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 coins already bear the name of Cyprus in both Greek and Turkish, displaying representations of natural and ancient Cypriot history. In wake of the April 2004 referendum on unification, and the support of the Turkish Cypriot community for the plan, the European Union made pledges towards ending the isolation of northern Cyprus. The proposal for trade between the EU and the Turkish Cypriots was never implemented due to opposition from the Greek Cypriots, who argue that trade would amount to indirect recognition of the TRNC. Proposals to open up trade were discussed by Parliament again in 2010, but still opposed