Native name	''Kypriakí Dimokratía''
Conventional long name	Republic of Cyprus
Common name	Cyprus
Image coat	Cyprus Coat of Arms.svg
Map caption
National anthem	File:Greece national anthem.oggὝμνος εἰς τὴν ἘλευθερίανHymn to Liberty
Official languages	Greek, Turkish
Demonym	Cypriot, Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot
Ethnic groups	77% Greeks18% Turkish5% others
Ethnic groups year	2001
Capital	Nicosia (Λευκωσία, Lefkoşa)
Largest city	capital
Government type	Presidential republic
Leader title1	President
Leader name1	Dimitris Christofias
Accessioneudate	1 May 2004
Area rank	167th
Area magnitude	1_E9
Area km2	9,251|area_sq_mi 3,572 (''Includes North'')
Percent water	negligible
Population estimate	803,147 (''Does not include North'')1,088,503 (whole island)
Population estimate year	2010
Population density km2	117
Population density sq mi	221
Population density rank	85th
Gdp ppp	$23.190 billion
Gdp ppp year	2010
Gdp ppp per capita	$28,256
Gdp nominal	$23.174 billion
Gdp nominal year	2010
Gdp nominal per capita	$28,237
Gini	29
Gini year	2005
Gini rank	19th
Gini category	low
Hdi year	2010
Hdi	0.810
Hdi rank	35th
Hdi category	very high
Sovereignty type	Independence
Sovereignty note	from the United Kingdom
Established event1	Zürich and London Agreement
Established date1	19 February 1959
Established event2	Proclaimed
Established date2	16 August 1960
Currency	Euro2
Currency code	EUR
Time zone	EET
Utc offset	+2
Time zone dst	EEST
Utc offset dst	+3
Drives on	Left
Cctld	.cy3
Country code	CY (ISO 3166)
Calling code	357
Footnote1	Also the national anthem of Greece.
Footnote2	Before 2008, the Cypriot pound.
Footnote3	The .eu domain is also used, shared with other European Union member states. }}

Cyprus (; , ''Kýpros'', ; , ), officially the Republic of Cyprus (, ''Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía'', ; , ), is a Eurasian island country in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of its most popular tourist destinations. An advanced, high-income economy with a very high Human Development Index, the Republic of Cyprus was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement until it joined the European Union on 1 May 2004.

The earliest known human activity on the island dates back to around the 10th millennium BCE. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, which has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, along with the Tombs of the Kings. Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world, and is the site of the earliest known example of feline domestication. At a strategic location in the Middle East, Cyprus has been occupied by several major powers, including the empires of the Hittites, Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Rashiduns, Umayyads, Lusignans, Venetians and Ottomans. Settled by Mycenean Greeks in the 2nd millennium BCE, the island also experienced long periods of Greek rule under the Ptolemies and the Byzantines. In 333 BCE, Alexander the Great conquered the island from the Persians. The Ottoman Empire conquered the island in 1571 and it remained under Ottoman control for over three centuries. It was placed under British administration in 1878 until it was granted independence in 1960, becoming a member of the Commonwealth the following year.

In 1974, following 11 years of intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, an attempted ''coup d'état'' by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta with the aim of achieving ''enosis'' (union of the island with Greece) took place. Turkey used this as a pretext to invade the northern portion of the island. Turkish forces remained after a cease-fire, resulting in the partition of the island; an objective of Turkey since 1955. The intercommunal violence and subsequent Turkish invasion led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Cypriots and the establishment of a separate Turkish Cypriot political entity in the north. These events and the resulting political situation are matters of ongoing dispute.

The Republic of Cyprus has ''de jure'' sovereignty over the island of Cyprus and its surrounding waters, except for the British military bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The Republic of Cyprus is ''de facto'' partitioned into two main parts; the area under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus, comprising about 59% of the island's area, and the Turkish-controlled area in the north, calling itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and recognised only by Turkey, covering about 36% of the island's area.

Etymology

The earliest attested reference to ''Cyprus'' is the Mycenaean Greek ''ku-pi-ri-jo'', meaning "Cypriot", written in Linear B syllabic script. The classical Greek form of the name is .

The etymology of the name is unknown. Suggestions include:

the Greek word for the Mediterranean cypress tree (''Cupressus sempervirens''), ''κυπάρισσος'' (''kypárissos'')

the Greek name of the henna plant (''Lawsonia alba''), ''κύπρος'' (''kýpros'')

an Eteocypriot word for copper. Georges Dossin, for example, suggests that it has roots in the Sumerian word for copper (''zubar'') or for bronze (''kubar''), from the large deposits of copper ore found on the island.

Through overseas trade, the island has given its name to the Classical Latin word for copper through the phrase ''aes Cyprium'', "metal of Cyprus", later shortened to ''Cuprum''. Cyprus, more specifically the shores of Paphos, was also one of the birthplaces of Aphrodite given in Greek mythology, who was known as ''Kupria'', since according to Phoenician mythology, Astarte, goddess of love and beauty, was later identified with Aphrodite.

The standard demonym relating to Cyprus or its people or culture is ''Cypriot''. The terms ''Cypriote'' and ''Cyprian'' are also, less frequently, used.

History

Ancient times

The earliest confirmed site of human activity on Cyprus is Aetokremnos, situated on the south coast, indicating that hunter-gatherers were active on the island from around 10,000 BCE, with settled village communities dating from 8200 BC. The arrival of the first humans correlates with the extinction of the dwarf hippos and dwarf elephants. Water wells discovered by archaeologists in western Cyprus are believed to be among the oldest in the world, dated at 9,000 to 10,500 years old.

Remains of an 8-month-old cat were discovered buried with its human owner at a separate Neolithic site in Cyprus. The grave is estimated to be 9,500 years old, predating ancient Egyptian civilization and pushing back the earliest known feline-human association significantly. The remarkably well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site dating to approximately 6800 BCE.

The island was part of the Hittite empire during the late Bronze Age until the arrival of two waves of Greek settlement. The first wave consisted of Mycenaean Greek traders who started visiting Cyprus around 1400 BCE. A major wave of Greek settlement is believed to have taken place following the Bronze Age collapse of Mycenaean Greece in the period 1100–1050 BCE, with the island's predominantly Greek character dating from this period. Cyprus occupies an important role in Greek mythology being the birthplace of Aphrodite and Adonis, and home to King Cinyras, Teucer and Pygmalion. Beginning in the 8th century BCE Phoenician colonies were founded on the south coast of Cyprus, near present day Larnaca and Salamis.

Cyprus was ruled by Assyria for a century starting in 708 BCE, before a brief spell under Egyptian rule and eventually Persian rule in 545 BCE. The Cypriots, led by Onesilus, king of Salamis, joined their fellow Greeks in the Ionian cities during the unsuccessful Ionian Revolt in 499 BCE against the Achaemenid Empire. The revolt was suppressed, but Cyprus managed to maintain a high degree of autonomy and remained oriented towards the Greek world.

The island was brought under permanent Greek rule by Alexander the Great and the Ptolemies of Egypt following his death. Full Hellenization took place during the Ptolemaic period, which ended when Cyprus was annexed by the Roman Republic in 58 BCE.

Middle Ages

When the Roman Empire was divided into Eastern and Western parts in 395, Cyprus became part of the East Roman, or Byzantine Empire, and would remain part of it until the crusades some 800 years later. Under Byzantine rule, the Greek orientation that had been prominent since antiquity developed the strong Hellenistic-Christian character that continues to be a hallmark of the Greek Cypriot community. Beginning in 649, Cyprus suffered from devastating raids launched from the Levant, which continued for the next 300 years. Many were quick piratical raids, but others were large-scale attacks in which many Cypriots were slaughtered and great wealth carried off or destroyed.

No Byzantine churches survive from this period, thousands of people were killed, and many cities – such as Salamis – were destroyed and never rebuilt. Byzantine rule was restored in 965, when Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas scored decisive victories on land and sea. In 1191, during the Third Crusade, Richard I of England captured the island from Isaac Komnenos of Cyprus He used it as a major supply base that was relatively safe from the Saracens. A year later Richard sold the island to the Knights Templar, who, following a bloody revolt, in turn sold it to Guy of Lusignan. His brother and successor Amalric was recognized as King of Cyprus by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor.

Following the death in 1473 of James II, the last Lusignan king, the Republic of Venice assumed control of the island, while the late king's Venetian widow, Queen Catherine Cornaro, reigned as figurehead. Venice formally annexed Cyprus in 1489, following the abdication of Caterina. The Venetians fortified Nicosia by building the famous Venetian Walls, and used it as an important commercial hub. Throughout Venetian rule, the Ottoman Empire frequently raided Cyprus. In 1539 the Ottomans destroyed Limassol and so fearing the worst, the Venetians also fortified Famagusta and Kyrenia.

During the almost four centuries of Latin rule, there existed two societies on Cyprus. The first consisted of Frankish nobles and their retinue, as well as Italian merchants and their families. The second, the majority of the population, consisted of Greek Cypriots, serfs and laborers. Although a determined effort was made to supplant native traditions and culture, the effort failed.

Ottoman Empire

In 1570, a full scale Ottoman assault with 60,000 troops brought the island under Ottoman control, despite stiff resistance by the inhabitants of Nicosia and Famagusta. 20,000 Nicosians were put to death, and every church, public building, and palace was looted. The previous Latin elite was destroyed and the first significant demographic change since antiquity took place when Ottoman Janissaries were settled on the island.

The Ottomans abolished the feudal system previously in place and applied the millet system to Cyprus, under which non-Muslim peoples were governed by their own religious authorities. In a reversal from the days of Latin rule, the head of the Church of Cyprus was invested as leader of the Greek Cypriot population and acted as mediator between Christian Greek Cypriots and the Ottoman authorities. Ottoman rule of Cyprus was at times indifferent, at times oppressive, depending on the temperaments of the sultans and local officials, and during this period the island fell into economic decline.

In 1828, modern Greece’s first president Ioannis Kapodistrias whose maternal ancestors were Greek Cypriots, 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. By 1872, the population of the island had risen to 144,000 comprising 44,000 Muslims and 100,000 Christians. 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 19th century the idea of ''enosis'', or union, with newly independent Greece was firmly rooted among Greek Cypriots.

British Empire

In the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and the Congress of Berlin, Cyprus was leased to the British Empire which de facto took over its administration in 1878 (though, in terms of sovereignty, it remained a de jure Ottoman territory until 1914, together with Egypt and Sudan) in exchange for guarantees that Britain would use the island as a base to protect the Ottoman Empire against possible Russian aggression. The island would serve Britain as a key military base in its colonial routes. By 1906, when the Famagusta harbour was completed, Cyprus was a strategic naval outpost overlooking the Suez Canal, the crucial main route to India which was then Britain's most important colony. Following the outbreak of World War I and the entry of the Ottoman Empire on the side of the Central Powers, Great Britain formally annexed the island on 5 November 1914.

In 1915, Britain offered Cyprus to Constantine I of Greece on condition that Greece join the war on the side of the British, which he declined. In 1923, under the Treaty of Lausanne, the nascent Turkish republic relinquished any claim to Cyprus and in 1925 it was declared a British crown colony. Many Greek Cypriots fought in the British Army during both World Wars, in the hope that Cyprus would eventually be united with Greece. During World War II many enlisted in the Cyprus Regiment.

In January 1959, the Church of Cyprus organized a referendum, which was boycotted by the Turkish Cypriot community, where over 90% voted in favor of "enosis", meaning union with Greece. Restricted autonomy under a constitution was proposed by the British administration but eventually rejected. In 1955 the EOKA organisation was founded, seeking independence and union with Greece through armed struggle. At the same time the Turkish Resistance Organisation (TMT), calling for Taksim, or partition, was established by the Turkish Cypriots as a counterweight. Turmoil on the island was met with force by the British.

Independence

On 16 August 1960, Cyprus attained independence after the Zürich and London Agreement between the United Kingdom, Greece and Turkey. The UK retained the two Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia while government posts and public offices were allocated by ethnic quotas giving the minority Turkish Cypriots a permanent veto, 30% in parliament and administration, and granting the three mother-states guarantor rights.

In 1963 inter-communal violence broke out, partially sponsored by both "motherlands" with Turkish Cypriots being forced into enclaves and Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios III calling for unilateral constitutional changes as a means to ease tensions over the whole island. The United Nations was involved and the United Nations forces in Cyprus (UNFICYP) deployed at flash points.

In 1964, Turkey attempted to intervene in Cyprus in response to the ongoing Cypriot intercommunal violence, but was stopped by a strongly worded telegram from the U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson on 5 June 1964; who warned that the United States would not stand beside Turkey in case of a consequential Soviet invasion of Turkish territory.

Contemporary era

Following a coup d'état engineered by the Greek Junta, Turkey launched a full-scale military invasion of the island on 20 July 1974. The Turkish air force began bombing Greek positions on Cyprus, hundreds of paratroops were dropped in the area between Nicosia and Kyrenia, where well-armed Turkish Cypriot enclaves had been long-established, while off the Kyrenia coast 30 Turkish troop ships protected by destroyers landed 6,000 men as well as tanks, trucks, and armored vehicles.

Three days later, when a ceasefire had been agreed, Turkey had landed 30,000 troops on the island and captured Kyrenia, the corridor linking Kyrenia to Nicosia, and Turkish Cypriot quarter of Nicosia itself. The junta in Athens, and then the Sampson regime in Cyprus fell from power. In Nicosia Glafkos Clerides assumed the presidency and constitutional order was restored; ostensibly removing the pretext the Turks gave for the invasion. The Turks used a period of negotiations to reinforce their Kyrenia bridgehead and prepare for the second phase of the invasion, which began on 14 August and resulted in the seizure of Morphou, Karpass, Famagusta and the Mesaoria. The Greek-Cypriot forces were unable to resist the Turkish advance.

