Portal:Cyprus

The Cyprus Portal

Cyprus (/ˈsaɪprəs/ ^ⓘ), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, north of the Sinai Peninsula, south of the Anatolian Peninsula, and west of the Levant. It is geographically a part of West Asia, but its cultural ties and geopolitics are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the third-largest and third-most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is east of Greece, north of Egypt, south of Turkey, and west of Lebanon and Syria. Its capital and largest city is Nicosia. The northeast portion of the island is de facto governed by the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Cyprus has seen a succession of rulers, namely Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Romans, Arabs, Crusaders and Turks who ruled the Island as part of the Ottoman Empire, from 1571 until 1878. Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC. As a strategic location in the Eastern Mediterranean, it was subsequently occupied by several major powers, including the empires of the Assyrians, Egyptians and Persians, from whom the island was seized in 333 BC by Alexander the Great. Subsequent rule by Ptolemaic Egypt, the Classical and Eastern Roman Empire, Arab caliphates for a short period, the French Lusignan dynasty and the Venetians was followed by over three centuries of Ottoman rule between 1571 and 1878 (de jure until 1914).

Cyprus was placed under the United Kingdom's administration based on the Cyprus Convention in 1878 and was formally annexed by the UK in 1914. The future of the island became a matter of disagreement between the two prominent ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots, who made up 77% of the population in 1960, and Turkish Cypriots, who made up 18% of the population. From the 19th century onwards, the Greek Cypriot population pursued enosis, union with Greece, which became a Greek national policy in the 1950s. The Turkish Cypriot population initially advocated the continuation of the British rule, then demanded the annexation of the island to Turkey, and in the 1950s, together with Turkey, established a policy of taksim, the partition of Cyprus and the creation of a Turkish polity in the north. (Full article...)

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Bloody Christmas (Turkish: Kanlı Noel), in Turkish Cypriot and Turkish historiography, refers to the resumption of intercommunal violence between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots during the Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, on the night of 20–21 December 1963 and the subsequent period of island-wide violence amounting to civil war. This initial episode of violence lasted until 31 December and was somewhat subdued with the start of peace talks at the London Conference, but outbursts of violence continued thereafter. The violence precipitated the end of Turkish Cypriot representation in the Republic of Cyprus.

The death toll for the entire conflict between December and August amounts to 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots, of whom 136 Turkish Cypriots and 30 Greek Cypriots were killed in the initial period between 21 December and 1 January. (Full article...)

