1931 Cyprus revolt 1931 Cyprus revolt The 1931 Cyprus revolt or October Events (, "Oktovriana") was an anti-colonial revolt that took place in Cyprus, then a British crown colony, between 21 October and early November 1931. The revolt was spearheaded by Greek Cypriot nationalists who advocated the Enosis (Union) of the island with Greece. The defeat of the rebels led to a period of repressive British rule known as "Palmerocracy" (Παλμεροκρατία), that would last until the beginning of World War II. At the outbreak of the First World War, Cyprus was nominally a part of the Ottoman Empire, while in fact being administered
Cyprus formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders and Turkey in the 1950s. Turkish leaders for a period advocated the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as Cyprus was considered an "extension of Anatolia" by them; while, since the 19th century, the majority Greek Cypriot population and its Orthodox church had been pursuing union with Greece, which became a Greek national policy in the 1950s. Following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted