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    • Main contributor: Maor Malul
    Nissi beach, Cyprus.

    Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island nation in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. While physically situated in West Asia, its cultural and geopolitical relations are predominantly Southeast European. Cyprus is the third biggest and most populated island in the Mediterranean. It lies east of Greece, north of Egypt, south of Turkey, and west of Lebanon and Syria. The capital and largest city is Nicosia. It is one of the world's oldest civilizations, having a history spanning over 11,000 years. Cyprus attracts a large number of tourists each year, providing archaeological sites, hiking paths through cedar woods, several beautiful beaches, and 300 days of sunshine every year. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus de facto administers the island's northeast.

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    History of Cyprus

    The first humans that lived in Cyprus were hunter-gatherers who arrived to the island between 11 - 10,000 BC.[1] An interesting fact of the history of Cyprus is that in 2004, the skeletal remains of an 8-month-old kitten were found buried with the remains of what was most likely its owner at a Neolithic archeological dig in Cyprus. The burial is believed to be around 9,500 years old, predating Egyptian civilization and greatly delaying the most ancient documented feline-human interaction.[2] At the turning point of the Bronze Age, the island saw two waves of Greek colonization, the first made up of Mycenaean Greek tradesmen who began visiting Cyprus approximately 1400 BC. A large wave of Greek settlement is thought to have occurred between 1100 and 1050 BC, following the Late Bronze Age collapse of Mycenaean Greece, and the island's mainly Greek character may be traced back to this time. Cyprus has a significant position in Greek mythology, as the birthplace of Aphrodite and Adonis, as well as the home of King Cinyras, Teucer, and Pygmalion.[3]

    Agios Epiphanios Chapel, Ayia Napa, Cyprus.

    When the Roman Empire was split into Eastern and Western parts in the year 286, Cyprus became part of the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire) and remained so for nearly 900 years. Under Byzantine rule, the Greek orientation that had existed since antiquity developed into the strong Hellenistic-Christian character that is still a dominant feature of the Greek Cypriot community. [4] Richard I of England conquered Cyprus from its Byzantine ruler in 1191 during the Third Crusade, and it remained under western rule until the Ottoman conquest in 1570-1. From the 1190s to the 1470s, the island was governed as a kingdom by Lusignan family members. It was known as "the last Crusader kingdom"[5] since the the Lusignan family ruled it until February 26, 1489, when queen regnant Catherine was forced to abdicate and hand over control of the country to the Republic of Venice, which controlled Cyprus until 1570, when 60,000 Ottoman soldiers invaded the island under the command of Lala Mustafa Pasha. The last city to fall, Famagusta, was taken by the Ottomans in September 1571. In order to establish an Ottoman presence in the island, the Ottomans gave soldiers land grants on the condition that they and their families stay there permanently; during the 17th century, the Turkish population expanded rapidly, thanks in part to the conversion to Islam of many Greek Cypriots, including many Latin Catholics who kept certain crypto-Christian practices and were known as the Linobambaki.[6]

    The first president of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III.

    Following the Russo-Turkish War and the Congress of Berlin, Cyprus was a British protectorate from 1878 to 1914, then unilaterally annexed by Britain until 1925, when it became a Crown colony. Following the London and Zürich Agreements of February 19, 1959, Cyprus gained independence on August 16, 1960. During British rule, the island's future became a source of contention between the two main ethnic groups, Greek Cypriots (77% of the population in 1960) and Turkish Cypriots (18%). From the nineteenth century onward, the Greek Cypriot population pursued enosis (unification with Greece) whereas the Turkish Cypriots advocated the continuation of British rule, followed by either unification with Turkey or taksim, which meant partitioning Cyprus and establishing a Turkish polity in the island's north. This was de facto accomplished in 1974, when a coup deposed President Makarios III and replaced him with pro-enosis nationalist Nikos Sampson. In response to the coup, the Turkish army invaded the island five days later, on July 20, 1974,[7] mentioning its right to intervene and restore constitutional order under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, a justification rejected by the United Nations and and the international community have rejected this justification and considers the northern part of the island to be territory of the Republic of Cyprus illegally occupied by Turkish troops. In 1983, former Vice President of Cyprus and leader of the pro-taksim movement Rauf Denktaş, presented to the Turkish Cypriot parliament the Declaration of Independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which is until today only recognized by Turkey.

