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
Accession of Kosovo to the European Union it was not able to commence with the Stabilisation and Association Process due to its disputed status. In addition, in March 2007, a new structure of sectoral meetings under the umbrella of the STM was established in the areas of: good governance, economy, internal market, innovation and infrastructure. The EU is divided on their policy towards Kosovo, with 5 of 28 EU member states (Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, Spain) not recognising its sovereignty. Kosovo is officially considered a potential candidate for membership by the European Union, and it has been given a clear "European perspective" by the Council of the