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
Economic history of Greece and the Greek world in which Greece still excels. Today, the Greek merchant marine comes third globally both in the number of ships owned and in tonnage, and at times in the 90s Greece was first. Greece is fifth in terms of registration, the reason for this is a number of Greek captains register their ships under the Cypriot flag, which is easy due to linguistic and cultural commonalities, and significantly where there are lower taxes. In terms of registration, Cyprus has the third largest merchant fleet, and the majority of these ships are actually owned by Greeks, but sailing under the Cypriot flag