Cyprus dispute Kingdom of Cyprus. In February 1489 it was seized by the Republic of Venice. Between September 1570 and August 1571 it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, starting three centuries of Turkish rule over Cyprus. Starting in the early nineteenth century, ethnic Greeks of the island sought to bring about an end to almost 300 years of Ottoman rule and unite Cyprus with Greece. The United Kingdom took administrative control of the island in 1878, to prevent Ottoman possessions from falling under Russian control following the Cyprus Convention, which led to the call for union with Greece ("enosis") to grow
Cyprus Turkish National Union Cyprus Turkish National Union The Cyprus Turkish National Union (, KMTB) was a conservative political party in Cyprus led by Fazıl Küçük. The KMTB was established in 1955 as a successor to the Cyprus is Turkish Party, which had also been established by Küçük. In the pre-independence elections in 1960 it won all 15 Turkish seats in the House of Representatives and all the seats in the Turkish Communal Chamber. The party had run opposed in the House seats in Nicosia, Kyrenia and Larnaca. In 1963 its MPs- withdrew from parliament following the outbreak of intercommunal violence, but continued to