Cyprus wins independence from Britain
On this day · 16 August 1960
On 16 August 1960, the Mediterranean island became the Republic of Cyprus, ending more than eight decades of British rule under a hard-won power-sharing settlement.
On 16 August 1960, Cyprus was proclaimed an independent, sovereign republic, ending British control that had begun in 1878, when Britain took over the island’s administration from the Ottoman Empire, and hardened into a Crown Colony in 1925.
Independence grew out of a violent struggle. From 1955 the Greek Cypriot guerrilla movement EOKA fought British forces, many of its members seeking enosis — union with Greece — while the Turkish Cypriot minority feared absorption. The deadlock was broken not on the island but in Europe.
The republic was the product of agreements signed far from Nicosia.
The Zurich and London Agreements of 1959, negotiated by Britain, Greece, and Turkey, set the terms: a constitution and three treaties guaranteeing the new state and sharing power between its communities. Archbishop Makarios III became the first president and Fazıl Küçük the first vice president. Cyprus joined the United Nations weeks later, on 20 September 1960, but the fragile communal balance soon strained, and conflict returned within a few years.
Sources & references
3 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 3 independent sources.
