Northern Cyprus

One republic, two communities

The heads of government of Greece and Turkey reached the Zurich agreements on 11 February 1959, followed by the London agreements on 19 February.^[7] The Republic of Cyprus became independent on 16 August 1960 and joined the UN a month later.^[7] Its people were then about 80% Greek Cypriot and 18% Turkish Cypriot.^[7]

On 30 November 1963 President Archbishop Makarios put forward 13 points for amending the constitution, and on 21 December violence broke out between the two communities.^[7] On 4 March 1964 the UN Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 186, recommending a UN peacekeeping force for Cyprus, UNFICYP.^[6] The force was operating from 27 March, once enough troops had arrived.^[6]

The summer of 1974

On 15 July 1974 the Cypriot National Guard, under the direction of Greek officers, staged a coup against President Makarios’s government.^[8] The coup was organised by the military government then ruling Greece, and its aim was to unite the island with Greece.^[2]

On 20 July the Turkish government, invoking the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, launched a large military operation on the north coast.^[8] Its forces took the Turkish Cypriot enclaves north of Nicosia and the area around them, including Kyrenia.^[8] A ceasefire was announced for 4 pm on 22 July.^[8]

The foreign ministers of Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom met in Geneva from 25 July and agreed a declaration on 30 July.^[9] Their talks broke down on 14 August and fighting resumed in Cyprus.^[9] Turkish forces declared a ceasefire at 6 pm on 16 August.^[9] The lines both sides held that evening, as UNFICYP recorded them, are still the edges of the buffer zone.^[5]

A state only Turkey recognises

On 15 November 1983 the Turkish Cypriot authorities declared an independent state in northern Cyprus.^[1] Three days later the Security Council adopted resolution 541, by 13 votes to one (Pakistan), with Jordan abstaining.^[1] It called the declaration legally invalid, asked for it to be withdrawn, and called on all states not to recognise any Cypriot state other than the Republic of Cyprus.^[1]

In resolution 550 of 11 May 1984 the Council condemned what it called the “purported exchange of ambassadors” between Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership.^[10] It referred to the north as “the occupied part of the Republic of Cyprus”.^[10] More than 40 years later, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is still recognised only by Turkey, while the Republic of Cyprus belongs to the UN and the European Union.^[2][3]

“Considers the declaration referred to above as legally invalid and calls for its withdrawal.”^[1]

The Green Line

The UN buffer zone, also called the Green Line, runs about 180 km across the island.^[5] In parts of old Nicosia it is only a few metres wide; elsewhere it is a few kilometres wide.^[5] More than 10,000 people live or work in villages and farmed areas inside it, and at Pyla Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots live side by side.^[5]

An estimated 17,000 Greek Cypriots fled Varosha, a suburb of Famagusta, as Turkish troops advanced in 1974, and it stayed empty behind barbed wire.^[11] In 1984 the Security Council said attempts to settle it by anyone but its own inhabitants were “inadmissible” and asked for it to be handed to the UN.^[10] In July 2021 Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar announced that a 3.5 km² part of it would pass from military to civilian control, and the Council called for the reversal of every step taken on Varosha since October 2020.^[11]

Crossings, a referendum and talks

On 23 April 2003 Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktaş opened the Ledra Palace crossing in Nicosia, and within two days people were queuing for up to six hours to cross.^[12] Two more crossings, at Dherynia and Lefka/Aplici, opened on 12 November 2018.^[5]

On 24 April 2004 both communities voted on a UN plan to reunite the island, the Annan Plan. About 65% of Turkish Cypriots voted for it and 76% of Greek Cypriots voted against, so the island was still divided when Cyprus joined the European Union on 1 May.^[13]

UN-backed talks last broke down at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in 2017, over security, political equality, territory and Turkish troops on the island.^[3] On 19 October 2025 Tufan Erhürman, who backs a two-zone, two-community federation, beat Ersin Tatar, who had argued for two states, with almost 63% of the vote.^[2] On 29 July 2026 UN Secretary-General António Guterres met Erhürman and Cyprus’s President Nikos Christodoulides in the buffer zone and said both sides and the guarantor powers (Greece, Turkey and the UK) had agreed to move towards a wider meeting.^[3]