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
Northern Cyprus and the European Union Cyprus. However, seats in the European Parliament are allocated based on the population of both north and south Cyprus together. Due to the problems in getting Turkish Cypriots to vote, this has been criticised and there have been proposals to have observer members direct from the north to sit in Parliament in order to represent those citizens. Naturalised citizens of TRNC or foreigners carrying a passport stamped by TRNC authorities may be refused entry by the Republic of Cyprus or Greece, although after the accession of the Republic of Cyprus to the EU such restrictions have been eased following confidence-building