de jure Ottoman sovereignty. The same day it declared Egypt and Sudan a sultanate and British protectorate.

Britain proposed ceding Cyprus to King Constantine I's Greece if it joined the war and assisted Serbia under the 1913 Serbo-Greek pact. The Zaimis administration declined, and the episode is remembered as a lost opportunity for enosis.

The nascent Turkish republic renounced any claim to Cyprus in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. Two years later, in 1925, Cyprus was declared a British crown colony.

Britain had administered the island since 1878 and annexed it outright in 1914, but only formalised crown colony status in 1925. Cypriot demands for enosis, or union with Greece, grew in the following decades.

The Church-supervised plebiscite, held without Turkish Cypriot participation, returned overwhelming Greek Cypriot support for union with Greece. Greeks were 80.2% of the population at the 1946 census; restricted autonomy proposed by the British was subsequently rejected.

The guerrilla campaign, led by George Grivas, prompted a British counter-insurgency response and years of unrest. It ended with the 1959 agreements that led to independence rather than the union its fighters had sought.

EOKA was established in 1955 by religious officials, Greek military officers and professionals to fight for enosis. In response Turkish Cypriots created the Turkish Resistance Organisation (TMT) demanding taksim, or partition, with British officials tolerating its creation to preserve relations with Ankara.

The constitution provided independent executive, legislative and judicial branches with elaborate checks and balances designed to protect Turkish Cypriot interests. The power-sharing arrangement soon produced legal impasses and discontent on both sides.

English was the sole official language under British rule and the lingua franca until independence in 1960. It continued de facto in courts of law until 1989 and in legislation until 1996, and 80.4% of Cypriots were proficient in it as a second language by 2010.

Savva, one of the founding fathers of modern Cypriot art, established Apophasis with Welsh artist Glyn Hughes in 1960. In 1968 Savva was among the artists representing Cyprus at its inaugural Pavilion at the 34th Venice Biennale.

Cyprus became an independent republic on 16 August 1960 after EOKA's armed campaign, under the Zürich and London Agreements between Britain, Greece and Turkey, which made the three countries guarantor powers. The UK retained the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, while ethnic quotas gave Turkish Cypriots a permanent veto and 30% of parliament and administration; the island's population was 573,566, 77.1% Greek and 18.2% Turkish. Archbishop Makarios III became the first president.

The census recorded 573,566 people: 442,138 Greeks (77.1%), 104,320 Turks (18.2%) and 27,108 others. Intercommunal tension made island-wide enumeration impossible after 1963, and the six subsequent censuses from 1976 to 2021 excluded the non-government-controlled north.

Violence erupted on 21 December 1963 after two Turkish Cypriots were killed in an incident involving Greek Cypriot police, leaving 364 Turkish and 174 Greek Cypriots dead and 109 villages destroyed. Between 25,000 and 30,000 Turkish Cypriots were displaced into enclaves, Turkish Cypriot representation in the republic ended, and Nicosia was divided by the Green Line with UNFICYP deployed.

Meridiam bought out Admie's controlling stake in the subsea cable project intended to link the electricity grids of Cyprus, Greece and Israel. Cypriot officials presented the change of ownership as new momentum for a project that has faced repeated delays.

The Block 6 project was described as a major milestone for the island's offshore energy sector, though officials cautioned that state revenues from the field were likely to remain modest.

Secretary-General António Guterres set out the plan after dining jointly with President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman, saying a wider meeting would follow once adequate progress had been made. The two sides have held no formal talks since negotiations collapsed at Crans-Montana in 2017.

The British multinational's exit from its BG Cyprus unit came as the government said it would have a say in the sale. Aphrodite is one of several eastern Mediterranean gas discoveries within Cyprus's exclusive economic zone.

The centre-right party topped the poll in the election, which filled 56 of the House's 80 seats, with far-right and newer parties also making gains. No single party won a majority.

Both missiles were intercepted before reaching the island, which hosts British sovereign military bases at Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The government said Cyprus itself was not the intended target.

It was Cyprus's second time holding the presidency since joining the EU in 2004, with priorities including the war in Ukraine and stability in the Middle East. The presidency passed to Ireland from July 2026.

