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
Military exercises of the Republic of Cyprus Military exercises of the Republic of Cyprus Cyprus is the third-largest island in the Mediterranean. A former British colony, it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960 and became a Commonwealth republic in 1961. The Republic of Cyprus is a developed country and has been a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004. The Republic of Cyprus is an internationally recognised sovereign country, a portion of which is under foreign military occupation by Turkey. The occupation, which began on 20 July 1974 and continues to the present day, has been in direct contradiction with a number of