International pressure led to a ceasefire at which point 37% of the island had been taken over by the Turks and 180,000 Greek Cypriots were evicted from their homes in the north. At the same time, around 50,000 Turkish Cypriots moved to the areas under the control of the Turkish Forces and settled in the properties of the displaced Greek Cypriots. In mid-1975, the United States Congress amongst a variety of sanctions against Turkey, imposed an arms embargo on Turkey for using American-supplied equipment during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.

In 1983 Turkish Cypriots proclaimed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognised only by Turkey. As of today, there are 1,534 Greek Cypriots and 502 Turkish Cypriots missing as a result of the fighting. The events of the summer of 1974 dominate the politics on the island, as well as Greco-Turkish relations. Around 150,000 settlers from Turkey are believed to be living in the north in violation of the Geneva Convention and various UN resolutions. Following the invasion and the capture of its northern territory by Turkish troops, the Republic of Cyprus announced that all of its ports of entry in the north were closed, as they were effectively not under its control. The last major effort to settle the Cyprus dispute was the Annan Plan in 2004. It gained the support of the Turkish Cypriots but was rejected by the Greek Cypriots, who perceived the Annan Plan to be both unbalanced and excessively pro-Turkish.

On May 1, 2004 Cyprus joined the European Union together with nine other countries. In July 2006, the island served as a safe haven for people fleeing Lebanon because of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

In March 2008, a wall that for decades had stood at the boundary between the Republic of Cyprus and the UN buffer zone was demolished. The wall had cut across Ledra Street in the heart of Nicosia and was seen as a strong symbol of the island's 32-year division. On 3 April 2008, Ledra Street was reopened in the presence of Greek and Turkish Cypriot officials.

Geography

Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia (both in terms of area and population). It is also the world's 81st largest by area and world's 49th largest by population. It measures long from end to end and wide at its widest point, with Turkey to the north. It lies between latitudes 34° and 36° N, and longitudes 32° and 35° E.

Other neighbouring territories include Syria and Lebanon to the east ( and , respectively), Israel to the southeast, Egypt to the south, and Greece to the northwest: to the small Dodecanesian island of Kastelorizo (Megisti), to Rhodes, and to the Greek mainland.

The physical relief of the island is dominated by two mountain ranges, the Troodos Mountains and the smaller Kyrenia Range, and the central plain they encompass, the Mesaoria. The Troodos Mountains cover most of the southern and western portions of the island and account for roughly half its area. The highest point on Cyprus is Mount Olympus at , located in the centre of the Troodos range. The narrow Kyrenia Range, extending along the northern coastline, occupies substantially less area, and elevations are lower, reaching a maximum of .

Geopolitically, the island is subdivided into four main segments. The Republic of Cyprus occupies the southern two-thirds of the island (59.74%). The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus occupies the northern third (34.85%), and the United Nations-controlled Green Line provides a buffer zone that separates the two and covers 2.67% of the island. Lastly, two bases under British sovereignty are located on the island: Akrotiri and Dhekelia, covering the remaining 2.74%.

Biodiversity

Sharp differences in elevation on different parts of the island contribute to divergent climatic conditions, leading to a variety of distinctive habitats for a unique array of fauna and flora. The number of species and sub-species of wild plant in Cyprus is possibly in the thousands; many are endemic.

Wildlife can be seen in Troodos Mountains, the Larnaca and Akrotiri salt lakes, and Akamas National Park. The Cyprus mouflon, a national symbol, is protected and can be seen in Paphos forests towards the Troodos Mountains. In prehistory the island was home to both a pygmy hippopotamus, the Cypriot Pygmy Hippopotamus (''H. minor''), and a pymgy elephant, the Cyprus Dwarf Elephant (''E. cypriotes''). The Ayia Napa Sea Monster is a cryptid, which according to local legend is a mythical sea monster of Greek mythology, the Scylla.

Climate

Cyprus has a subtropical climate – Mediterranean and Semi-arid type (in the north-eastern part of island) – according to Köppen climate classification signes ''Csa'' and ''Bsh'', with very mild winters (on the coast) and warm to hot summers. Snow is possible only in the Troodos Mountains in the central part of island. Rain occurs mainly in winter, with summer being generally dry.

Cyprus has the warmest climate (and warmest winters) in the Mediterranean part of the European Union. The average annual temperature on the coast is around during the day and at night. Generally – summer's/holiday season lasts about 8 months, begins in April with average temperatures of during the day and at night, ends in November with average temperatures of during the day and at night, although also in remaining 4 months temperatures sometimes exceeds . Among all cities in the Mediterranean part of the European Union, Limassol has the warmest winters, in the period January–February average temperature is during the day and at night, in other coastal locations in Cyprus is generally during the day and at night. In March and December in Limassol average temperatures is during the day and at night, in other coastal locations in Cyprus is generally during the day and at night. Middle of summer is hot – in July and August on the coast the average temperature is usually around during the day and around at night (inside the island, in the highlands average temperature exceeds ) while in the June and September on the coast the average temperature is usually around during the day and around at night. Large fluctuations in temperature are rare. Temperatures inside the island are more stringent, with colder winters and more hot summers compared with the coast of the island.

Average annual temperature of sea is , from in February to in August (depending on the location). In total 7 months – from May to November – the average sea temperature exceeds .

Sunshine hours on the coast is around 3,400 per year, from average 5–6 hours of sunshine / day in December to average 12–13 hours in July. This is about double that of cities in the northern half of Europe, for comparison: London – 1,461, however in winter up to some times more sunshine, for comparison: London has 37 hours while coastal locations in Cyprus has around 180 hours of sunshine in December (that is, as much as in May in London).

Water supply

Cyprus is suffering from an ongoing shortage of water. The country relies heavily on rain to provide household water and for many years now, the average annual rainfall seemed to be falling. Between 2001 and 2004, exceptionally heavy annual rainfall pushed water reserves up, with supply exceeding demand, allowing total storage in the island's reservoirs to rise to an all time high by the start of 2005. However, since then demand has increased annually – a result of local population growth, foreigners relocating to Cyprus and the number of visiting tourists – while supply has fallen. Cyprus has a total of 107 dams (plus one currently under construction) and reservoirs, with a total water storage capacity of about . Dams remain the principal source of water both for domestic and agricultural use. Water desalination plants are gradually being constructed in order to deal with recent years of prolonged drought. The Government has invested heavily in the creation of water desalination plants which have supplied almost 50 percent of domestic water since 2001. Efforts have also been made to raise public awareness of the situation and to encourage domestic water users to take more responsibility for the conservation of this increasingly scarce commodity.

Politics

Cyprus is a Presidential republic. The head of state and of the government is elected by a process of Universal suffrage for a five-year term. Executive power is exercised by the government with legislative power vested in the House of Representatives whilst the Judiciary is independent of both the executive and the legislature. The 1960 Constitution provided for a presidential system of government with independent executive, legislative and judicial branches as well as a complex system of checks and balances including a weighted power-sharing ratio designed to protect the interests of the Turkish Cypriots. The executive was led by a Greek Cypriot president and a Turkish Cypriot vice president elected by their respective communities for five-year terms and each possessing a right of veto over certain types of legislation and executive decisions. Legislative power rested on the House of Representatives who were also elected on the basis of separate voters' rolls.

Following clashes between the two communities the Turkish Cypriot seats in the House remain vacant since 1965. Turkish Cypriots refused to establish the state of affairs before the invasion of Cyprus as is evident in the Secretary-General of the United Nations who said "The Turkish Cypriot leaders have adhered to a rigid stand against any measures which might involve having members of the two communities live and work together, or which might place Turkish Cypriots in situations where they would have to acknowledge the authority of Government agents. Indeed, since the Turkish Cypriot leadership is committed to physical and geographical separation of the communities as a political goal, it is not likely to encourage activities by Turkish Cypriots which may be interpreted as demonstrating the merits of an alternative policy. The result has been a seemingly deliberate policy of self-segregation by the Turkish Cypriots." By 1974 the two communities had returned to a more tolerant state of living.

In 1974 Cyprus was divided ''de facto'' when the Turkish army occupied the northern third of the island. The Turkish Cypriots subsequently declared independence in 1983 as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus but were recognized only by Turkey. In 1985 the TRNC adopted a constitution and held its first elections. The United Nations recognises the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus over the entire island of Cyprus.

The House of Representatives currently has 59 members elected for a five year term, 56 members by proportional representation and 3 observer members representing the Armenian, Latin and Maronite minorities. 24 seats are allocated to the Turkish community but remain vacant since 1964. The political environment is dominated by the communist AKEL, the liberal conservative Democratic Rally, the centrist Democratic Party, the social-democratic EDEK and the centrist EURO.KO. On 17 February 2008 Dimitris Christofias of the AKEL was elected President of Cyprus, on AKEL's first electoral victory without being part of a wider coalition. Christofias took over government from Tassos Papadopoulos of the Democratic Party who had been in office since February 2003.

Administrative divisions

The Republic of Cyprus is divided into six districts: Nicosia, Famagusta, Kyrenia, Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos. These are not the same as those of Northern Cyprus.

District Map of Cyprus!! Districts !! Greek language

Greek name !! Turkish name

rowspan=6

File:Cyprus districts not named.svg

Paphos district>Paphos

Nicosia District>Nicosia

Limassol District>Limassol

Larnaca District>Larnaca

Kyrenia District>Kyrenia

Famagusta District>Famagusta

Akrotiri and Dhekelia>Akrotiri

Akrotiri and Dhekelia>Dhekelia

Αμμόχωστος (Ammochostos)

Gazimağusa/Mağusa

Kyrenia District

Kyrenia

Κερύvεια (Keryneia)

Larnaca District

Larnaca

Λάρνακα (Larnaka)

Limassol District

Limassol

Λεμεσός (Lemesos)

Lefkosia District

Nicosia

Λευκωσία (Lefkosia)

Paphos District

Paphos

Πάφος (Pafos)

Exclaves and enclaves

Cyprus has four exclaves, all in territory that belongs to the British Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia. The first two are the villages of Ormidhia and Xylotymvou. The third is the Dhekelia Power Station which is divided by a British road into two parts. The northern part is an exclave, like the two villages, whereas the southern part is located by the sea and therefore not an exclave although it has no territorial waters of its own.

The UN buffer zone runs up against Dhekelia and picks up again from its east side off Ayios Nikolaos and is connected to the rest of Dhekelia by a thin land corridor. In that sense the buffer zone turns the Paralimni area on the southeast corner of the island into a ''de facto'', though not ''de jure'', exclave.

Foreign relations

The island nation Cyprus is member of: Australia Group, CN, CE, CFSP, EBRD, EIB, EU, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ITUC, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM, NSG, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO.

Human rights

In "Freedom in the World 2011", the democracy of Cyprus was rated as "free".

The constant focus on the division of the island can sometimes mask other human rights issues. Prostitution is rife in both the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish-controlled regions leading to the government being criticised for its lack of controls and for the role of Cyprus in the sex trade as one of the main destinations for human trafficking from Eastern Europe.

There have been reports of mistreatment to the Turkish Cypriots in the Republic of Cyprus. The US Department of State report about human rights in Cyprus in 2002 said that:

Domestic violence legislation remains largely unimplemented and mistreatment of domestic staff, mostly immigrant workers from developing countries, are sometimes reported in the Cypriot press and are the subject of several campaigns by the anti-racist charity KISA.

Military

The Cypriot National Guard is the main military institution of the Republic of Cyprus. It is a combined arms force, with land, air and naval elements. The National Guard is a required 24 month service for all men upon completing their 18th birthday. The land forces of the Cypriot National Guard comprise the following units:

First Infantry Division (Ιη Μεραρχία ΠΖ)

Second Infantry Division (ΙΙα Μεραρχία ΠΖ)

Fourth Infantry Brigade (ΙVη Ταξιαρχία ΠΖ)

Twentieth Armored Brigade (ΧΧη ΤΘ Ταξιαρχία)

Third Support Brigade (ΙΙΙη Ταξιαρχία ΥΠ)

Eighth Support Brigade (VIIIη Ταξιαρχία ΥΠ)

The air force includes the 449th Helicopter Gunship Squadron (449 ΜΑΕ) – operating SA-342L and Bell 206 and the 450th Helicopter Gunship Squadron (450 ME/P) – operating Mi-35P, BN-2B and PC-9. Current Senior officers include Supreme Commander, Cypriot National Guard, Lt. General Stylianos Nasis, and Chief of Staff, Cypriot National Guard: Maj. General Mihalis Flerianos.

Economy

The Cypriot economy is prosperous and has diversified in recent years. Fitch Ratings recently downgraded Cyprus from A- to BBB, a full two notches lower because the rating agency felt the sovereign would be unable to access debt markets internationally. According to the latest IMF estimates, its per capita GDP (adjusted for purchasing power) at $28,381 is just above the average of the European Union. Cyprus has been sought as a base for several offshore businesses for its highly developed infrastructure. Economic policy of the Cyprus government has focused on meeting the criteria for admission to the European Union. The Cypriot government adopted the euro as the national currency on 1 January 2008. Oil has recently been discovered in the seabed between Cyprus, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt and talks are underway between Lebanon and Egypt to reach an agreement regarding the exploration of these resources. The seabed separating Lebanon and Cyprus is believed to hold significant quantities of crude oil and natural gas. However the government of Cyprus states that the Turkish Navy does not allow the exploration of oil in the region.

The economy of the Turkish-occupied areas operates on a free-market basis although it continues to be handicapped by the lack of private and public investment, high freight costs and shortages of skilled labor. Despite these constraints the economy turned in an impressive performance in 2003 and 2004 with growth rates of 9.6% and 11.4%. The average income in the area was $15,984 (S₣16,289) in 2008. Growth has been buoyed by the relative stability of the Turkish new lira and by a boom in the education and construction sectors. The island has witnessed a massive growth in tourism over the years and as such the property rental market in Cyprus has grown alongside. Added to this is the capital growth in property that has been created from the demand of incoming investors and property buyers to the island.

The euro was introduced in 2008. Three different designs were selected for the Cypriot coins, chosen from entrants in a competition in 2005. The €2 (S₣2.59) coin is a legacy of an old national practice of minting silver and gold commemorative coins. To commemorate this event, a €5 (S₣6.48) collector coin was also issued. Unlike normal issues these coins are not legal tender in all of the eurozone and so cannot be used in any other country but Cyprus.

