SUMMARY

[Note to reader: this Country page primarily contains brief information about state-based violence during the period 1946–1974, and to some extent 1975–1988. For more detailed information on organized violence after 1989, please consult the specific Conflict and Dyad pages available on the left-hand side of this page. These pages contain more detailed information regarding all three categories of organized violence in this country from 1989 and onwards (when applicable), as well as detailed information about state-based violence 1975–1988. The left-hand side menu also contains links to Actor pages for all groups involved in organized violence since 1989 in this country, as well as actors involved in state-based violence 1975–1988.]

Cyprus, a former British colony, gained independence in 1960, after four years of extra-state conflict. Striving for self-determination and unification with Greece, the EOKA (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston - National Organization of Cypriot Fighters) started a guerrilla campaign against the British colonial power in 1955. EOKA’s orientation towards Greece caused tensions between the ethnic Greek majority and the ethnic Turkish minority in Cyprus and the British made use of Turkish Cypriot police units in their effort to suppress the independence movement. In 1959, the United Kingdom, Greece and Turkey finally agreed on the island’s independence and a constitution that would grant the Turkish Cypriots extensive minority rights. The Greek Cypriot archbishop Makarios was elected president of independent Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot Fazil Küçük became vice president. Nevertheless, the relationship between the Greek Cypriot majority and the Turkish Cypriot minority remained strained.

In 1974, a detachment of the National Guard – allegedly led by officers from mainland Greece – toppled President Makarios in a bloodless coup in order to establish unification with Greece. A former EOKA member, Nikos Sampson, was proclaimed president of Cyprus. Turkey responded with a military intervention and soon controlled more than a third of the island. As a result of the short inter-state conflict, the country was divided into a Turkish Cypriot northern sector and a Greek Cypriot southern sector. A UN-controlled buffer zone was established along the so-called “Green Line” between the two sectors.

In 1983, the Turkish-held area declared itself independent and adopted the name Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. However, only Turkey recognized its independence. The division was further consolidated when the majority of the Greek Cypriots rejected reunification in a referendum held in 2004. The majority of the Turkish Cypriots voted in favor of reunification though.

Since 1946 Cyprus has experienced the extra-state and inter-state categories of UCDP organized violence.