On August 16, 1960, according to Allcitycodes, the independence of Cyprus was proclaimed, which became a member of the UN that same year and joined the Commonwealth in March 1961. Archbishop Makarios III became president . , Vice President Fazil Küçük (* 1906, † 1984), a representative of the Turkish Cypriot minority. – After Makarios adopted the (constitutionally guaranteed) system of proportional representation with regard to government and administration according to the proportion of the population (70 ː 30) wanted to change in favor of the Greek majority (“13-point program”), on December 21, 1963, civil war-like fighting broke out between the ethnic groups of the Greeks and Turks (whereupon the Turkish representatives resigned from the government and the displaced or fled people withdrew Cypriot Turks in self-governing enclaves, which were subsequently blocked by the now purely Greek Cyprus government); Turkey threatened to intervene and called for the island to be partitioned. In March 1964 the UN tried to mediate and stationed a peacekeeping force in Cyprus to monitor the ceasefire of August 10, 1964 (United Nations Peace-Keeping Force in Cyprus, UNFICYP; United Nations). Since then, a so-called Green Line has divided the capital Nicosia.
From about 1966 there was a serious conflict between General Grivas, who pursued the idea of enosis, and President Makarios, who now more emphasized the independence of Cyprus. After the military coup in Greece (April 1967), Grivas, as Commander in Chief of the Cypriot National Guard, provoked new clashes between the Turkish and Greek populations in Cyprus through his aggressive actions in November 1967, which also caused tensions between NATO members Turkey, which again threatened to intervene, and triggered Greece (afterwards withdrawal of Greek troops and expulsion of Grivas). The Turkish Cypriots formed their own armed forces as a counterweight to the Greek Cypriot National Guard; in December 1967 they set up a “Provisional Turkish Cypriot Administration”. After the re-election of President Makarios (February 1968), negotiations between R. R. Denktasch and G. Klerides et al. about political say and self-government of the Cypriot Turks. Supported by the newly organized E. O. K. A. (E. O. K. A. II, also E. O. K. A.-B), Grivas, who has meanwhile secretly returned to Cyprus, began A guerrilla war against the government in the early 1970s. Supported by the military junta in Greece and the E. O. K. A. II, officers of the Greek-Cypriot National Guard put on a coup on July 15, 1974 against Makarios who fled abroad. The coup collapsed with the dispatch of Turkish troops to Cyprus on July 20, 1974; the military dictatorship fell in Greece. Despite two ceasefire agreements brokered in Geneva, the Turkish armed forces occupied northern Cyprus until August 16, 1974, roughly as far as the Lefka – Nicosia – Famagusta line (originally often called the “Attila Line” by the Turks). The military events led to the division of the island and Nicosias; Through the flight and expulsion of around 160,000 Greek Cypriots from the north, to which the Turkish Cypriots living in other enclaves have now also been resettled, ethnically almost closed settlement areas for the two ethnic groups emerged. In the Turkish-occupied part, on February 13, 1975, the “Turkish Federation State of Cyprus” was unilaterally under the leadership of Denktash exclaimed.
Returned in December 1974, Makarios took over the presidency again. After his death in 1977, S. Kyprianu (Democratic Collection, DISY) succeeded him. Negotiations on the settlement of the constitutional conflict in Cyprus and the restoration of its state unity failed, both the direct talks between the two ethnic groups (numerous rounds since 1968) and efforts at international level, according to the Geneva Conference on Cyprus (July 15–3 8) 1974; Great Britain, Greece, Turkey) the guarantor powers of the Cyprus Agreement. In a resolution in 1978, the UN demanded the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the island. After President Kyprianu In 1981 the Turkish-Cypriot proposal to form a confederation of two states had been rejected, the Turkish Cypriots proclaimed the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” on November 15, 1983: a state of their own (President Denktasch; re-elected in 1985, 1990 and 1995, most recently in 2000) which only Turkey recognized. In 1985/86, UN Secretary General J. Pérez de Cuéllar presented plans for a constitution and state unification.
The constitution, adopted by referendum in the Turkish Cypriot part (northern part) on May 5, 1985, kept the conversion of Cyprus into a federal state open. In July 2000 there were mass protests by the Cypriot Turks against their government for the first time (ostensibly because of economic difficulties, but also because of the political and economic isolation of the Turkish north); Thinks had previously unilaterally restricted the freedom of movement of the UN troops stationed in Cyprus since March 1964 on the 1974 demarcation line. A government made up of the National Unity Party (UBP) and the Democratic Party (DP), formed at the beginning of June 2001, further expanded relations with Turkey. In the parliamentary elections in December 2003, the previously opposition Turkish Republican Party – United Forces (CTP-BG), which had advocated a resumption of negotiations to end the division of Cyprus, became the strongest party; In January 2004 the formation of a coalition government from CTP-BG and DP under Prime Minister M. A. Talat (CTP-BG) followed. In April 2005, he replaced President Denktasch, who had not run for election, in office. Talat was a proponent of a reunification of the two parts of the island. In the dispute over the relationship with the EU, the governing coalition broke up in September 2006; the new government was formed without the DP, who largely refused to make concessions. In the parliamentary elections on April 19, 2009, the UBP won with 44.1% (26 seats), while the previously ruling CTP-BG only got 29.2% of the votes (15 seats). D. Eroğlu was elected as the new Prime Minister on May 18, 2009. On April 18, 2010, Talat, whom Turkey had supported, lost to his challenger Eroğlu in the first round of the presidential election. Irsen Küçük became the new head of government and chairman of the UBP after Eroğlu’s election victory (* 1940, † 2019). His government failed on June 5, 2013 due to a vote of no confidence in parliament. Early parliamentary elections took place on July 28, 2013, in which the CTP-BG became the strongest political force with 38.4% of the votes. The CTP-BG politician Ōzkan Yorgancıoğlu (* 1954) took over the office of head of government on September 2, 2013. In the runoff election for the presidency on April 26, 2015, the TDP-supported candidate M. Akıncı prevailed against incumbent D. Eroğlu with 60.5% of the vote. He commissioned Ömer Kalyoncu (* 1950) from the CTP-BG with the formation of the government. The new cabinet of politicians from the CTP-BG and the UBP started work in July 2015. Disputes over economic policy issues led to a break in the coalition in April 2016. Successor to Ö. Kalyoncu as head of government was UBP chairman Hüseyin Özgürgün (* 1965) at the head of a coalition of UBP and DP-UG. Parliamentary elections were held on January 7, 2018. With a gain of 35.6% of the votes, the UBP became the strongest party ahead of the CTP-BG, which only received 20.9% of the votes.