Transport

Available modes of transport are by road, sea, and air. Of the of roads in the Republic of Cyprus as of 1998, were paved, and were unpaved. As of 1996 the Turkish occupied area had a similar ratio of paved to unpaved, with approximately of paved road and unpaved. Cyprus is one of only four EU nations in which vehicles drive on the left-hand side of the road, a remnant of British colonisation, the others being Ireland, Malta and the United Kingdom.

''Motorways''

A1 Nicosia to Limassol

A2 connects A1 near Pera Chorio with A3 by Larnaca

A3 Larnaca to Agia Napa

A5 connects A1 near Kofinou with A3 by Larnaca

A6 Pafos to Limassol

A9 Nicosia to Astromeritis

+ Number of licensed vehicles
Vehicle size class>Vehicle Category	!2001	!2002	!2003	!2004	!2005
Private vehicles	270,348	277,554	291,645	324,212	344,953
Taxis	1,641	1,559	1,696	1,770	1,845
Rental cars	8,080	8,509	9,160	9,652	8,336
Buses	3,003	2,997	3,275	3,199	3,217
Light trucks (lighter than 40 tonnes)	107,060	106,610	107,527	105,017	105,327
Heavy trucks (over 40 tonnes)	10,882	11,182	12,119	12,808	13,028
Motorcycles (2 wheels)	12,956	14,983	16,009	16,802	16,836
Motorcycles (3 wheels)	42	41	43	55	558
Scooters	28,987	25,252	25,464	24,539	22,987
TOTAL	442,999	448,687	466,938	498,054	517,087

In 1999, Cyprus had six heliports and two international airports: Larnaca International Airport and Paphos International Airport. Nicosia International Airport has been closed since 1974 and although Ercan airport was still in use it was only for flights from Turkey.

Per capita private car ownership is the 5th highest in the world. In 2006 extensive plans were announced to improve and expand bus services and restructure public transport throughout Cyprus, with the financial backing of the European Union Development Bank. In 2010 the new revised and expanded bus network got implemented.

The main harbours of the island are ''Limassol harbour'' and ''Larnaca harbour'', which service cargo, passenger, and cruise ships.

Communications

Cyta, the state-owned telecommunications company, manages most Telecommunications and Internet connections on the island. However, following the recent liberalisation of the sector, a few private telecommunications companies have emerged including MTN, Cablenet, OTEnet Telecom, Omega Telecom and PrimeTel. In the Turkish-controlled area of Cyprus, three companies are also present. These are Turkcell, Vodafone and Turk Telekom.

Demographics

It has traditionally been accepted that Greek Cypriots form up to 80%, Turkish Cypriots 18% (not including Turkish settlers), and Christian minorities (including Maronites, Latin Catholic and Armenians) 2% of the Cypriot population.

According to the first population census after the declaration of independence, carried out in December 1960 and covering the entire island, Cyprus had a total population of 573,566; of whom 442,138 (77.1%) were Greeks, 104,320 (18.2%) Turkish, and 27,108 (4.7%) others.

Due to the inter-communal ethnic tensions between 1963 and 1974, an island-wide census was regarded as impossible. Nevertheless, the Greek Cypriots conducted one in 1973, without the Turkish Cypriot populace. According to this census, the Greek Cypriot population was 482,000. One year later, in 1974, the Cypriot government's Department of Statistics and Research estimated the total population of Cyprus at 641,000; of whom 506,000 (78.9%) were Greeks, and 118,000 (18.4%) Turkish. After the partition of the island in 1974, Greeks conducted four more censuses: in 1976, 1982, 1992 and 2001; these excluded the Turkish population which was resident in the northern part of the island.

According to the Republic of Cyprus's latest estimate, in 2005, the number of Cypriot citizens currently living in the Republic of Cyprus is around 656,200. In addition to this the Republic of Cyprus is home to 110,200 foreign permanent residents and an estimated 10,000–30,000 undocumented illegal immigrants currently living in the south of the island.

According to the 2006 census carried out by Northern Cyprus, there were 256,644 (de jure) people living in Northern Cyprus. 178,031 were citizens of Northern Cyprus, of whom 147,405 were born in Cyprus (112,534 from the north; 32,538 from the south; 371 did not indicate what part of Cyprus they were from); 27,333 born in Turkey; 2,482 born in the UK and 913 born in Bulgaria. Of the 147,405 citizens born in Cyprus, 120,031 say both parents were born in Cyprus; 16,824 say both parents born in Turkey; 10,361 have one parent born in Turkey and one parent born in Cyprus.

In 2010, the International Crisis Group estimated that the total population of Cyprus was 1.1 million, of which there was an estimated 300,000 residents in the north, perhaps half of whom were either born in Turkey or are children of such settlers. However, some academic sources claim that the population in the north has reached 500,000, 50% of which are thought to be Turkish settlers or Cypriot-born children of such settlers.

The village of Pyla in the Larnaca District is the only settlement in the Republic of Cyprus with a mixed Greek and Turkish Cypriot population.

Y-Dna haplogroups are found at the following frequencies in Cyprus : J (43.07% including 6.20% J1), E1b1b (20.00%), R1 (12.30% including 9.2% R1b), F (9.20%), I (7.70%), K (4.60%), A (3.10%). J, K, F and E1b1b haplogroups consist of lineages with differential distribution within Middle East, North Africa and Europe while R1 and I are typical in West European populations.

Outside Cyprus there is a significant and thriving Greek Cypriot diaspora and Turkish Cypriot diaspora in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, the United States, Greece and Turkey.

Religion

{{bar box |title=Religion in Cyprus |titlebar=#ddd |left1=religion |right1=percent |float=right |bars= }} Almost all Greek Cypriots are members of the autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus, whereas most Turkish Cypriots are adherents of Sunni Islam. According to Eurobarometer 2005, Cyprus is one of the most religious countries in the European Union, alongside Malta, Romania, Greece, and Poland. The first President of Cyprus, Makarios III, was an archbishop.

Given the special legal status of the Church of Cyprus, the country is also one of only six EU states to have an established state church, alongside Finland (Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church and Finnish Orthodox Church), Denmark (Danish National Church), Greece (Church of Greece), Malta (Roman Catholic Church) and the United Kingdom (Church of England (only in England)). In addition to the Greek Orthodox and Muslim communities, there are also small Hindu, Sikh, Bahá'í, Jewish, Protestant (including Pentecostal), Catholic (including Latin Rite and Maronite) and Armenian Apostolic communities in Cyprus.

Hala Sultan Tekke, situated near the Larnaca Salt Lake, is considered by some secular orientalists as the third holiest site in Sunni Islam and an object of pilgrimage for both Muslims and Christians.

The current leader of the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus is Archbishop Chrysostomos II. He is known for his right-wing nationalist views, branding for example, illegal immigrants as "‘interlopers’ who do not belong on the island" and admits espousing several other political ideas of Cyprus' National People’s Front (ELAM).

According to the 2001 census carried out in the Government controlled area, 94.8% of the population are Christian Orthodox, 0.9% Armenians and Maronites, 1.5% Roman Catholics, 1.0% Church of England, and 0.6% Muslims. The remaining 1.3% adhere to other religious denominations or did not state their religion.

Languages

The country has two official languages: Greek and Turkish. Armenian, Cypriot Maronite Arabic and Romani are also recognized as minority languages. In addition to these languages – according the Eurobarometer by European Commission – 76% of the population of Cyprus speak English, 12% speak French, and 5% speak German.

Education

Cyprus has a highly developed system of primary and secondary education offering both public and private education. The high quality of instruction can be attributed to a large extent to the above-average competence of the teachers but also to the fact that nearly 7% of the GDP is spent on education which makes Cyprus one of the top three spenders of education in the EU along with Denmark and Sweden.

State schools are generally seen as equivalent in quality of education to private-sector institutions. However, the value of a state high-school diploma is limited by the fact that the grades obtained account for only around 25% of the final grade for each topic, with the remaining 75% assigned by the teacher during the semester, in a minimally transparent way. Cypriot universities (like universities in Greece) ignore high school grades almost entirely for admissions purposes. While a high-school diploma is mandatory for university attendance, admissions are decided almost exclusively on the basis of scores at centrally administered university entrance examinations that all university candidates are required to take.

The majority of Cypriots receive their higher education at Greek, British, Turkish, other European and North American universities. It is noteworthy that Cyprus currently has the highest percentage of citizens of working age who have higher-level education in the EU at 30% which is ahead of Finland's 29.5%. In addition 47% of its population aged 25–34 have tertiary education, which is the highest in the EU. The body of Cypriot students is highly mobile, with 78.7% studying in a university outside Cyprus.

Culture

The culture of Cyprus is divided between the two distinct cultures of Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Each community maintains its own culture, linked to the cultures of Greece and Turkey, and there is little cultural interchange between the two groups. Due to the complex history of the island, cultures have shifted over time. The Greek culture first became prominent in the running of the island in the 1400s. The Turkish culture arrived with the invasion of the Ottoman Empire in 1570, and it was under this rule that the divide between the two communities became prominent and encouraged by government policies. The British did nothing to change this, leaving the island in its divided state with no unified culture.

Art

The art history of Cyprus can be said to stretch back up to 10,000 years, following the discovery of a series of Chalcolithic period carved figures in the villages of Khoirokoitia and Lempa and the island is also the home to numerous examples of high quality religious icon painting from the Middle Ages. Cypriot architecture was heavily influenced by French Gothic and Italian renaissance introduced in the island during the era of Latin domination (1191–1571).

In modern times Cypriot art history begins with the painter Vassilis Vryonides (1883–1958) who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Arguably the two founding fathers of modern Cypriot art were Adamantios Diamantis (1900–1994) who studied at London's Royal College of Art and Christopheros Savva (1924–1968) who also studied in London, at St Martins School of Art. In many ways these two artists set the template for subsequent Cypriot art and both their artistic styles and the patterns of their education remain influential to this day. In particular the majority of Cypriot artists still train in England although art schools in Greece are also popular and local art institutions such as the Cyprus College of Art, University of Nicosia and the Frederick Institute of Technology are becoming more popular.

One of the features of Cypriot art is a tendency towards figurative painting although conceptual art is being rigorously promoted by a number of art “institutions” and most notably the Nicosia Municipal Art Centre . Municipal art galleries exist in all the main towns and there is a large and lively commercial art scene. Cyprus was due to host the international art festival Manifesta in 2006 but this was cancelled at the last minute following a dispute between the Dutch organizers of Manifesta and the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture over the location of some of the Manifesta events in the Turkish sector of the capital Nicosia.

Other notable Cypriot artists include Rhea Bailey, Mihail Kkasialos, Ioannis Kissonergis, Theodoulos Gregoriou, Helene Black, George Skoteinos, Kalopedis family, Nicos Nicolaides, Stass Paraskos, Arestís Stasí, Telemachos Kanthos, Konstantia Sofokleous and Chris Achilleos.

Music

The traditional folk music of Cyprus has several common elements with Greek, Turkish, and Arabic music including Greco-Turkish dances such as the ''sousta'', ''syrtos'', ''zeibekikos'', ''tatsia'', and ''kartsilamas'' as well as the Middle Eastern-inspired ''tsifteteli'' and ''arapie''. There is also a form of musical poetry known as ''chattista'' which is often performed at traditional feasts and celebrations. The instruments commonly associated with Cyprus folk music are the bouzouki (''pictured''), oud ("outi"), violin ("fkiolin"), lute ("laouto"), accordion, Cyprus flute ("pithkiavlin") and percussion (including the "toumperleki"). Composers associated with traditional Cypriot music include Evagoras Karageorgis, Marios Tokas, Solon Michaelides and Savvas Salides.

Popular music in Cyprus is generally influenced by the Greek ''Laïka'' scene with several artists including Anna Vissi, Evridiki, and Sarbel earning widespread popularity in Cyprus, Greece and parts of the Middle East. Hip Hop, R&B; and reggae are also very popular genres on the island and have been supported by the emergence of Cypriot rap and the urban music scene at Ayia Napa. Cypriot rock music and ''Éntekhno'' rock is often associated with artists such as Michalis Hatzigiannis and Alkinoos Ioannidis. Metal also has a small following in Cyprus represented by bands such as Winter's Verge and Quadraphonic.

Literature

Literary production of the antiquity includes the Cypria, an epic poem, probably composed in the late seventh century BCE and attributed to Stasinus. The Cypria is one of the very first specimens of Greek and European poetry. The Cypriot Zeno of Citium was the founder of the Stoic School of Philosophy.

Epic poetry, notably the "acritic songs", flourished during Middle Ages. Two chronicles, one written by Leontios Machairas and the other by Georgios Voustronios, cover the entire Middle Ages until the end of Frankish rule (4th century – 1489). Poèmes d'amour written in medieval Greek Cypriot date back from 16th century. Some of them are actual translations of poems written by Petrarch, Bembo, Ariosto and G. Sannazzaro. Many Cypriot scholars fled Cyprus at troubled times such as Ioannis Kigalas ( ca. 1622–1687) who migrated from Cyprus to Italy in the 17th century, several of his works have survived in books of other scholars.

Hasan Hilmi Efendi, a Turkish Cypriot poet, was rewarded by the Ottoman sultan Mahmud II and said to be the "sultan of the poems".

Modern literary figures from Cyprus include the poet and writer Kostas Montis, poet Kyriakos Charalambides, poet Michalis Pasiardis, writer Nicos Nicolaides, Stylianos Atteshlis, Altheides, Loukis Akritas and Demetris Th. Gotsis. Dimitris Lipertis, Vasilis Michaelides and Pavlos Liasides are folk poets who wrote poems mainly in the Cypriot-Greek dialect. Lawrence Durrell lived in Northern Cyprus from 1952 until 26 August 1956 and wrote the book Bitter Lemons concerning his time there which won the second Duff Cooper Prize in 1957. The majority of the play ''Othello'' by William Shakespeare is set on the island of Cyprus. Cyprus also figures in religious literature such as the Acts of the Apostles according to which the Apostles Barnabas and Paul preached on the island.