The resignation followed an online video alleging that Charalambous had used his position to seek favours for prospective investors in exchange for money. Reports linked the video to a wider disinformation campaign.

The deal ended an impasse of almost 20 years and was expected to help clarify exclusive economic zone boundaries relevant to offshore gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.

Erhürman, a former Turkish Cypriot prime minister who favours a federal settlement, won with 62.76 per cent of the vote, reviving hopes for renewed reunification talks with the Greek Cypriot south.

On the 50th anniversary of the Turkish invasion, Erdoğan dismissed the UN-endorsed federal settlement and endorsed two separate states on the island. Greek Cypriots immediately rejected the proposal as a 'non-starter'.

Having long maintained good relations with the alliance, Cyprus declared in 2024 that it intended formally to accede. The move would mark a decisive shift from its Non-Aligned Movement founding heritage.

The data leak published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed strong ties between Cyprus's financial network and figures supporting Vladimir Putin's regime. It damaged the island's reputation as an EU financial centre.

Christodoulides won the 2023 presidential election run-off and took office on 28 February 2023. He succeeded Nicos Anastasiades after a decade of Democratic Rally rule.

The 2021 census counted 918,100 residents in areas under Republic control, with Nicosia district the most populous at 38% and Limassol at 28%. The Nicosia metropolitan area of seven municipalities holds 255,309 people.

Since 2020 the two states have contested the extent of their EEZs, driven by oil and gas exploration. Turkish offshore drilling companies had been accessing natural gas and oil resources in the area since 2013.

The European Union warned in February 2019 that Cypriot passport sales risked letting organised crime infiltrate the bloc. Leaked documents in 2020 showed officials from numerous countries had bought citizenship before the law changed in July 2019.

Historically all male citizens served 24 months in the National Guard after their 17th birthday, but in 2016 this was reduced to 14 months. A professional enlisted institution (ΣΥΟΠ) was adopted, producing roughly a 3:1 ratio between conscript and professional personnel, with about 10,000 trained annually.

Negotiations between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaderships resumed in 2015 in a renewed effort to settle the Cyprus problem. The talks collapsed in 2017 without agreement.

After a hiatus of nearly two years, the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders resumed formal discussions in February 2014 aimed at reuniting the divided island. The talks are ongoing.

The 2014 judgment awarded Cyprus substantial damages for the 1974 invasion and its consequences. Ankara announced it would ignore the ruling; the same year Cypriot refugees and MEP Costas Mavrides complained to the International Court of Justice that Turkey had violated the Geneva Conventions by transferring civilians into occupied territory.

The Democratic Rally candidate was sworn in on 28 February 2013 amid the financial crisis. He was re-elected with 56% of the vote in 2018.

In June 2012 Cyprus announced it needed €1.8 billion in foreign aid for the Cyprus Popular Bank and Fitch cut its rating to junk, the crisis stemming from heavy exposure to Greek government debt. A March 2013 agreement with the Eurogroup, alongside a €10 billion EU–IMF bailout, split the Popular Bank into a wound-down 'bad' bank and a 'good' bank absorbed by the Bank of Cyprus; insured deposits of €100,000 or less were protected while uninsured deposits at the two largest banks were subject to a levy, and capital controls remained in place for almost two years.

In August 2011 the US firm Noble Energy signed a production-sharing agreement with the government for commercial development of the Aphrodite gas field in Cyprus's EEZ, about 175 km south of Limassol. Drilling began without incident on 19 September 2011, backed by the US, EU and UN.

Plans announced in 2006 to improve and expand bus and other public transport, backed financially by the European Union Development Bank, were realised in 2010. The Republic had some 517,000 registered motor vehicles in 2006.

In March 2008 the decades-old wall at the boundary between the Republic and the UN buffer zone, cutting across Ledra Street in central Nicosia, was pulled down. The street was reopened on 3 April 2008 in the presence of Greek and Turkish Cypriot officials, ending a potent symbol of 32 years of division.

Cyprus entered the eurozone on 1 January 2008, completing the convergence programme that had driven robust growth in the 1980s and 1990s. Membership tied the island's monetary policy to the ECB.

