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
Kyprianos of Cyprus opposite the archbishopric in Nicosia. In 1818, Kyprianos was initiated into the Friendly Society (Philiki Etairia) which was preparing the ground for war and liberation from the Ottoman Empire. In 1820, Alexander Ypsilantis contacted the archbishop asking for Cyprus to join in the armed struggle. Kyprianos' reply was pragmatic: He suggested that Cyprus support the upcoming revolution with money and supplies as any armed struggle was bound to end in disaster. Cyprus, being an isolated island far from Greece, had no substantial navy and no tradition of Klepht warfare like other parts of the Greek world. However, when the Greek