Cinema

The Cypriot cinema was born much later than the cinema of other countries and in the last decades the first coordinated steps have been taken to create a distinct Cypriot cinematography. The main reason for this delay was the belated entry of Cyprus into international society as an independent state in 1960, and the dramatic events that followed which left the island divided in a Greek and Turkish zones that remain divided.

During the late 60s and early 70s production showed a richer crop of films. George Filis produced and directed Gregoris Afxentiou, Etsi Prodothike i Kypros (Cyprus Betrayal), and the Mega Document.

Cinematographic production in Cyprus received a boost in 1994 with the establishment of the Cinema Advisory Committee. The annual amount currently set aside (2000) in the national budget stands at Cy Pounds 500,000 (about 850,000 Euros). In addition to government grants Cypriot co-productions are eligible for funding from the Eurimages Fund, a Council of Europe institution financing European film co-productions. To date four feature-length films in which a Cypriot was executive producer have received funding from Eurimages. The first was I Sphagi tou Kokora (1992) which has been completed in 1996, Hellados (And the trains fly to the sky, 1995), which is currently in the post-production phase and O Dromos gia tin Ithaki (The Road to Ithaka, 1997) of Costas Demetriou which was premiered in March 2000. In September 1999, To Tama (The Promise) of Andreas Pantzis has also received funding from the Eurimages Fund.

Cuisine

Halloumi cheese originated in Cyprus and was initially made during the Medieval Byzantine period, subsequently gaining popularity throughout the Middle-East. Halloumi (Hellim) is commonly served sliced, either fresh or grilled, as an appetiser.

Seafood and fish dishes of Cyprus include squid, octopus, red mullet, and sea bass. Cucumber and tomato are used widely in salads. Common vegetable preparations include potatoes in olive oil and parsley, pickled cauliflower and beets, asparagus and ''Taro''. Other traditional delicacies of the island are meat marinated in dried coriander, seeds and wine, and eventually dried and smoked, such as ''lountza'' (smoked pork loin), charcoal-grilled lamb, souvlaki (pork and chicken cooked over charcoal), and sheftalia (minced meat wrapped in mesentery). ''Pourgouri'' (bulgur, cracked wheat) is the traditional carbohydrate other than bread, and is used to make the Cypriot delicacy koubes.

Fresh vegetables and fruits are common ingredients in Cypriot cuisine. Frequently used vegetables include courgettes, green peppers, okra, green beans, artichokes, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and grape leaves, and pulses such as beans, broad beans, peas, black-eyed beans, chick-peas and lentils. The commonest among fruits and nuts are pears, apples, grapes, oranges, mandarines, nectarines, mespila, blackberries, cherry, strawberries, figs, watermelon, melon, avocado, lemon, pistachio, almond, chestnut, walnut, hazelnut.

Cyprus is also well known for its desserts, including ''lokum'' (also known as Turkish Delight) and Soutzoukos. This island has protected geographical indication (PGI) for its ''lokum'' produced in the village of Geroskipou.

Sports

Governing bodies of sports in Cyprus include the Cyprus Football Association, Cyprus Basketball Federation, Cyprus Volleyball Federation, Cyprus Automobile Association, Cyprus Badminton Federation, Cyprus Cricket Association and the Cyprus Rugby Federation.

Football is by far the most popular spectator sport. The Cyprus League is nowadays considered as quite competitive and includes notable teams such as AC Omonia, APOEL FC, AEL Lemesos, Apollon FC, Anorthosis Famagusta FC, Nea Salamis Famagusta FC and AEK Larnaca FC. Stadiums or sports venues in Cyprus include the GSP Stadium (the largest in Cyprus), Tsirion Stadium (second largest), Neo GSZ Stadium, Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, Ammochostos Stadium and Makario Stadium. Cyprus, also has a football national team which in the last decade has evolved to a promising squad within the European rankings.

Apart from the main interest in football, Cyprus has exhibited certain accomplishments in other sports. Marcos Baghdatis is one of the most successful tennis players in international stage. He was a finalist at the Australian Open in 2006, and reached the Wimbledon semi-final in the same year. Also Kyriakos Ioannou a Cypriot high jumper achieved a jump of 2.35 m at the 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics held in Osaka, Japan, in 2007 winning the bronze medal. He was recently ranked as 3rd at international level and 2nd in Europe.

Media

Newspapers include Phileleftheros, Politis (Cyprus), Simerini, Kıbrıs, Cyprus Mail, the Cyprus Observer, Cyprus Today, Cyprus Weekly, Halkın Sesi, Yeni Düzen, Havadis, Haravgi and Kathimerini (in a special Cypriot edition). TV channels include ANT1 Cyprus, Alfa TV, CNC Plus TV, Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, Mega Channel Cyprus, Bayrak, Kanal SIM and Sigma TV.

Research centers

Notable research institutions include: Cyprus Neuroscience and Technology Institute, The Cyprus Institute, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, etc.

Architecture

There are nine churches and one monastery in Troodos that are counted among UNESCO's World Heritage Sites and several other monasteries, of which the Kykkos monastery is the richest and most famous. The churches are:

Stavros tou Ayiasmati

Panayia tou Araka

Timiou Stavrou at Pelendri

Ayios Nikolaos tis Stegis

Panayia Podithou

Assinou

Ayios loannis Lampadistis

Archangel Michael at Pedhoulas

The area has been known since ancient times for its copper mines, and in the Byzantine period it became a great centre of Byzantine art, as churches and monasteries were built in the mountains, away from the threatened coastline.

The three prominent mosques in Cyprus are:

Hala Sultan Tekke

Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque

Arabahmet Mosque

See also

List of international rankings

References

;Notes

;Further reading

External links

; Government

Cyprus High Commission Trade Centre – London

Cypriot Diaspora Project

Republic of Cyprus – English Language

Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus

Press and Information Office

Annan Plan at annanplan.com

Chief of State and Cabinet Members

Cyprus Elections to European Parliament

;Tourism

Read about Cyprus on visitcyprus.com – the official travel portal for Cyprus

Cyprus informational portal and open platform for contribution of Cyprus-related content – www.Cyprus.com

Pictures from Cyprus, updates every day, news, events, pictures

Where is Cyprus

; General information

Cyprus from ''UCB Libraries GovPubs''

Cyprus information from the United States Department of State includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports

The UN in Cyprus

; Official publications

The British government's Foreign Affairs Committee report on Cyprus.

Letter by the President of the Republic, Mr Tassos Papadopoulos, to the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, dated 7 June, which circulated as an official document of the UN Security Council

Legal Issues arising from certain population transfers and displacements on the territory of the Republic of Cyprus in the period since 20 July 1974

Address to Cypriots by President Papadopoulos (FULL TEXT)

The Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office, Aspects of the Cyprus Problem

European Court of Human Rights Case of Cyprus v. Turkey (Application no. 25781/94)

Official Cyprus Government Web Site

Embassy of Greece, USA – Cyprus: Geographical and Historical Background

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Airline	Cyprus AirwaysΚυπριακές Αερογραμμές
Logo	Cyprus Airways Logo.svg
Logo size	250
Company slogan	''We understand why you fly''
Fleet size	13
Destinations	22
Iata	CY
Icao	CYP
Callsign	CYPRUS
Parent	Government of Cyprus
Founded	1947
Headquarters	Nicosia, Cyprus
Key people	George Mavrocostas (CEO)
Hubs
Focus cities
Frequent flyer	SunMiles
Lounge	Executive Lounge
Website	www.cyprusair.com }}

Cyprus Airways (, ''Kypriakés Aerogrammés'' - CY) is the national airline of Cyprus, a public limited company with its head offices located in the capital of the island, Nicosia. It operates scheduled services to 41 destinations in Europe, the Middle East and the Gulf. It flies from both airports of the island, Larnaca and Paphos, with the former serving as a hub. The airline also operates fifth freedom flights from Thessaloniki to Paris. The airline celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2007.

History

Early Years

The airline was established on 24 September 1947 as a joint venture between the colonial government of Cyprus, BEA (British European Airways), and private interests. Operations commenced on 18 April 1948 with three Douglas DC-3 aircraft.The planes, which carried 21 passengers each, flew on a route network centered in Nicosia that soon included Rome, London (via Athens), Beirut, Athens, Cairo, Istanbul, and Haifa. During the next three years the airline purchased an additional three DC-3 aircraft and introduced new services to Alexandria, Amman, Bahrain, Khartoum (via Haifa) and Lydda.

In 1952, BEA took over service to London with an Airspeed Ambassador, which featured Cabin pressurisation that allowed nonstop routing avoiding a stopover in Athens. On 18 April 1953, BEA commenced using its newly delivered Vickers Viscount 701 on their scheduled service from London to Rome and Athens. The continuing sector from Athens to Nicosia was operated by BEA under charter to Cyprus Airways. This route from London to Nicosia was the world's first regular turboprop service.

In 1956, contemplating expansion of its routes, the company ordered two Vickers Viscount 756 aircraft that would be named St Hilarion (registration G-APCD) and Buffavento (G-APCE), but eventually it decided to sell them before receiving them because of the uncertain political situation in Cyprus. It also decided to sell all the Douglas DC-3 and Auster aircraft in September 1957 and enter into a five-year agreement with BEA for the latter to operate services on behalf of Cyprus Airways.

BEA took over the operation of all Cyprus Airways services effective 26 January 1958 by special arrangement.

Independence in 1960

The government of newly independent Cyprus became the majority shareholder in 1960 with a 53.2 percent holding, while BEA's stake was reduced to 22.7 percent and private individuals held the rest. Thereafter, Cypriot nationals began to be hired and trained for the flight crews, which had previously been made up of British expatriates from BEA.

Cyprus Airways still relied on the U.K. airline for aircraft. BEA began introducing Comet 4B jets on all routes in 1961 via a joint aircraft pool arrangement that included Greece's Olympic Airways.

On 5 April 1960, BEA introduced de Havilland Comet 4B aircraft on the Nicosia, Athens, Rome, and London routes. Cyprus Airways with the introduction of the Comets became the first airline in the middle east to have jet airplanes. The Comets flew in the BEA livery, but had the Cyprus Airways logo and title affixed above their doors.

In 1965, Cyprus began leasing its own Viscounts from BEA for regional routes. Around this time, a winged mountain goat, the flying mouflon, was adopted for the airline's logo.

The Comet and Viscount aircraft were replaced with five Trident jets three of them acquired from BEA. The first Hawker Siddeley Trident jet was introduced in September 1969. Cyprus also leased a BAC 1-11. The faster planes allowed more European trade centres (Frankfurt, Manchester, Brussels, and Paris) to be added to the timetable.

1974

At the start of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the attack on Nicosia airport caught all five of Cyprus Airways aircraft on the ground. Of the four Tridents stranded at Nicosia International Airport., one was destroyed by Turkish Air force rocket fire and wreckage of its tail still exists at that airport and one was damaged by small arms fire remaining in the same position today as it did in 1974 slowly decaying. The two other Tridents were only lightly damaged by small arms fire and were flown out of Nicosia by British Airways engineers to the United Kingdom in 1977. One of these is now on display at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, England, although it has been returned to its original BEA livery. Also flown out was the company's BAC1-11 which was claimed by the insurers of the lessor, Court-Line, which had gone bankrupt. That aircraft returned to Cyprus Airways in 1978 and served with the company until 1995.

All of the Cypriot airline's operations had to be suspended following the end of the hostilities in 1974 because the Nicosia International Airport, the only airport of the island, had to be closed. Although the Turkish troops had failed to capture it, they were close enough to it to demand that it not be reopened. The government of Cyprus then moved quickly to build a small terminal by a runway in Larnaca and Cyprus Airways restarted limited operations from there on 8 February 1975.The airline leased Viscount turboprops to fly a stripped down route network to a few key cities in the region: Beirut, Tel Aviv, and Athens via Heraklion, with connections to London on British Airways. Cyprus Airways leased a pair of DC-9 jets in August 1975 to resume its own flights to London (via Salonika). The acquisition of a DC-8 several months later allowed for non-stop service. Cyprus also added flights to Saudi Arabia at this time. The company was soon able to order a pair of new BAC 1-11s, added to the sister aircraft already in the fleet.

The airline ordered still more different aircraft types in the late 1970s which replaced some earlier aircraft coming off lease.

Expansion in the 1980s

By 1981, Cyprus's fleet included four Boeing 707-123B (1979–1989) and three BAC One-Eleven 500. The route network again extended from Manchester, England, to Baghdad. A change in ownership structure had taken place, with British Airways selling all but 5 percent of the shares it had inherited from BEA to the Cypriot government. Private investors owned the remainder (24.14 percent).

Cyprus made a transition to Airbus aircraft over the course of the decade. Its first A310 widebodies arrived in 1984, followed by A320s in 1989. The order for the eight A320s was worth more than DEM 250 million.

Cyprus Airways was one of the first airlines to operate the Airbus A310, the eighth airline in the world to receive the Airbus A320, and the first airline that launched the IAE V2500 engine along with Adria Airways.

Profits reached record levels in the mid-1980s as the airline added service from new U.K. cities (Cardiff, Newcastle, and Glasgow). Income of CYP 4.8 million (DEM 8 million) in 1983, a record, would be tripled three years later. By this time, the airline was carrying 740,000 passengers a year.

1990s

British Airways divested the last of its shares in 1991, leaving the government with an 80.46 percent stake and private investors, the remainder. The airline was flying high, introducing a livery and uniforms as the Airbuses plied new routes to Berlin and Helsinki. Cyprus Airways had also joined the SABRE international computer reservations system and set up a tour operation in the United Kingdom.

In 1992 the group established Eurocypria Airlines Ltd. to fly European tourists to Cyprus on a charter basis. It was expanding into ancillary services as well, taking over duty-free operations at Larnaca and Pafos airports.