Christofias took the presidency in 2008. His involvement in the 2012–2013 financial crisis led him not to seek re-election in 2013.

Cyprus acceded to the European Union on 1 May 2004 as the wealthiest of ten new member states, days after Greek Cypriot voters rejected the UN's Annan reunification plan that Turkish Cypriot voters had backed. The whole island joined, but EU legislation and membership benefits are suspended in the Turkish-occupied north pending a settlement, making the occupation one of EU territory. Cyprus had previously been a Commonwealth member and a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's settlement plan was supported by 65% of Turkish Cypriots but opposed by 74% of Greek Cypriots, who argued it favoured Turkish Cypriots and gave Turkey unreasonable influence. Overall 66.7% of voters rejected it, leaving the Cyprus dispute unresolved on the eve of EU accession.

The relaxation of the checkpoints permitted Cypriots to cross between the two sides after three decades of separation. It marked the first substantial improvement in freedom of movement since the 1974 division.

Cyprus agreed EEZ boundaries with Egypt in 2003, Lebanon in 2007 and Israel in 2010. These agreements underpinned its subsequent offshore hydrocarbon exploration and its disputes with Turkey.

Since 2001 desalination has provided almost 50 per cent of Cyprus's domestic water. The programme was a direct response to recurrent drought and rising demand on a water-scarce island.

Exceptionally heavy rainfall between 2001 and 2004 pushed supply above demand, and total reservoir storage reached a record by the start of 2005. Demand has risen since with population growth and tourism while droughts and heatwaves cut supply, leaving 108 dams with about 330 million cubic metres of capacity as the principal source.

The 1994 body gave a boost to Cypriot film-making, and by 2000 the national budget set aside CYP£500,000 (about €850,000) annually for films. Productions followed including I Sphagi tou Kokora (1996), To Tama (1999) and O Dromos gia tin Ithaki (2000).

Since 1993 the sole national police service of the Republic has answered to the Ministry of Justice and Public Order. It remains the country's single civilian law enforcement body.

In 1985 the self-declared northern state gave itself a constitutional framework and elected institutions. This consolidated the de facto administration of roughly 36% of the island.

In 1983 the Turkish Cypriot parliament under Rauf Denktaş unilaterally proclaimed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, following years of de facto partition after the 1974 invasion. Recognised only by Turkey, the declaration was condemned by the UN Security Council, which called on states not to recognise the new entity and has reaffirmed its resolutions annually, entrenching the island's partition.

In mid-1975 Congress embargoed arms to Turkey for using US-supplied equipment during the 1974 invasion of Cyprus. It was among a variety of international sanctions imposed on Ankara in response.

Makarios returned in December 1974 and constitutional government resumed in the government-controlled area. Turkish troops nonetheless remained in occupation of the northeastern portion of the island.

After the Geneva peace talks failed, Turkey reinforced its Kyrenia bridgehead and attacked again on 14 August, taking Morphou, Karpass, Famagusta and the Mesaoria. By the ceasefire 36% of Cyprus was under Turkish control, 180,000 Greek Cypriots had been evicted from the north and some 50,000 Turkish Cypriots displaced northwards.

On 15 July 1974 Greek Cypriot nationalists and the Athens junta ousted President Makarios III and installed pro-enosis nationalist Nikos Sampson. The coup directly precipitated the Turkish invasion five days later.

On 20 July 1974, days after the Greek-backed coup against President Makarios, Turkish paratroopers landed between Nicosia and Kyrenia and troop ships put 6,000 men ashore with armour; within three days 30,000 troops had captured Kyrenia and the Turkish quarter of Nicosia. Turkey cited the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, a justification rejected by the UN and the wider international community; the junta in Athens and the Sampson regime fell and Glafkos Clerides temporarily assumed the presidency. The invasion led to the island's de facto division into a Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south, with tens of thousands displaced on both sides and a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating the two areas ever since.

Turkey threatened to invade in response to continuing intercommunal violence, but Johnson's strongly worded telegram of 5 June 1964 warned the US would not stand beside Turkey if the Soviets responded. Greece meanwhile dispatched 10,000 troops to Cyprus to counter a possible invasion.