10 Historical Conflicts Still Relevant Today
10. The Cyprus Conflict
The Cyprus conflict is an ongoing issue centered on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and dating back to the Ottoman conquests of the Greek Orthodox lands in the 1400-1600’s. Ever since, it has been present under different forms. In its current phase, it is primarily an issue of military invasion and continuing Turkish occupation (since 1974) of the northern third of the island, a situation described and deplored in multiple UN reports and resolutions. Although Republic of Cyprus is the sole legitimate state, sovereign over all the island, the north is de facto under the administration of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is under Turkish Cypriots and Turkish army control.
Initially, with the annexation of the island by the British Empire from the Ottoman Empire, the “Cyprus dispute” was identified as the conflict between the people of Cyprus and the British Crown regarding the Cypriots’ demand for self determination. The dispute, however, was finally shifted, under the British administration, from a colonial dispute to an ethnic dispute between the Turkish and the Greek islanders. The international complications of the dispute stretch far beyond the boundaries of the island of Cyprus itself and involve the guarantor powers (Turkey, Greece, and the United Kingdom alike), the United Nations and the European Union, along with (unofficially) the United States.
