Cyprus the Archbishop of Cyprus, Kyprianos, and four other bishops. In 1828, modern Greece's first president Ioannis Kapodistrias called for union of Cyprus with Greece, and numerous minor uprisings took place. Reaction to Ottoman misrule led to uprisings by both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, although none were successful. After centuries of neglect by the Turks, the unrelenting poverty of most of the people, and the ever-present tax collectors fuelled Greek nationalism, and by the 20th century idea of "enosis", or union, with newly independent Greece was firmly rooted among Greek Cypriots. Under the Ottoman rule, numeracy, school enrollment and literacy rates
History of nationality in Cyprus inhabitants having expressed support for Greek union, there was no response from either Greece or Britain as they did not want to disrupt their bilateral relations. Turkey in the meantime reacted to the Greek appeal to the UN by taking measures against the Greek community in Turkey. From confiscation of property to the expulsion of thousands of people, Turkey argued that Greece was pursuing a policy of using ethnic justification to conceal their territorial expansion policies. Turkey thus proposed that Cyprus was very important to Turkish security and that the island should be put back into Turkish control as it