A bit about Cyprus

A brief and overly-simplified history of the Cyprus conflict

Despite Cyprus’ central location in the Mediterranean, EU membership, and exceeding beauty, this island is fairly unknown outside of Europe. Often people assume that a discussion of Cyprus is either about a) a tree, b) a Southern California city named after a tree, c) money laundering, or d) an obscure legal doctrine. In reality, Cyprus is a divided island in the heart of the Eastern Mediterranean that brought you Cat Stephens, George Michael, and haloumi.

From 1960 to 1974, Cyprus was briefly an independent country after over 70 years of British rule. The island was divided in 1974 when, after 14 years of independence with uneasy relations between the island’s ethnic Turkish community and ethnic Greek community, the military dictatorship in Greece stage a coupe to take the island. Turkey intervened on behalf of the ethnic Turkish minority and occupied approximately 37 percent of the island.

The matter stands at a stalemate with the island divided- Greek Cypriots in the southern portion of the island and Turkish Cypriots in the north. Prior to 1974, the Greek and Turkish Cypriots were mixed evenly across the island. Today there are few Greek Cypriots in the North and few Turkish Cypriots in the South. There have been many attempts to unify the island, some with glimmers of hope, but ultimately the barbed wire that divides the island has held.

For roughly a decade, crossing the border that divides North from South has been possible. This expedition will examine the attitudes of the communities on both sides of that border.