Cyprus added many new cooperation agreements with other airlines as it developed its international reach by linking Europe and the Middle East. Its partners included KLM and Saudia. By the mid-1990s, more than one million passengers were flying Cyprus Airways every year; another 4,000 chose the charter operation Eurocypria. The airline's market share approached 40 percent. After a rough couple of years, the company posted a CYP 13 million profit in 1994 thanks to cost-cutting and marketing efforts.

New Millennium

The airline introduced a restyled livery, as it embarked on an ambitious fleet renewal programme. Two new Airbus A319s, smaller than its other aircraft, were added in 2002. The next year, two new Airbus A330s replaced the older A310s on long-haul routes. A fleet of four Boeing 737s was chosen for the Eurocypria charter subsidiary, however, with two further similar aircraft added in 2004 and 2005. A feature of the new Eurocypria aircraft was that each had a different colour on its tail. In the meantime, the A320s owned by Cyprus Airways but leased to Eurocypria were returned to the parent company.

In 2002, the Cypriot government lowered its ownership stake to 69.62 percent.

Cyprus Airways founded Hellas Jet in Athens (Greece) in 2003, never making a profit. It held a 75% share of that carrier until all of the shares were sold to Air Miles in 2005.

In 2006, the government of Cyprus bought Eurocypria because Cyprus Airways started facing severe financial problems.

According to the airline's 2010 financial results the operating loss for 2010 was €4,9 million in comparison to a loss of €5,4 million in 2009. On 28 June 2011 Cyprus Airways issued a profits warning to the Cyprus Stock Exchange, attributing this to the "the continuing financial crisis and to the further significant increase in fuel prices."

Code-share agreement with Virgin Atlantic

As of July 25, Cyprus Airways has signed a code-share agreement with Virgin Atlantic Airways. The Cypriot market will be able to travel to Boston New York and Los Angeles on behalf of Virgin, with connecting flights at London Heathrow Airport. Passengers will fly from Cyprus to London, and then from London to the new American destinatons on Virgin. Virgin will also code-share flights between London and Larnaca on behalf of Cyprus Airways.

Present

Cyprus Airways is owned by the government of Cyprus (69.62%) and private shareholders (30.38%) and has 1,210 employees (October 2010).

Destinations

Cyprus Airways serves 41 destinations in 15 countries in two continents. As a part of the code-share agreement between Cyprus Airways and Olympic Air, Cyprus Airways shares the routes to some of the Greek island with Olympic Air.

Codeshare agreements

Cyprus Airways has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

Aeroflot (SkyTeam)

Alitalia (SkyTeam)

Etihad Airways

Gulf Air

KLM (SkyTeam)

Olympic Air

Syrian Air

TAROM (SkyTeam)

Virgin Atlantic (as of July 25, 2011)

Fleet

As of July 2011, the Cyprus Airways fleet consists of the following aircraft with an average age of 7.9 years:

All of Cyprus Airways aircraft bear names of important persons from the island's ancient history, Greek mythology, or cities either modern or ancient.

Past Fleet

7 x Airbus A320 (1989–2011) - This type has not been phased out from the fleet, but the original aircraft, except one, were replaced by the current new A320s.

4 x Airbus A310 (1984–2004)

2 x Airspeed Oxford (1953–1955)

2 x Airspeed Ambassador

2 x Auster Alpine

3 x BAC One-Eleven 500

5 x Boeing 707-123B (1979–1989)

4 x Boeing 720 (1976–1979)

Bristol Britannia 253

1 x Canadair CL44 D4-1 Freighter

De Havilland Comet

6 x Douglas DC-3 Dakota (operated between 1947-1957 named Salamis, Amathus, Citium, Curium, Alasia and Paphos)

Douglas DC-6B Freighter

Douglas DC-8-52

Douglas DC-9-15

2 x Hawker Siddeley Trident 1E

3 x Hawker Siddeley Trident 2E

Vickers Viscount 806

Livery

The airline's livery is an all white fuselage with the words 'CYPRUS AIRWAYS' in blue over the front passenger windows. The vertical stabilizer is blue with a number of yellow lines depicting a galloping Cypriot mouflon, a type of sheep only found in Cyprus. This logo is also painted on the engines of the aircraft.

Services

Catering

Food and beverages served on flights from Cyprus are provided by Cyprus Airways Catering facilities in Larnaca. Meals are selected of an array of International and Cyprus tastes.

In-flight entertainment

Cyprus Airways in-flight entertainment system is equipped with personal TVs (PTVs) in every seat in the Airbus A330 aircraft.In the Airbus A320 larger screens averaging for a number of passengers are placed in an even distance along the aircraft so everyone can have a clear view and the sound is provided through personal headsets given by the cabin crew. Screens have a moving-map system which provides real-time flight information such position and direction of the plane,altitude,airspeed,distance to destination, distance from origination and local time.

Business Class

Business Class is named after the ancient Greek god Apollo who was a symbol of harmony, order, and reason. Apollo class has wide leather seats that reclines up to 45 in (110 cm) of pitch and feature electrical recline and leg rest. Apollo class passengers also have access to the Sunjet executive lounge at both Larnaca and Paphos airports.

Business Class of Cyprus airways include to the passenger his own personal entertainment system built into the armrest console of a high standard seats. Additionally meal being served to business class passengers is selected from international and cyprus cuisine. Moreover there is an array of drinks and mostly selected wines to satisfy the traveler.

Economy Class

Economy Class is named after the ancient Greek goddess Aphrodite who according to Greek mythology, was born of the shores of paphos on the island of Cyprus and was a symbol of beauty, elegance, sex and love. Cyprus Airways' Aphrodite (economy) Class offers a seat pitch of 30-31 inches on short-haul aircraft and 31-32 inches on the long-haul Airbus A330.

Depending on the destination and time you are flying, a hot breakfast, lunch or cold snack is served. The tray includes a seasonal salad and dessert, as well as crackers and cheese. A selection of complimentary drinks, including coffee or tea and soft drinks will also be offered.

SunMiles

SunMiles is the frequent flyer programme of Cyprus Airways. There are four tiers of membership: Student, Regular, Premier, and Elite. Points are organisely credited per each one way flight on Cyprus airways. Economy class passenger gains 1 point per kiliometre and Business class passenger gains 1,5 points per kiliometre.

Awards

Cyprus Airways has been awarded the ‘Commitment to Excellence in Europe’ award by the European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) in 2007.

Cyprus Airways was also awarded the 'IATA Best In-flight Programming for a European airline' award.

Incidents

In 1967, Cyprus Airways Flight 284 broke up in midair on a flight between Athens and Nicosia most likely as a result of the detonation of an explosive device, with the loss of 66 lives. The de Havilland Comet was owned and operated by British European Airways (BEA) although cabin staff were Cyprus Airways employees.

References

External links

Official website

Cyprus Airways Engineering site

Category:Airlines of Cyprus Category:IATA members Category:Association of European Airlines members Category:Airlines established in 1947 Category:Government-owned airlines

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Name	Elefthérios Venizélos Ελευθέριος Βενιζέλος
Order	Prime Minister of Greece
Monarch	George IConstantine I
Term start	6 October 1910
Predecessor	Stephanos Dragoumis
Term end	25 February 1915
Successor	Dimitrios Gounaris
Monarch1	Constantine I
Term start1	10 August 1915
Predecessor1	Dimitrios Gounaris
Term end1	24 September 1915
Successor1	Alexandros Zaimis
Monarch2	Alexander
Regent2	Pavlos Kountouriotis
Term start2	14 June 1917
Predecessor2	Alexandros Zaimis
Term end2	4 November 1920
Successor2	Dimitrios Rallis
Monarch3	George II
Term start3	24 January 1924
Predecessor3	Stylianos Gonatas
Term end3	19 February 1924
Successor3	Georgios Kafantaris
President4	Pavlos KountouriotisAlexandros Zaimis
Term start4	4 July 1928
Predecessor4	Alexandros Zaimis
Term end4	26 May 1932
Successor4	Alexandros Papanastasiou
President5	Alexandros Zaimis
Term start5	5 June 1932
Predecessor5	Alexandros Papanastasiou
Term end5	4 November 1932
Successor5	Panagis Tsaldaris
President6	Alexandros Zaimis
Term start6	16 January 1933
Predecessor6	Panagis Tsaldaris
Term end6	6 March 1933
Successor6	Alexandros Othonaios
Order7	Prime Minister of the Cretan State
Term start7	2 May 1910
Term end7	6 October 1910
Predecessor7	Alexandros Zaimis (as High Commissioner)
Order8	Minister of Justice and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Cretan State
Term start8	1908
Term end8	1910
Order9	Minister of Justice of the Cretan State
Term start9	17 April 1899
Term end9	18 March 1901
Birth date	August 23, 1864
Birth place	Mournies, Crete, Ottoman Empire(now Eleftherios Venizelos, Crete, Greece)
Death date	March 18, 1936
Death place	Paris, France
Nationality	Greek
Party	Liberal Party
Spouse	Maria Katelouzou (1891-1894)Elena Skylitsi (1921-1936)
Relations	Constantine Mitsotakis (nephew)
Children	Kyriakos VenizelosSophoklis Venizelos
Alma mater	National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Profession	StatesmanPoliticianRevolutionaryMember of ParliamentLegislatorLawyerJuristJournalistWriterTranslator
Religion	Greek Orthodoxy
Signature	Venizelos_signature2.png
Website	National Foundation Research "Eleftherios K. Venizelos"
Footnotes	}}

Eleftherios Venizelos (full name ''Elefthérios Kyriákou Venizélos'', Greek: Ἐλευθέριος Κυριάκου Βενιζέλος; ; 23 August 1864 – 18 March 1936) was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century. Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932. Venizelos had such profound influence on the internal and external affairs of Greece that he is credited with being "the maker of modern Greece", and he is still widely known as the "Ethnarch".

His first entry into the international scene was with his significant role in the autonomy of the Cretan State and later in the union of Crete with Greece. Soon, he was invited to Greece to resolve the political deadlock and became the country's Prime Minister. Not only did he initiate constitutional and economic reforms that set the basis for the modernization of Greek society, but also reorganized both army and navy in preparation of future conflicts. Before the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, Venizelos' catalytic role helped gain Greece entrance to the Balkan League, an alliance of the Balkan states against Ottoman Turkey. Through his diplomatic acumen, Greece doubled her area and population with the liberation of Macedonia, Epirus, and the rest of the Aegean islands.

In World War I (1914–1918), he brought Greece on the side of the Allies, further expanding the Greek borders. However, his pro-Allied foreign policy brought him in direct conflict with the monarchy, causing the National Schism. The Schism polarized the population between the royalists and Venizelists and the struggle for power between the two groups afflicted the political and social life of Greece for decades. Following the Allied victory, Venizelos secured new territorial gains, especially in Anatolia, coming close to realize the ''Megali Idea''. Despite his achievements, Venizelos was defeated in the 1920 General Election, which contributed to the eventual Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922). Venizelos, in self-imposed exile, represented Greece in the negotiations that led to the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, and the agreement of a mutual exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey.

In his subsequent periods in office Venizelos succeeded in restoring normal relations with Greece's neighbors and expanded his constitutional and economical reforms. In 1935 Venizelos resurfaced out of retirement to support a military coup and its failure severely weakened the Second Hellenic Republic, the republic he had created.

Origins and early years

Ancestors

In the eighteenth century the ancestors of Venizelos were surnamed Cravvatas and lived at Mistra (Sparta). During the Albanian raids in Peloponnesus in 1770, a member of the Cravvatas family, Venizelos Cravvatas, the youngest of several brothers, managed to escape to Crete where he established himself. His sons discarded their patronymic and called themselves Venizelos.

Family and education

Eleftherios was born in Mournies, near Chania (also known as Canea) in then–Ottoman Crete to Kyriakos Venizelos, a Cretan revolutionary. When the Cretan revolution of 1866 broke out, Venizelos' family fled to the island of Syros, due to the participation of his father in the revolution. They were not allowed to return to Crete, and stayed in Syros until 1872, when Abdülaziz granted an amnesty.

He spent his final year of secondary education at a school in Ermoupolis in Syros from which he received his Certificate in 1880. In 1881 he enrolled at the University of Athens Law School and got his degree in Law with excellent grades. He returned to Crete in 1886 and worked as a lawyer in Chania. Throughout his life he maintained a passion for reading and was constantly improving his skills in English, Italian, German and French.

Entry into politics

The situation in Crete during Venizelos' early years was fluid. The Turkish government was undermining the reforms, which were made under international pressure, while the Cretans desired to see the Sultan, Abdul Hamid II, abandon ''"the ungrateful infidels"''. Under these unstable conditions Venizelos entered into politics in the elections of 2 April 1889 as a member of the island's liberal party. As a deputy he was distinguished for his eloquence and his radical opinions.

Political career in Crete

The Cretan uprising

Background

The numerous revolutions in Crete, during and after the Greek War of Independence, (1821, 1833, 1841, 1858, 1866, 1878, 1889, 1895, 1897) were the result of the Cretans' desire for Enosis — Union with Greece. In the Cretan revolution of 1866, the two sides, under the pressure of the Great Powers, came to an agreement, which was finalized in the Pact of Chalepa. Later the Pact was included in the provisions of the Treaty of Berlin, which was supplementing previous concessions granted to the Cretans — e.g. the Organic Law Constitution (1868) designed by William James Stillman. In summary the Pact was granting a large degree of self-government to Greeks in Crete as a means of limiting their desire to rise up against their Ottoman overlords. However the Muslims of Crete, who identified with Ottoman Turkey, were not satisfied with these reforms, as in their view the administration of the island was delivered to the hands of the Christian Greek population. In practice, the Ottoman Empire failed to enforce the provisions of the Pact, thus fueling the existing tensions between the two communities; instead, the Ottoman authorities attempted to maintain order by the dispatching of substantial military reinforcements during 1880–1896. Throughout that period, the ''Cretan Question'' was a major issue of friction in the relations of independent Greece with the Ottoman Empire.

