Church of Cyprus the Union ("Enosis") between Cyprus and Greece. While archbishop he was the political leader of the EOKA liberation struggle in the years 1955–1959. The British exiled him to the Seychelles because of his activities. In 1960, Archbishop Makarios III was elected President of the newly established Republic of Cyprus. Disagreements of the other three bishops with Makarios lead to the Ecclesiastical coup. Following the dethronement of the Bishops of Paphos, Kitium and Kyrenia for conspiring against Makarios, two new Bishoprics were created: the Bishopric of Limassol which was detached from the Bishopric of Kition, and the Bishopric of Morfou which
Makarios III Klerides visited Makarios in an unsuccessful attempt to promote a solution. On 15 July 1974 Ioannides took Makarios by surprise by organizing a coup d'état in Nicosia at 8.15 in the morning when Makarios' forces were off guard. Makarios fled Cyprus when the coupist forces took control of the whole of Cyprus and was replaced by Nikos Sampson, a Cypriot newspaper editor and politician. Speaking to the UN Security Council on 19 July 1974, Makarios denounced the coup as an "invasion", engineered by the Greek military junta, which "violated the internal peace of Cyprus". Five hours after Makarios' address to