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Cyprus news

14 April 2024 –: Cyprus suspends Syrian asylum applications as there are increasing numbers of refugees. (Reuters)

General images

The following are images from various Cyprus-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Zeno of Citium, founder of the Stoic school of philosophy (from Cyprus)
Image 2Base ring vessel of Late Bronze Age (from History of Cyprus)
Image 3Central Bank of Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 4Population growth, 1961–2003 (numbers for the entire island, excluding Turkish settlers residing in Northern Cyprus) (from Cyprus)
Image 5The Walls of Nicosia were built by the Venetians to defend the city in case of an Ottoman attack. (from Cyprus)
Image 6Faneromeni School is the oldest all-girl primary school in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 7Limassol General Hospital (from Cyprus)
Image 8Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan was the creator of the Annan plan. (from Cyprus problem)
Image 9Cyprus in 1482 (from History of Cyprus)
Image 10Welcoming ceremony of the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev by the soldiers of the Cypriot National Guard (from Cyprus)
Image 11Cyprus is part of a monetary union, the eurozone (dark blue) and of the EU single market. (from Cyprus)
Image 12Büyük Han, a caravanserai in Nicosia, is an example of the surviving Ottoman architecture in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 13The north–south checkpoint has been open since 2003 (from Cyprus problem)
Image 14
  Under the control of the Republic of Cyprus
  The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
  Turkey
  Greece
(from Cyprus problem)
Image 15Typical Cypriot architecture in old part of Nicosia, Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 16The "Green Line" in Nicosia, Cyprus. (from Cyprus problem)
Image 17Supreme Court of Justice (from Cyprus)
Image 18Ioannis Kigalas (c. 1622–1687) was a Nicosia born Greek Cypriot scholar and professor of Philosophy who was largely active in the 17th century. (from Cyprus)
Image 19Street in the divided capital of Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 20Cypriot style café in an arcade in Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 21"TAKSİM" (division) graffiti on a wall in Nicosia in the late 1950s (from Cyprus problem)
Image 22Greek Cypriot negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis and the Turkish Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Feridun Sinirlioğlu, in Ankara, within the scope of the 2014 Cyprus talks (from Cyprus problem)
Image 23
Accession of Cyprus to the European Union in 2004
(from Cyprus problem)
Image 242010 population by age and gender (from Cyprus)
Image 25Sea caves at Cape Greco (from Cyprus)
Image 26Cypriot meze (from Cyprus)
Image 27Ayia Paraskevi Byzantine church in Yeroskipou, Cyprus (from History of Cyprus)
Image 28Atatürk Square, North Nicosia in 2006 (from Cyprus problem)
Image 29Kyrenia Castle was originally built by the Byzantines and enlarged by the Venetians. (from Cyprus)
Image 30Proposed flag of the United Republic of Cyprus (from Cyprus problem)
Image 31Red-polished ceramics from Enkomi, 1900–1725 BC. St. Barnabas Archaeological Museum, Salamis, Cyprus (from History of Cyprus)
Image 32Varosha (Maraş), a suburb of Famagusta, was abandoned when its inhabitants fled in 1974 and remains under Turkish military control. (from Cyprus)
Image 33Nikos Christodoulides, President of Cyprus since February 2023 (from Cyprus)
Image 34The entrance of the historic Pancyprian Gymnasium (from Cyprus)
Image 35Zeus Keraunios, 500-480 BC, Nicosia museum (from History of Cyprus)
Image 36Cypriot demonstrations for Enosis (Union) with Greece. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 37Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Centre in Limassol (from Cyprus)
Image 38Ethnic map of Cyprus according to the 1960 census (from Cyprus)
Image 39Street close to the Nicosia border (from Cyprus problem)
Image 40Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, consecrated in 1328, the largest medieval building in Famagusta, where the Kings of Cyprus were crowned also as Kings of Jerusalem. In 1571 having fallen to the Ottoman Empire it became the Mosque of Mağusa, and remains a mosque today (from History of Cyprus)
Image 41A Sentinel-2 image of Cyprus taken in 2022 (from Cyprus)
Image 42Zeus Keraunios, 500–480 BC, Nicosia museum (from Cyprus)
Image 43Ottoman admiral, geographer and cartographer Piri Reis' historical map of Cyprus (from Cyprus problem)
Image 44Hoisting the British flag at Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 45A British soldier facing a crowd of Greek Cypriot demonstrators in Nicosia (1956) (from Cyprus)
Image 46Greek Cypriot demonstrations for Enosis (union with Greece) in 1930 (from Cyprus)
Image 47Dhekelia Power Station (from Cyprus)
Image 48Opening of Ledra Street in April 2008 (from Cyprus problem)
Image 49Cypri insvla nova descript 1573, Ioannes á Deutecum f[ecit]. Map of Cyprus newly drawn by Johannes van Deutecom, 1573. (from Cyprus)
Image 50Archaeological site of Khirokitia with early remains of human habitation during the Aceramic Neolithic period (reconstruction) (from Cyprus)
Image 51A copper mine in Cyprus. In antiquity, Cyprus was a major source of copper. (from Cyprus)
Image 52Presidential Palace, Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 53Khirokitia archeological site. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 54Statue of Liberty symbolising the independence of Cyprus. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 55Cypriot cult image. 'Red Polished Ware', 2100–2000 BC. Museum zu Allerheiligen (from History of Cyprus)
Image 56A map showing the division of Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 57Foreign Ministers of the European Union countries in Limassol during Cyprus Presidency of the EU in 2012 (from Cyprus)
Image 58Cypriot Halloumi (from Cyprus)
Image 59Turkish rally in Nicosia in January 1958 (from Cyprus problem)
Image 60The Armenian Alphabet at the Melkonian Educational Institute. Armenian is recognised as a minority language in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 61Kouris Dam overflow in April 2012 (from Cyprus)
Image 62A Greek Cypriot demonstration in the 1930s in favour of Enosis (union) with Greece (from Cyprus problem)
Image 63The Troodos Mountains experience heavy snowfall in winter. (from Cyprus)
Image 64Laouto, dominant instrument of the Cypriot traditional music (from Cyprus)