History of Cyprus since 1878 proclaimed Cyprus the Crown colony of British Cyprus in 1925, under an undemocratic constitution. International recognition of the new Republic of Turkey resulted from the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 in which the new Turkish government formally recognised Britain's sovereignty over Cyprus (article 20). The administration was reformed in the latter 1920s, and some members of the Legislative Council (established 1926) were elected by the Cypriots, but their participation was very marginal. The Legislative Council was abolished in 1931. Greek Cypriots believed the circumstances were right to demand union of the island with Greece (enosis), as many of the Aegean
History of Cyprus the Republic of Cyprus. In 2002 UN Secretary General Kofi Annan started a new round of negotiations for the unification of the island. In 2004 after long negotiations between both sides a plan for unification of the island emerged. The resulting plan was supported by United Nations, European Union and the United States. The nationalists on both sides campaigned for the rejection of the plan, the result being that Turkish Cypriots accepted the plan while Greek Cypriots rejected it. After Cyprus became a member of the European Union in 2004, it adopted the euro as its currency on January 1,