Abstract
Located at a strategic position in the eastern Mediterranean sea, Cyprus, in the course of its history has frequently switched hands among powers which maintained an interest in the region. The list of its successive rulers includes the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Phoenicians, the Byzantines, the Venetians, the Ottoman Turks, and finally before the 1960 declaration of independence, the British. Amidst all of these populations, only two of them had a significant impact on the demographic structure of the Cypriot society. The Greeks, which settled on the island during the second millennium B.C; and the Turks, which set foot on Cyprus during the period of the Ottoman Empire, in 1571, when the armies of Lala Mustapha seized Famagusta, which was last city to resist them on the island. Cyprus remained under Ottoman rule until the congress of Berlin in 1878 when it was ceded to Britain. The terms of the agreement stipulated that Britain was to occupy and administer the island in exchange of a promise to help Turkey defend itself against Russia if the need arose. In 1914, after Turkey had joined forces with the Central powers, Britain unilaterally declared the 1878 convention null and annexed Cyprus.
