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After independence Cyprus became a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement
despite all three guarantor powers (Greece, Turkey and the UK) being NATO members. Cyprus left the Non-Aligned
Movement in 2004 to join the EU.
The 1960 Cypriot Constitution provided for a presidential system of government with independent executive,
legislative, and judicial branches, as well as a complex system of checks and balances, including a weighted
power-sharing ratio designed to protect the interests of the Turkish Cypriots. The executive, for example, was
headed by a Greek Cypriot president, Archbishop Makarios III, and a Turkish Cypriot vice president, Dr Fazıl
Küçük, elected by their respective communities for 5-year terms and each possessing a right of veto over certain
types of legislation and executive decisions.
The House of Representatives was elected on the basis of separate voters' rolls. Since 1964, following clashes
between the two communities, the Turkish Cypriot seats in the House remained vacant, while the Greek Cypriot
Communal Chamber was abolished. The responsibilities of the chamber were transferred to the newfounded Ministry
of Education.
By 1967, when a military junta had seized power in Greece, the political impetus for enosis had faded, partly as
a result of the non-aligned foreign policy of Cypriot President Makarios. Enosis remained an ideological goal,
despite being pushed significantly further down the political agenda. Dissatisfaction in Greece with Makarios's
perceived failure to deliver on earlier promises of enosis convinced the Greek colonels to sponsor the 1974 coup
in Nicosia.
Turkey responded by launching a military operation on Cyprus in a move not approved by the other two
international guarantor powers, Greece and the United Kingdom which aimed to protect the Turkish minority from
Greek militias. The intervention is called "Cyprus Peace Operation" by the Turkish side. Turkish forces captured
the northern part of the island(see Cyprus dispute). Many thousands of others, from both sides, left the island
entirely.
Subseqently, the Turkish Cypriots established their own seperatist institutions with a popularly elected de
facto President and a Prime Minister responsible to the National Assembly exercising joint executive powers. In
1983, the Turkish Cypriots declared an independent state called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC),
an action opposed by the United Nations Security Council. In 1985, the TRNC adopted a constitution and held its
first elections.
Political division
Cyprus gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, with the UK, Greece and Turkey retaining limited
rights to intervene in internal affairs.
Since 1974, Cyprus has been divided, de facto, into the Greek-Cypriot controlled southern two-thirds of the
island and the Turkish-occupied northern one-third. The Republic of Cyprus is the internationally recognised
government of Cyprus, which controls the southern two-thirds of the island. Turkey aside, all foreign
governments and the United Nations recognise the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus over the whole island of
Cyprus.
The Turkish Cypriot administration of the northern part of the island, together with Turkey, does not accept the
Republic's rule over the whole island and refer to it as the "Greek Authority of Southern Cyprus". Its
territory, the status of which remains disputed, extends over the northern third of the island.
The north proclaimed its independence in 1975, and the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was
established in 1983. This state was recognised only by Turkey. The Organization of the Islamic Conference
granted it observer member status under the name of "Turkish Cypriot State".
The other power with territory on Cyprus is the United Kingdom. Under the independence agreement, the UK
retained title to two areas on the southern coast of the island, around Akrotiri and Dhekelia, known
collectively as the UK sovereign base areas. They are used as military bases.
Exclaves and enclaves
Cyprus has four exclaves, all in territory that belongs to the British Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia. The
first two are the villages of Ormidhia and Xylotymvou. Additionally there is the Dhekelia Power Station, which
is divided by a British road into two parts. The northern part is an enclave like the two villages, whereas the
southern part is located by the sea and therefore not an enclave —although it has no territorial waters of its
own [1].
The United Nations (UN) buffer zone separating the territory controlled by the Turkish Cypriot administration
from the rest of Cyprus runs up against Dhekelia and picks up again from its east side, off of Ayios Nikolaos
(connected to the rest of Dhekelia by a thin land corridor). In that sense, the buffer zone turns the south-east
corner of the island, the Paralimni area, into a de facto, though not de jure, exclave.
Reunification, the Annan Plan and EU entry
The results of early negotiations between the Greek and Turkish sides resulted in a broad agreement in principle
to reunification as a bi-cameral, bi-zonal federation with territory allocated to the Greek and Turkish
communities within a united island. However, agreement was never reached on the finer details, and the two sides
often met deadlock over the following points, among others:
The Turkish side:
favoured a weak central government presiding over two sovereign states in voluntary association, a legacy of
earlier fears of domination by the majority Greek Cypriots; and
opposed plans for demilitarisation, citing security concerns.
The Greek side:
took a strong line on the right of return for refugees to properties vacated in the 1974 displacement of
Cypriots on both sides;
took a dim view of any proposals which did not allow for the repatriation of Turkish settlers from the mainland
who had emigrated to Cyprus since 1974; and
supported a stronger central government.
The continued difficulties in finding a settlement presented a potential obstacle to Cypriot entry to the
European Union, for which the government had applied in 1997. UN-sponsored talks between the Greek and Turkish
leaders, Glafkos Klerides and Rauf Denktash, continued intensively in 2002, but without resolution. In December
2002 the EU formally invited Cyprus to join in 2004, insisting that EU membership would apply to the whole
island and hoping that it would provide a significant enticement for reunification resulting from the outcome of
ongoing talks. However, weeks before the UN deadline, Klerides was defeated in presidential elections by center
candidate Tassos Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos had a reputation as a hard-liner on reunification and had rejected
previous UN attempts to reunify the island. By mid-March, the UN declared that the talks had failed.
A United Nations plan sponsored by Secretary-General Kofi Annan was announced on 31 March 2004, based on what
progress had been made during the talks in Switzerland and fleshed out by the UN, was put to both sides in
separate referenda on 24 April 2004. The Greek side overwhelmingly rejected the Annan Plan, and the Turkish side
voted in favour.
In May 2004, Cyprus entered the EU, although in practice membership only applies to the southern part of the
island. In acknowledgement of the Turkish Cypriot community's support for reunification, however, the EU made it
clear that trade concessions would be reached to stimulate economic growth in the north, and remains committed
to reunification under acceptable terms.
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