History of Cyprus since 1878 1948, King Paul of Greece declared that Cyprus desired union with Greece. In 1950 the Orthodox Church of Cyprus presented a referendum according to which around 97% of the Greek Cypriot population wanted the union. The United Nations accepted the Greek petition and "enosis" became an international issue. In 1952 both Greece and Turkey became members of NATO. After the war, a delegation from Cyprus submitted a demand for enosis to London. The demand was rejected but the British proposed a more liberal constitution and a 10-year programme of social and economic development. Led by Archbishop Makarios, the Greek Cypriot
Cyprus dispute the boundaries of the island of Cyprus itself and involve the guarantor powers under the Zürich and London Agreement (Turkey, Greece, and the United Kingdom), the United Nations and the European Union, along with (unofficially) the United States. The 1974 Cypriot coup d'état, ordered and executed by the Greek military junta, was followed five days later by Turkey's invasion/intervention, leading to the occupation of the northern part of the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus. In 1983, the Turkish Cypriot community unilaterally declared independence, forming the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a sovereign entity that lacks international recognition with the exception