In January 1897 violence and disorder were escalating on the island, thus polarizing the population. Massacres against the Christian population took place in Chania and Rethimno. The Greek government, pressured by public opinion, intransigent political elements, extreme nationalist groups, Ethniki Etairia, and the reluctance of the Great Powers to intervene, decided to send warships and army personnel to defend the Cretan Greeks. The Great Powers had no option then but to proceed with the occupation of the island, but they were late. A Greek force of about 2,000 men had landed at Kolymbari on 3 February 1897, and its commanding officer, Colonel Timoleon Vassos declared that he was taking over the island "in the name of the King of the Hellenes" and that he was announcing the union of Crete with Greece. This led to an uprising that spread immediately throughout the island. The Great Powers decided to blockade Crete with their fleets and land their troops, thus stopping the Greek army from approaching Chania.

The events at Akrotiri

Venizelos, at that time, was in a electoral tour of the island. Once, he ''"saw Canea in flames"'', he hurried to Malaxa, near Chania, where a group of about 2,000 rebels had assembled, and established himself as their header. He proposed an attack, along with other rebels, on the Turkish forces at Akrotiri in order to displace them from the plains (Malaxa is in a higher altitude). Venizelos' subsequent actions at Akrotiri form a central set-piece in his myth. People composed poems on Akrotiri and his role there; editorials and articles spoke about his bravery, his visions and his diplomatic genius as inevitable accompaniment of later greatness. Venizelos spent the night in Akrotiri and a Greek flag was raised. The Turkish forces requested help from the foreign admirals and attacked the rebels, with the ships of the Great Powers bombarding the rebel positions at Akrotiri. A shell threw down the flag, which was raised up again immediately. The mythologizing became more pronounced when we come to his actions in that February, as the following quotes display:

In the same evening of the bombardment, Venizelos wrote a protest to the foreign admirals, which was signed by all the chieftains present at Akrotiri. He wrote that the rebels would keep their positions until everyone is killed from the shells of European warships, in order not to let the Turks remain in Crete. The letter was deliberately leaked to international newspapers, evoking emotional reactions in Greece and in Europe, where the idea of Christians, who wanted their freedom, being bombarded by Christian vessels, caused popular indignation. Throughout western Europe much popular sympathy for the cause of the Christians in Crete was manifested, and much popular applause was bestowed on the Greeks.

The war in Thessaly

The Great Powers sent a verbal note on 2 March to the governments of Greece and the Ottoman Empire, presenting a possible solution to the "Cretan Question", under which Crete to become an autonomous state under the suzerainty of the Sultan. The Porte replied on 5 March, accepting the proposals in principle, but on 8 March the Greek government rejected the proposal as a non-satisfactory solution and instead insisted on the union of Crete with Greece as the only solution.

Venizelos, as a representative of the Cretan rebels, met the admirals of the Great Powers on a Russian warship on 7 March 1897. Even though no progress was made at the meeting, he persuaded the admirals to send him on a tour of the island, under their protection, in order to explore the people's opinions on the question of autonomy versus union. At the time, the majority of the Cretan population initially supported the union, but the subsequent events in Thessaly turned the public opinion towards autonomy as an intermediate step.

In reaction to the rebellion of Crete and the assistance sent by Greece, the Ottomans had relocated a significant part of their army in the Balkans to the north of Thessaly, close to the borders with Greece. Greece in reply reinforced its borders in Thessaly. However, irregular Greek forces, who were members of the ''Ethniki Etairia'' (followers of the ''Megali Idea'') acted without orders and raided Turkish outposts, leading the Ottoman Empire to declare war on Greece on 17 April. The war was a disaster for Greece. The Turkish army was better prepared, in large part due to the recent reforms carried out by a German mission under Baron von der Goltz, and the Greek army was in retreat within weeks. The Great Powers again intervened and an armistice was signed in May 1897.

Conclusion

The defeat of Greece in the Greco-Turkish war, costing small territorial losses at the border line in northern Thessaly and an indemnity of £4,000,000, turned into a diplomatic victory. The Great Powers (Britain, France, Russia, and Italy), following the massacre in Heraklion on 25 August, imposed a final solution on the "Cretan Question"; Crete was proclaimed an autonomous state under Ottoman suzerainty.

Venizelos played an important role towards this solution, not only as the leader of the Cretan rebels but also as a skilled diplomat with his frequent communication with the admirals of the Great Powers. The four Great Powers assumed the administration of Crete; and Prince George of Greece, the second son of King George I of Greece, became High Commissioner, with Venizelos serving as his minister of Justice from 1899 to 1901.

Autonomous Cretan State

Prince George was appointed High Commissioner of the Cretan State for a three-year term. On 13 December 1898, he arrived at Chania, where he received an unprecedented reception. On 27 April 1899, the High Commissioner created an Executive Committee composed of the Cretan leaders. Venizelos became minister of Justice and with the rest of the Committee, they began to organize the State. After Venizelos submitted the complete juridical legislation on 18 May 1900, disagreements between him and Prince George began to emerge.

Prince George decided to travel to Europe and announced to the Cretan population that ''"When I am traveling in Europe I shall ask the Powers for annexation, and I hope to succeed on account of my family connections"''. The statement reached the public without the knowledge or approval of the Committee. Venizelos said to the Prince that it would not be proper to give hope to the population for something that wasn't feasible at the given moment. As Venizelos had expected, during the Prince's journey, the Great Powers rejected his request.

The disagreements continued on other topics; the Prince wanted to build a palace, but Venizelos strongly opposed it as that would mean perpetuation of the current arrangement of Governorship; Cretans accepted it only as temporary, until a final solution was found. Relations between the two men became increasingly soured, and Venizelos repeatedly submitted his resignation.

In a meeting of the Executive Committee, Venizelos expressed his opinion that the island was not in essence autonomous, since militarily forces of the Great Powers were still present, and that the Great Powers were governing thought their representative, the Prince. Venizelos suggested that once the Prince's service expired, then the Great Powers should be invited to the Committee, which, according to article 39 of the constitution (which was suppressed in the conference of Rome) would elect a new sovereign, thereby removing the need for the presence of the Great Powers. Once the Great Powers' troops left the island along with the their representatives, then the union with Greece would be easier to achieve. This proposal was exploited by Venizelos' opponents, who accused him that he wanted Crete as an autonomous hegemony. Venizelos replied to the accusations by submitting once again his resignation, with the reasoning that for him it would be impossible henceforth to collaborate with the Committee's members; he assured the Commissioner however that he did not intend to join the opposition.

On 6 March 1901, in a report, he exposed the reasons that compelled him to resign to the High Commissioner, which was however leaked to the press. On 20 March, Venizelos was dismissed, because ''"he, without any authorization, publicly supported opinions opposite of those of the Commissioner"''. Henceforth, Venizelos assumed the leadership of the opposition to the Prince. For the next three years, he carried out a hard political conflict, until the administration was virtually paralyzed and tensions dominated the island. Inevitably, these events led in March 1905 to the Theriso Revolution, whose leader he was.

Revolution of Theriso

On 10 March 1905, the rebels gathered in Theriso and declared "the political union of Crete with Greece as a single free constitutional state"; the resolution was given to the Great Powers, where it was argued that the illegitimate provisional arrangement was preventing the island's economic growth and that the only logical solution to the "Cretan Question" was the unification with Greece. The High Commissioner, with the approval of the Great Powers, replied to the rebels that military force would be used against them. However, more deputies joined with Venizelos in Theriso. The Great Powers' consuls met with Venizelos in Mournies in an attempt to achieve an agreement, but without any results.

The revolutionary government asked that Crete be granted a regime similar to that of Eastern Rumelia. On 18 July, the Great Powers declared martial law, but that did not discourage the rebels. On 15 August, the regular assembly in Chania voted in favor of most of the reforms that Venizelos proposed. The Great Powers' consuls met Venizelos again and accepted the reforms he had proposed. This led to the end of the Theriso revolt and to the resignation of Prince George as the High Commissioner. The Great Powers assigned the authority for selecting the island's new High Commissioner to King George I of Greece, thereby ''de facto'' nullifying the Ottoman suzerainty. An ex-Prime Minister of Greece, Alexandros Zaimis, was chosen for the place of High Commissioner, and Greek officers and non-commissioned officers were allowed to undertake the organization of the Cretan Gendarmerie. As soon as the Gendarmerie was organized, the foreign troops began to withdraw from the island. This was also a personal victory for Venizelos, who as a result achieved fame not only in Greece but also in Europe.

Following the Young Turk Revolution, Bulgaria declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire on 5 October 1908, and one day later Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria announced the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Encouraged by these events, on the same day, the Cretans in turn rose up. Thousands of citizens in Chania and the surrounding regions on that day formed a rally, in which Venizelos declared the union of Crete with Greece. Having communicated with the government of Athens, Zaimis left for Athens before the rally.

An assembly was convened and declared the independence of Crete. The civil servants were sworn in the name of King George I of Greece, while a five-member Executive Committee was established, with the authority to control the island on behalf of the King and according to the laws of the Greek state. Chairman of the committee was Antonios Michelidakis and Venizelos became Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs. In April 1910 a new assembly was convened and Venizelos was elected chairman and then Prime Minister. All foreign troops departed from Crete and power was transferred entirely to Venizelos' government.

Political Career in Greece

Goudi military revolution of 1909

In May 1909, a number of officers in the Greek army emulating the Young Turk Committee of Union and Progress, sought to reform their country's national government and reorganize the army, thus creating the Military League. The League, in August 1909, camped in the Athenian suburb of Goudi with their supporters forcing the government of Dimitrios Rallis to resign and a new one was formed with Kiriakoulis Mavromichalis. An inaugurating period of direct military pressure upon the Chamber followed, but initial public support to the League quickly evaporated when it became apparent that the officers did not know how to implement their demands. The political dead-end remained until the League invited Venizelos from Crete to undertake the leadership.

Venizelos went to Athens and after consulting with the Military League and with representatives of the political world, he proposed a new government and Parliament's reformation. His proposals were considered by the King and the Greek politicians dangerous for the political establishment. However, King George I, fearing an escalation of the crisis, convened a council with political leaders, and recommended them to accept Venizelos' proposals. After many postponements the King agreed to assign Stephanos Dragoumis (Venizelos' indication) to form a new government that would lead the country to elections once the League was disbanded. In the elections of 8 August 1910, almost half the seats in the parliament were won by Independents, who were newcomers to the Greek political scene. Venizelos despite doubts as to the validity of his Greek citizenship and without having campaigned in person finished at the top at the electoral list in Attica. He was immediately recognized as the leader of the independents and thus he founded the political party, ''Komma Fileleftheron'' (Liberal Party). Soon after his election he decided to call for new elections in hope of winning an absolute majority. The old parties boycotted the new election in protest and on 28 November 1910, Venizelos' party won 300 seats out of 362, with most of the elected citizens being new in the political scene. Venizelos formed a government and started to reorganize the economic, political, and national affairs of the country.

The reforms in 1910-1914

Venizelos tried to advance his reform program in the realms of political and social ideologies, of education, and literature, by adopting practically viable compromises between often conflicting tendencies. In education, for example, the dynamic current in favor of the use of the popular spoken language, dimotiki, provoked conservative reactions, which led to the constitutionally embedded decision (Article 107) in favor of a formal "purified" language, katharevousa, which looked back to classical precedents.

On 20 May 1911, a revision of the Constitution was completed, which focused on strengthening individual freedoms, introducing measures to facilitate the legislative work of the Parliament, establishing of obligatory elementary education, the legal right for compulsory expropriation, ensuring permanent appointment for civil servants, the right to invite foreign personnel to undertake the reorganization of the administration and the armed forces, the re-establishment of the State Council and the simplification of the procedures for the reform of the Constitution. The aim of the reform program was to consolidate public security and rule of law as well as to develop and increase the wealth-producing potential of the country. In this context, the long planned "eighth" Ministry, the Ministry of National Economy, assumed a leading role. This Ministry, from the time of its creation at the beginning of 1911, was headed by Emmanuel Benakis, a wealthy Greek merchant from Egypt and friend of Venizelos. Between 1911 and 1912 a number of laws aiming to initiate labor legislation in Greece were promulgated. Specific measures were enacted that prohibited child labor and night-shift work for women, that regulated the hours of the working week and the Sunday holiday, and allowed for labor organizations. Venizelos also took measures for the improvement of management, justice and security and for the settlement of the landless peasants of Thessaly.

The Balkan Wars

Background

At the time there were diplomatic contacts with Turks to initiate reforms in Macedonia and in Thrace, which at the time were under the control of the Ottoman Empire, for improving the living conditions of the Christian populations. Failure of such reforms would leave as a single option to remove Turkey from the Balkans, an idea that most Balkan countries shared. This scenario appeared realistic to Venizelos, because Turkey was under a constitutional transition and its administrative mechanism was disorganized and weakened. There was also no fleet capable of transporting forces from Asia Minor to Europe, while in contrast the Greek fleet was dominating the Aegean Sea. Venizelos did not want to initiate any immediate major movements in the Balkans, until the Greek army and navy were reorganized (an effort that had begun from the last government of Georgios Theotokis) and the Greek economy was revitalized. In light of this, Venizelos proposed to Turkey to recognize the Cretans the right to send deputies to the Greek Parliament, as a solution for closing the ''Cretan Question''. However, the Young Turks (feeling confident after the Greco-Turkish war in 1897) threatened that they would make a military walk to Athens, if the Greeks insisted on such claims.

Balkan League

Venizelos, seeing no improvements after his approach with the Turks on the ''Cretan Question'' and at the same time not wanting to see Greece remain inactive as in the Russo-Turkish War in 1877 (where Greece's neutrality left the country out of the peace talks), he decided that the only way to settle the disputes with Turkey, was to join the other Balkan countries, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro, in an alliance known as the Balkan League. Crown Prince Constantine was sent to represent Greece to a royal feast in Sofia, and in 1911 Bulgarian students were invited to Athens. These events had a positive impact and on 30 May 1912 Greece and Bulgaria signed a treaty that ensured mutual support in case of a Turkish attack on either country. Negotiations with Serbia, which Venizelos had initiated to achieve a similar agreement, were concluded in early 1913, before that there were only oral agreements.

