British Cyprus again in the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. King Paul of Greece declared that Cyprus desired union with Greece in 1948. A referendum was presented by the Orthodox Church of Cyprus in 1950, according to which around 97% of the Greek Cypriot population wanted the union. The Greek petition and enosis became an international issue when it was accepted by the United Nations. The Cyprus Emergency was a military action that took place in Cyprus from 1955 to 1959. The Cyprus Emergency primarily consisted of a campaign by the Greek Cypriot military group EOKA to remove the British from Cyprus
Turkish invasion of Cyprus paramount, and may have further reinforced their division from their Greek Cypriot neighbors. In the early fifties a Greek nationalist group was formed called the "Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston" (EOKA, or "National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters"). Their objective was to drive the British out of the island first, and then to integrate the island with Greece. EOKA wished to remove all obstacles from their path to independence, or union with Greece. The first secret talks for EOKA, as a nationalist organization established to integrate the island with Greece, were started under the chairmanship of Archbishop Makarios III in Athens on