    Since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, there have been various failed attempts to resolve the Cyprus dispute. In 2004, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan presented a plan that was put to a referendum all across the island in April 2024; 65% of Turkish Cypriots backed the plan, whereas 74% of Greek Cypriots opposed it, claiming that it disproportionately favored Turkish Cypriots and gave Turkey disproportionate influence over the nation. In total, 66.7% of voters rejected the Annan Plan; a week after that, Cyprus joined the European Union as a whole, though EU legislation in Northern Cyprus is suspended until the Cyprus problem is resolved.[8]

    Geography of Cyprus

    Mount Olympus in winter.

    Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia. The island has two mountain ranges, the Troodos Mountains in the south and west of the island, and the smaller Kyrenia Range in the north-northeast; the central plain, the Mesaoria, lies between them. Mount Olympus, located in the center of the Troodos range, is Cyprus' highest point at 1,952 meters. The Troodos mountains have been rich in minerals, especially copper, which has been exploited since antiquity. [4] Cyprus receives a lot of sun all year round, due to its location in the Mediterranean, which encourages agriculture and mass tourism.

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    Entrance to Kykkos Monastery.

    During the Ottoman period (1571-1878), historical records were primarily maintained by religious institutions. Because the Ottoman Empire lacked a centralized civil registration system and each millet had administrative autonomy, local churches and mosques took on the role of recording vital records, which were kept in Greek Orthodox, Maronite, and Armenian churches, as well as Muslim mosques, reflecting the island's diverse religious composition. When the British seized control of Cyprus in 1878, more systematic record-keeping practices were implemented, culminating in the establishment of a civil registration system in 1928 that required the registration of births, deaths, and marriages, followed by religious oversight of vital statistics. This period's records are more consistent and standardized, allowing for a more accurate picture of the island's population.

    Cypriot surnames

    See also: Cypriot surnames

    The history of surnames in Cyprus reflects the island's diverse cultural and historical influences, incorporating elements from Greek, Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian, Ottoman, British, and other periods of rule. Surnames in Cyprus are much more than identifiers; they express lineage, heritage, and social status, reflecting a distinct blend of tradition and local adaptation.

    See also

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    References

    1. ↑ Tsakalos, Evangelos; Efstratiou, Nikos; Bassiakos, Yannis; Kazantzaki, Maria; Filippaki, Eleni (2021-08-01). Early Cypriot Prehistory: On the Traces of the Last Hunters and Gatherers on the Island—Preliminary Results of Luminescence Dating. Current Anthropology. 62 (4): 412–425. doi:10.1086/716100. ISSN 0011-3204.
    2. ↑ Ancient burial looks like human and pet cat. CNN
    3. ↑ Stass Paraskos, The Mythology of Cyprus (London: Orage Press, 2016) p.1f. ISBN 978-0992924775
    4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Keefe, Eugene K.; Solsten, Eric (1993). "Historical Setting". In Solsten, Eric (ed.). Cyprus: A Country Study (Fourth ed.). Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. pp. 10–12. ISBN 0-8444-0752-6.
    5. ↑ The Conquest of Cyprus: The Last Crusader Kingdom. Defender of Jerusalem
    6. ↑ Selim Deringil (2012). Conversion and Apostasy in the Late Ottoman Empire. Cambridge University Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-107-00455-9.
    7. ↑ Uzer, Umut (2011). Identity and Turkish Foreign Policy: The Kemalist Influence in Cyprus and the Caucasus. I.B. Tauris. pp. 134–135. ISBN 978-1848855694.
    8. ↑ EU legislation in the areas of the Republic of Cyprus in which the Government of the Republic of Cyprus does not exercise effective control. European Comission
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