Montenegro opened hostilities by declaring war on Turkey on 8 October 1912. On 18 September 1912, Greece along with her Balkan allies declared war on Turkey, thus joining the First Balkan War. On 1 October, in a regular session of the Parliament Venizelos announced the declaration of war to Turkey and accepting the Cretan deputies, thus closing the ''Cretan Question'', with the declaration of the union of Crete with Greece. The Greek population received these developments very enthusiastically.

First Balkan War - The first conflict with Prince Constantine

The outbreak of the First Balkan war caused Venizelos a great deal of trouble in his relations with Crown Prince Constantine. Part of the problems can be attributed to the complexity of the official relations between the two men. Although Constantine was a Prince and the future King, he also held the title of army commander, thus remaining under the direct order of the Ministry of Defence, and subsequently under Venizelos. But his father, King George, in accordance to the constitutional conditions of the time had been the undisputed leader of the country. Thus in practical terms Venizelos' authority over his commander of the army was diminished due to the obvious relation between the Crown Prince and the King.

In these conditions the army started a victorious march to Macedonia under the commands of Constantine. Soon the first disagreement between Venizelos and Constantine emerged, and it concerned the aims of the army's operations. The Crown Prince insisted on the clear military aims of the war: to defeat the opposed Ottoman army as a necessary condition for any occupation, wherever the opponent army was or was going; and the main part of the Ottoman army soon started retreating to the north towards Monastir. Venizelos was more realistic and insisted on the political aims of the war: to liberate as many geographical areas and cities as fast as possible, particularly Macedonia and Thessaloniki; thus heading east. The debate became evident after the victory of the Greek army at Sarantaporo, when the future direction of the armys' march was to be decided. Venizelos intervened and insisted that Thessaloniki, as a major city and strategic port in the surrounding area, should be taken at all costs and thus a turn to the east was necessary. In accordance to his views, Venizelos sent the following telegraph to the General Staff:

and tried to keep frequent communication with the key figure, the King, in order to prevent the Prince from marching north. Subsequently, although the Greek army won the Giannitsa battle situated 40 km west of Salonika, the Constantine's hesitation in capturing the city after a week had passed, led into a open confrontation with Venizelos. Venizelos, having accurate information from the Greek embassy in Sofia about the movement of the Bulgarian army towards the city, sent a telegram to Constantine in a strict tone, holding him responsible for the possible loss of Thessaloniki. The tone in Venizelos' telegram and that in the answer from Constantine that followed to announce the final agreement with the Turks, is widely considered as the start of the conflict between the two men that would lead Greece into the National Schism during World War I. Finally on 26 October 1912, the Greek army entered Thessaloniki, shortly ahead of the Bulgarians. But soon a new reason of friction emerged due to Venizelos' concern about Constantine's acceptance of the Bulgarian request to enter the city. A small Bulgarian unit, which soon became a full division moved into the city and immediately started an attempt to establish a condominium in spite of initial assurances to the contrary, showing no intentions to leave. After Venizelos' protest Constantine asked him to take the responsibility (as a prime minister) by ordering him to force them out, but that was hardly an option since that would certainly lead to confrontation with the Bulgarians. To Venizelos' view, since Constantine allowed the Bulgarians to enter the city, he now passed the responsibility of a possible conflict with them to him, in an attempt to deny his initial fault. To Constantine, it was an attempt by Venizelos to get involved in clearly military issues. Most historians agree that Constantine failed to see the political dimensions of his decisions. As a consequence both incidents increased mutual misunderstanding, shortly before Constantine's accession to the throne.

Once the campaign in Macedonia was completed, a large part of the Greek army under the Crown Prince was redeployed to Epirus, and in the Battle of Bizani the Ottoman positions were overcome and Ioannina taken on 22 February 1913. Meanwhile the Greek navy rapidly occupied the Aegean islands still under Ottoman rule. After two victories, the Greek fleet established naval supremacy over the Aegean preventing the Turks from bringing reinforcements to the Balkans.

On 20 November, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria signed a truce treaty with Turkey. It followed a conference in London, in which Greece took part, although the Greek army still continued its operations in the Epirus front. The conference led to the Treaty of London between the Balkan countries and Turkey. Τhese two conferences gave the first indications of Venizelos' diplomatic efficiency and realism. During the negotiations and facing the dangers of Bulgarian maximalism, Venizelos succeeded in establishing close relations with the Serbs. A Serbian-Greek military protocol was signed on the 1 June 1913 ensuring mutual protection in case of a Bulgarian attack.

Second Balkan War

Despite all this, the Bulgarians still wanted to become an hegemonic power in the Balkans and made excessive claims to this end, while Serbia asked for more territory than what was initially agreed with the Bulgarians. Serbia was asking for a revision of the original treaty, since it had already lost north Albania due to the Great Powers' decision to establish the state of Albania, in an area that had been recognized as a Serbian territory of expansion under the prewar Serbo-Bulgarian treaty. Bulgarians also laid claims on Thessaloniki and most of Macedonia. In the conference of London, Venizelos rebuffed these claims, citing the fact that it had been occupied by the Greek army, and that Bulgaria had denied any definite settlement of territorial claims during the pre-war discussions, as it had done with Serbia.

The rupture between the allies, due to the Bulgarian claims, was inevitable, and Bulgaria found herself standing against Greece and Serbia. On 19 May 1913, a pact of alliance was signed in Thessaloniki between Greece and Serbia. On 19 June, the Second Balkan War began with a surprise Bulgarian assault against Serbian and Greek positions. Constantine, now King after his father's assassination in March, neutralized the Bulgarian forces in Thessaloniki and pushed the Bulgarian army further back with a series of hard-fought victories. Bulgaria was overwhelmed by the Greek and Serbian armies, while in the north the Romanian army was marching towards Sofia; the Bulgarians asked for truce. Venizelos went to Hadji-Beylik, where the Greek headquarters were, to confer with Constantine on the Greek territorial claims in the peace conference. Then he went to Bucharest, where a peace conference was assembled. On 28 June 1913 a peace treaty was signed with Greece, Montenegro, Serbia and Romania on one side and Bulgaria on the other. Thus, after two successful wars, Greece had doubled its territory by gaining most of Macedonia, Epirus, Crete and the rest of the Aegean islands, although the status of the latter remained as yet undetermined and a cause of tension with the Ottomans.

World War I and Greece

Dispute over Greece's role in World War I

With the break of World War I and the Austro-Hungarian invasion in Serbia, a major issue started regarding the participation or not of Greece and Bulgaria in the war. Greece had an active treaty with Serbia which was the treaty activated in the 1913 Bulgarian attack that caused the Second Balkan War. That treaty was envisaged in a purely Balkan context, and was thus invalid against Austria-Hungary, something on which both Venizelos and Constantine agreed.

The situation changed when the Allies, in an attempt to help Serbia, offered Bulgaria the Monastir-Ochrid area of Serbia and the Greek Eastern Macedonia (the Serres-Kavalla-Drama areas) if she joined the Entente. Venizelos, having received assurances over Asia Minor if the Greeks participated in the alliance, agreed to cede the area to Bulgaria.

But Constantine's anti-Bulgarism made such a transaction impossible. Constantine refused to go to war under such conditions and the men parted. As a consequence Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and invaded Serbia, an event leading to Serbia's final collapse. Greece remained neutral. Venizelos supported an alliance with the Entente, not only believing that Britain and France would win, but also that it was the only choice for Greece, because the combination of the strong Anglo-French naval control over the Mediterranean and the geographical distribution of the Greek population, could have ill effects in the case of a naval blockade, as he characteristically remarked:

On the other hand, Constantine favored the Central Powers and wanted Greece to remain neutral. He was influenced both by his belief in the military superiority of Germany and also by his German wife, Queen Sophia, and his pro-German court. He therefore strove to secure a neutrality, which would be favorable to Germany and Austria.

In 1915, Winston Churchill (then First Lord of the Admiralty) suggested to Greece to take action in Dardanelles on behalf of the allies. Venizelos saw this as an opportunity to bring the country on the side of the Entente in the conflict. However the King disagreed and Venizelos submitted his resignation on 21 February 1915. Venizelos' party won the elections and formed a new government.

The National Schism

Even though Venizelos promised to remain neutral, after the elections of 1915, he said that Bulgaria's attack on Serbia, with which Greece had a treaty of alliance, obliged him to abandon that policy. The dispute between Venizelos and the King reached its height shortly after that and the King invoked a Greek constitutional provision that gave the monarch the right to dismiss a government unilaterally. Meanwhile, using the excuse of saving Serbia, in October 1915, the Entente disembarked an army in Thessaloniki.

The dispute continued between the two men, and in December 1915 Constantine forced Venizelos to resign for a second time and dissolved the Liberal-dominated parliament, calling for new elections. Venizelos left Athens and moved back to Crete. Venizelos did not take part in the elections, as he considered the dissolution of Parliament unconstitutional.

On 26 May 1916 the Fort Rupel (a significant military fort in Macedonia) was unconditionally surrendered by the royalist government to Germano-Bulgarian forces. This produced a deplorable impression. The Allies feared a possible secret alliance between the royalist government and Central Powers placing in grave danger of their armies in Macedonia. On the other hand, the surrender of Fort Rupel for Venizelos and his supporters meant the beginning of the destruction of Greek Macedonia. Despite German assurances that the integrity of the Kingdom of Greece would be respected they were unable to restrain to control the Bulgarian forces, which had started dislocating the Greek population and by 4 September Kavala was occupied.

On 16 August 1916, during a rally in Athens, and with the support of the allied army that had landed in Thessaloniki under the command of General Maurice Sarrail, Venizelos announced publicly his total disagreement with the Crown's policies. The effect of this was to further polarize the population between the royalists (also known as ''anti-Venezelists''), who supported the crown, and Venizelists, who supported Venizelos. On 30 August 1916, Venizelist army officers organized a military coup in Thessaloniki, and proclaimed the "Provisional Government of National Defence". Venizelos along with Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis and General Panagiotis Danglis agreed to form a provisional government and on 9 October they moved to Thessaloniki and assumed command of the National Defence to oversee the Greek participation in the allied war effort. The triumvirate, as the three men became known, had formed this government in direct conflict with the Athens' political establishment. There they founded a separate "provisional state" including Northern Greece, Crete and the Aegean Islands, with the support of the Entente. Primarily, these areas comprised the "New Lands" won during the Balkan Wars, in which Venizelos enjoyed a broad support, while "Old Greece" was mostly pro-royalist. The National Defence government started assembling an army for the Macedonian front and soon participated in operations against the Central Powers forces.

The "Noemvriana" - Greece enters World War I

In the following months after the creation of provisional government in Thessaloniki in late August, negotiations between the Allies and king intensified. The Allies wanted further demobilisation of the Greek army as a counterbalance of the unconditional surrender of Fort Ruple by the royalist government and military evacuation of Thessaly to insure the safety of their troops in Macedonia. On the other hand the king wanted assurances that the Allies would not officially recognised Venizelos' provisional government or further support it, guarantees that Greece's integrity and neutrality will be respected, and any war material surrendered to the Allies will be returned after the war.

The Franco-British violations of Greece's territorial integrity throughout 1916 had offended the Greek national honour and therefore increased the Constantine's popularity, and caused much excitement and several anti-Allied demonstrations took place in Athens. Moreover, a growing movement had been developed in the army among lower officers, led by military officers Ioannis Metaxas and Sofoklis Dousmanis, determined to oppose disarmament and the surrender of any war materials to the Allies.

The Allies' pressure on the government of Athens continued. On the next day, 24 November, du Fournet presented a new ultimatum ending on 1 December to the government of Athens demanding the immediate surrender of at least ten mountain batteries. The admiral made a last effort to persuade the king to accept France's demands. He advised the king that according to his orders he would land an Allied contingent, with aim to occupy certain positions in Athens until his demands were satisfied. In reply, the Kind indicated that he was pressed by the army and the people not to submit to disarmament, and refused to make any commitment. However, he promised that the Greek forces would receive orders not to fire against the Allied contingent. Despite the gravity of the situation both the royalist government and the Allies let the events take their own course. The royalist government decided to reject the admiral's demands on 29 November and armed resistance was organised. By 30 November military units and royalist militia (the ''epistratoi'', "reservists") from surrounding areas have been recalled and gathered in and around Athens (in total over 20,000 men) and occupied strategic positions, with orders not to fire unless fired upon. On the other hand, the Allied authorities failed in their assessment of the prevailing temper. A diplomat characteristically insisted that the Greeks were bluffing, and in the face of force they would ''"bring the cannons on a plater"''; a viewpoint that Du Fournet also shared.

The Allies landed a small contingent in Athens on . However, it met organized resistance and an armed confrontation took place for a day till a compromise was reached. After the evacuation of the Allied contingent from Athens the following day, a royalist mob raged though the city for three days targeting supporters of Venizelos. The incident became known as the Noemvriana in Greece, which was using the Old Style calendar at the time, and drove a deep wedge between the Venizelists and their political opponents, deepening what would become known as the National Schism.

After the armed confortation in Athens, on , Britain and France officially recognised the government under Venizelos as the lawful government, effectively splitting Greece into two separate entities. On , Venizelos' provisional government officially declared war on the Central Powers. In reply, a royal warrant for the arrest of Venizelos was issued and the Archbishop of Athens, under pressure by the royal house, anathematised him. The Allies unwilling to risk a new fiasco, but determined to solve the problem, established a naval blockade around southern Greece, which was still loyal to the king, and that caused extreme hardship to people in those areas. In June France and Great Britain decided to invoke their obligation as ''"protecting powers"'', who had promised to guarantee a constitutional form for Greece at the time the Kingdom was created, to demand the king's resignation. Constantine accepted and on the 15 June 1917 went to exile, leaving his son Alexander on the throne as demanded (whom the Allies considered as pro-Entente), instead of his elder son and crown prince, George. His departure was followed by the deportation of many prominent royalists, especially army officers such as Ioannis Metaxas, to exile in France and Italy.

The course of events paved the way for Venizelos to return in Athens on 29 May 1917 and Greece, now unified, officially entered the war on the side of the Allies. Subsequently the entire Greek army was mobilized (though tensions remained inside the army between supporters of the monarchy and supporters of Venizelos) and began to participate in military operations against the Central Powers army on the Macedonian front.

Conclusion of World War I

By the fall of 1918, the Greek army numbering 300,000 soldiers, was the largest single national component of the Allied army in the Macedonian front. The presence of the entire Greek army gave the critical mass that altered the balance between the opponents in the Macedonian front. Under the command of French General Franchet d'Esperey, a combined Greek, Serbian, French and British force launched a major offensive against the Bulgarian and German army, starting on 14 September 1918. After the first heavy fighting (see battle of Skra) the Bulgarians gave up their defensive positions and began retreating back towards their country. On 24 September the Bulgarian government asked for an armistice, which was signed five days later. The Allied army then pushed north and defeated the remaining German and Austrian forces that tried to halt the Allied offensive. By October 1918 the Allied armies had recaptured all of Serbia and were preparing to invade Hungary. The offensive was halted because the Hungarian leadership offered to surrender in November 1918 marking the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Their surrender caused the end of the First World War since Germany had no forces to stop the Allies in entering Germany from the south, thus proving the breaking of the Macedonian front as the decisive event of the war and the participation of the Greek army the catalytic factor. Accordingly Greece earned a seat at the Paris Peace Conference under Venizelos.

The Treaty of Sèvres

Following the conclusion of World War I, Venizelos took part in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 as Greece's chief representative. During his absence from Greece for almost two years, he acquired a reputation as an international statesman of considerable stature. President Woodrow Wilson was said to have placed Venizelos first in point of personal ability among all delegates gathered in Paris to settle the terms of Peace.

In July 1919, Venizelos reached an agreement with the Italians on the cession of the Dodecanese, and secured an extension of the Greek area in the periphery of Smyrna. The Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria on 27 November 1919, and the Treaty of Sèvres with the Ottoman Empire on 10 August 1920, were triumphs both for Venizelos and for Greece. As the result of these treaties, Greece acquired Western Thrace, Eastern Thrace, Smyrna, the Aegean islands Imvros, Tenedos and the Dodecanese except Rhodes.

In spite of all this, fanaticism continued to create a deep rift between the opposing political parties and to impel them towards unacceptable actions. On his journey home on 12 August 1920, Venizelos survived an assassination attack by two royalist soldiers at the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris. This event provoked unrest in Greece, with Venizelist supporters engaging in acts of violence against known anti-Venizelists, and provided further fuel for the national division. The persecution of Venizelos' opponents reached a climax with the assassination of the idiosyncratic anti-Venizelist Ion Dragoumis by paramilitary Venizelists on 13 August. After his recovery Venizelos returned to Greece, where he was welcomed as a hero, because he had liberated areas with Greek populations and had created a state stretching over ''"five seas and two continents"''.

1920 electoral defeat and the Great Disaster

King Alexander died of blood poisoning caused by a monkey bite, two months after the signing of the treaty, on 25 October 1920. His death revived the constitutional question of whether Greece should be a monarchy or a republic and transformed the November elections into a contest between Venizelos and the return of the exiled king Constantine, Alexander's father. In the elections anti-Venizelists, most of them supporters of Constantine, secured 246 out of 370 seats. The defeat came as a surprise to most people and Venizelos failed even to get elected as an MP. Venizelos himself attributed this to the war-weariness of the Greek people that had been under arms with almost no intermission since 1912. Venizelists believed that the promise of demobilization and withdrawal from Asia Minor was the most potent weapon of opposition. Abuse of power by Venizelists in the period of 1917–1920 and prosecution of their adversaries were also a further cause for people to vote in favor of the opposition. Thus, on 6 December 1920, King Constantine was recalled by a plebiscite. This caused great dissatisfaction not only to the newly liberated populations in Asia Minor but also to the Great Powers who opposed the return of Constantine. As a result of his defeat Venizelos left for Paris and withdrew from politics.

Once the anti-Venizelists came to power it became apparent that they intended to continue the campaign in Asia Minor. However, dismissal of the war experienced pro-Venizelist military officers for petty political reasons and underestimating the capabilities of the Turkish army, influenced the subsequent course of the war. Italy and France also found a useful pretext in the royal restoration for making peace with Mustafa Kemal (leader of the Turks). By April 1921 all Great Powers had declared their neutrality; Greece was alone in continuing the war. Kemal launched a massive attack on 26 August 1922 and the Greek forces were routed to Smyrna, which soon fell to the Turks on 8 September 1922 (see Great Fire of Smyrna).

Following the defeat of the Greek army by the Turks in 1922 and the subsequent armed insurrection led by Colonels Nikolaos Plastiras and Stylianos Gonatas, King Constantine was dethroned (and succeeded by his eldest son, George), and six royalist leaders were executed. Venizelos assumed the leadership of the Greek delegation that negotiated peace terms with the Turks. He signed the Treaty of Lausanne with Turkey on 24 July 1923. The effect of this was that more than a million Greeks (Christians) were expelled from Turkey, in exchange for the more than 500,000 Turks (Muslims) expelled from Greece, and Greece was forced to surrender eastern Thrace, Imbros and Tenedos to Turkey. This catastrophe marked the end of the Megali Idea. After a failed pro-royalist insurrection led by General Ioannis Metaxas forced King George II into exile, Venizelos returned to Greece and became prime minister once again. However, he left again in 1924 after quarreling with anti-monarchists.

During these absences from power, he translated Thucydides into modern Greek, although the translation and incomplete commentary were only published in 1940, after his death.

Return to power in 1928 and subsequent exile

In the elections held on 5 July 1928, Venizelos' party regained power and forced the government to hold new elections on 19 August of the same year; this time his party won 228 out of 250 places in Parliament. During this period Venizelos attempted to end Greece's diplomatic isolation by restoring normal relations with the country's neighbors. His efforts proved to be successful in the cases of the newly founded Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Italy. Firstly Venizelos signed an agreement on 23 September 1928 with Benito Mussolini in Rome, and then he started negotiations with Yugoslavia which resulted in a Treaty of Friendship signed on 27 March 1929. An additional protocol settled the status of the Yugoslav free trade zone of Thessaloniki in a way favorable to Greek interests. Nevertheless, despite the co-ordinated British efforts under Arthur Henderson in 1930–1931, full reconciliation with Bulgaria was never achieved during his premiership. Venizelos was also cautious towards Albania, and although bilateral relations remained at a good level, no initiative was taken by either side aiming at the final settlement of the unresolved issues (mainly related with the status of the Greek minority of South Albania).

Venizelos' greatest achievement in foreign policy during this period was the reconciliation with Turkey. Venizelos had expressed his will to improve the bilateral Greek–Turkish relations even before his electoral victory, in a speech in Thessaloniki (July 23, 1928). Eleven days after the formation of his government, he sent letters to both the prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs of Turkey (Ismet Inonu and Tevfik Rüştü respectively), declaring that Greece had no territorial aspirations to the detriment of their country. Inonu's response was positive and Italy was eager to help the two countries reach an agreement. Negotiations however stalled because of the complicated issue of the properties of the exchanged populations. Finally, the two sides reached an agreement on April 30, 1930; on October 25, Venizelos visited Turkey and signed a treaty of friendship. Venizelos even forwarded Atatürk's name for the 1934 Nobel Peace Prize, highlighting the mutual respect between the two leaders. The German Chancellor Hermann Müller described the Greek-Turkish rapprochement as the ''"greatest achievement seen in Europe since the end of the Great War"''. Nevertheless, Venizelos' initiative was criticized domestically not only by the opposition but also by members of his own party that represented the Greek refugees from Turkey. Venizelos was accused of making too many concessions on the issues of naval armaments and of the properties of the Greeks who were expelled from Turkey according to the Treaty of Lausanne.

In 1929, the Venizelos government, in an effort to avoid reactions from the lower-classes whose conditions had worsened due to wave of immigration, introduced the so-called idionymon (#4229), a law that restricted civil liberties and initiated the repression against unionism, left-wing supporters and communists.

His domestic position was weakened, however, by the effects of the Great Depression in the early 1930s; and in the elections of 1932 he was defeated by the People's Party under Panagis Tsaldaris. The political climate became more tense and in 1933 Venizelos was the target of a second assassination attempt. The pro-royalist tendencies of the new government led to two attempted Venizelist coup attempts by General Nikolaos Plastiras: one in 1933 and the other in 1935. The failure of the latter proved decisive for the future of the Second Hellenic Republic. After the coup's failure Venizelos left Greece once more, while in Greece trials and executions of prominent Venizelists were carried out and he himself was sentenced to death ''in absentia''. The severely weakened Republic was abolished in another coup in October 1935 by General Georgios Kondylis and George II returned to the throne following a rigged referendum in November.

Exile and death

Venizelos left for Paris and on 12 March 1936 wrote his last letter to Alexandros Zannas. He suffered a stroke on the morning of the 13th and died five days later in his flat at 22 rue Beaujon. A crowd of supporters from the local Greek community in Paris accompanied his body to the railway station prior to its departure for Greece.

His body was taken by the destroyer ''Pavlos Kountouriotis'' to Chania, avoiding Athens in order not to cause unrest. A great ceremony with wide public attendance accompanied his burial at Akrotiri, Crete.

Legacy

One of the main contributions of Venizelos to Greek political life was the creation, in 1910, of the Liberal Party, which contrasted with the Greek parties of that period. Until the early twentieth century, the Greek parties were inspired by the protecting powers (French or English Party for example) or clustered around a political personality, such as Charilaos Trikoupis. The Liberal Party was based around the ideas of Venizelos (and the military coup of Goudi), but it survived its creator. In addition, the birth of a leading party would coincide with the birth of an opposing party. The opposing party was reflected around the personality of the king, but that survived the various abolitions of the monarchy. Venizelism, from its inception, is essentially a liberal Republican movement, which blocks anti-venizelist monarchist and conservative ideologies. These two clashed for staying in power throughout the inter-war period.

The main ideas, adapted from the creator, are: opposition to the monarchy and the defence of the Megali Idea, formation of alliances with western democratic countries, in particular the United Kingdom and France against Germany during First and Second World War, and later on with the United States against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and finally a protectionist economic policy.

Themistoklis Sofoulis is, from the 1920s, the successor of Venizelos to lead the Liberal Party, which survived to policy failures, exile and ultimately death of the historical founder. In 1950, the son of Venizelos, Sophoklis Venizelos, succeeded as head of the Liberal Party at a time when an agreement was formed with the populists (name of the royalist party) against the communists during the civil war. The Center Union (Enosis Kendrou), was founded in 1961 by George Papandreou, is a descendant of the Liberal Party. The Center Union eventually fade in the late 1970s and was replaced by a party further to the left, PASOK of Andreas Papandreou, while centrist and liberal ideas become those of the New Democracy.

Personal life and family

In December 1891 Venizelos married Maria Katelouzou, daughter of Eleftherios Katelouzos. The newlyweds lived in the upper floor of the Chalepa house, while Venizelos' mother and his brother and sisters lived on the ground floor. There, they enjoyed the happy moments of their marriage and also had the birth of their two children, Kyriakos in 1892 and Sophoklis in 1894. Their married life was short and marked by misfortune. Maria died of post-puerperal fever in November 1894 after the birth of their second child. Her death deeply affected Venizelos and as sign of mourning he grew his characteristic beard and mustache, which he retained for the rest of his life.

After his defeat in the November elections of 1920 he left for Paris in self-imposed exile. In September 1921, twenty seven years after the death of his first wife Maria, he married Helena Stephanovich Schilizzi (sometimes referred to as Elena Skylitsi or Stephanovich) in London. Advised by police to be wary of assassination attempts, they held the religious ceremony in private at Witanhurst, the mansion of family friend and socialite, Lady Domini Crosfield. The Crosfields were well connected and Venizelos met Arthur Balfour, David Lloyd George and the arms dealer Basil Zaharoff in subsequent visits to the house.

The married couple settled down in Paris in a flat at 22 rue Beaujon. He lived there until 1927 when he returned to Chania.

See also

Constantine I of Greece

George I of Greece

History of Modern Greece

Megali Idea

Ioannis Metaxas

Venizelism

Notes

Footnotes

References

{{s-ttl|title=Cover of Time Magazine |years=18 February 1924}}

Category:1864 births Category:1936 deaths Category:19th-century Greek people Category:Politicians from Crete Category:National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni Category:Revolutionaries Category:People sentenced to death in absentia Category:Ministers of Military Affairs of Greece Category:Greek people of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) Category:Foreign ministers of Greece Category:Prime Ministers of Greece Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) Category:Attempted assassination survivors Category:Greek people of the Balkan Wars Category:Greek people of World War I Category:Greek exiles Category:Cretan State Category:Liberal Party (Greece) politicians

ar:إلفثيريوس فينيزيلوس bg:Елевтериос Венизелос ca:Elefthèrios Venizelos cs:Eleftherios Venizelos de:Eleftherios Venizelos el:Ελευθέριος Βενιζέλος es:Eleftherios Venizelos eo:Eleftherios Venizelos fr:Elefthérios Venizélos ko:엘레프테리오스 베니젤로스 hr:Elefterios Venizelos it:Eleftherios Venizelos he:אלפתריוס וניזלוס la:Eleutherius Benizelus hu:Elefthériosz Venizélosz mk:Елефтериос Венизелос nl:Eleftherios Venizelos ja:エレフテリオス・ヴェニゼロス no:Eleftherios Venizelos pl:Eleutherios Venizelos pt:Elefthérios Venizélos ro:Eleftherios Venizelos ru:Венизелос, Элефтериос sr:Елефтериос Венизелос fi:Elefthérios Venizélos sv:Eleutherios Venizelos tr:Elefterios Venizelos uk:Елефтеріос Венізелос yo:Eleftherios Venizelos zh:埃莱夫塞里奥斯·韦尼泽洛斯