A map of Cyprus in the later Bronze Age ( such as is given by J. L. Myres and M. O. Richter in Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum ) shows more than 25 settlements in and about the Mesaorea district alone, of which one, that at Enkomi, near the site of Salamis, has yielded the richest Aegean treasure in precious metal found outside Mycenae.

Thus the " Aegean Area " has now come to mean the Archipelago with Crete and Cyprus, the Hellenic peninsula with the Ionian islands, and Western Anatolia.

It is located south of Asia Minor, the Anatolian peninsula of the Asian ( or Eurasian ) mainland ( now part of modern-day Turkey ), so it may be included in Western Asia or the Middle East: At a confluence of Western Asia, Southern Europe, and Northern Africa, Cyprus has had lengthy periods of mainly Greek and intermittent Anatolian, Levantine, Byzantine, and Western European influences.

Since 1974, the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus has controlled the south two thirds, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus the northern one-third.

The Government of the Republic of Cyprus has continued as the sole internationally-recognized authority on the island ( as well as the UK being internationally recognized with respect to the SBAs ), though in practice its power extends only to the government controlled area.

Cyprus has been divided, de facto, into the Greek Cypriot controlled southern two-thirds of the island and the Turkish-occupied northern third.

In 1983, the Turkish Cypriots declared an independent " Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus ", which has never been recognized by any country except Turkey and Pakistan.

The division of Cyprus has remained an intractable political problem plaguing relations between Greece and Turkey, and drawing in NATO, of which both Greece and Turkey are members, and latterly the European Union, which has admitted Greece and Cyprus and which Turkey has been seeking to join for over twenty years.

The 165, 000 Greek Cypriot refugees are also a potent political force, along with the independent Orthodox Church of Cyprus, which has some influence in temporal as well as ecclesiastical matters.

After the 1974 invasion following a Greek junta-based coup attempt, Makarios secured international recognition of his Greek Cypriot government as the sole legal authority on Cyprus, which has proved to be a very significant strategic advantage for the Greek Cypriots in the decades since.

On 15 November 1983 the Turkish Cypriot North declared independence and the formation of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus ( TRNC ), which has been recognized only by Turkey.

Cyprus has an open, free-market, service-based economy with some light manufacturing.

Since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, Cyprus has had a record of successful economic performance, reflected in strong growth, full employment conditions and relative stability.

The success of Cyprus in the economic sphere has been attributed, inter alia, to the adoption of a market-oriented economic system, the pursuance of sound macroeconomic policies by the government as well as the existence of a dynamic and flexible entrepreneurship and a highly educated labor force.

Cyprus has the fourth-largest ship registry in the world, with 2, 758 ships and 25. 5 million gross registered tons ( GRTs ).

As a result of these reforms Cyprus has developed into one of the world's more important international business centres.

EU accession negotiations started on 31 March 1998, and concluded when Cyprus joined the organization as a full member in 2004.

* August 1 – Ottoman conquest of Cyprus is concluded by the surrender of Famagusta.

After the " Dark Age ", when Hellenes looked with awe at the vast dressed blocks, known as Cyclopean structures, which had been used in Mycenaean masonry ( at sites such as Mycenae and Tiryns or on Cyprus ), they concluded that only the Cyclopes had the combination of skill and strength to build in such a monumental manner.

Cyprus and Algeria have concluded various agreements.

On 4 June, before the Congress opened on 13 June, Prime Minister Lord Beaconsfield had already concluded a secret alliance with the Ottomans against Russia, whereby Britain was allowed to occupy the strategically placed island of Cyprus.

The Uluburun ship was undoubtedly sailing to the region west of Cyprus, but her ultimate destination can be concluded only from the distribution of objects matching the types carried on board.

A further 1994 case brought by Cyprus, on which judgement was made in 2001, concluded that Turkey continued to offer insufficient support in clarifying the fate of missing Cypriots.

* Cyprus Ministry of Foreign Affairs: list of bilateral treaties with Norway

Since its establishment, more member states have joined through a series of accession treaties, from the UK, Ireland, Denmark and Norway in 1972 ( though Norway did not end up joining ), Greece in 1979, Spain and Portugal 1985, Austria, Finland, Norway and Sweden in 1994 ( though again Norway failed to join, because of lack of support in the referendum ), the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004, and Romania and Bulgaria in 2007.

On the other hand, Khalil had good relations with the Kingdom of Cyprus, the Kingdom of Aragon, and the Kingdom of Sicily, who had commercial and military treaties with him.

However, in practice, British Overseas Territories Citizens ( except those associated with the Sovereign bases in Cyprus ) were granted full British citizenship in 2002, British Nationals ( Overseas ) have right of abode in Hong Kong, British subjects and British Protected Persons lose their statuses upon acquisition of another nationality ( except British subjects connected the Republic of Ireland, who have the right to live and work in the UK anyway because of EU treaties ) and so should be eligible for registration as British Citizens under the 2002 Act.

Aphrodite is usually said to have been born near Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, for which reason she is called " Cyprian ", especially in the poetic works of Sappho.

* 2005 – Helios Airways Flight 522 en route from Larnaca, Cyprus via Athens, Greece to Prague, Czech Republic crashes near Athens, with at least 121 on board.

Amathus () was one of the most ancient royal cities of Cyprus, on the southern coast in front of Agios Tychonas, about 24 miles west of Larnaca and 6 miles east of Limassol.

A special burial ground for infants, a tophetAgelarakis A., “ The Amathous ( tophet ) cremations in Cyprus ”, In D. Christou on “ Human Cremations at the Western Necropolis of Amathous ” < Cremations in Bronze and Early Iron Age >, Proceedings of Int.

They landed on 9 October on Cyprus from where they sailed to Acre.

In 1194, on the death of Guy, he became King of Cyprus as Amalric I.

By his first wife, Eschiva of Ibelin, he was the father of Hugh I of Cyprus and was crowned in Nicosia on September 22, 1197.

Few of his other paintings resemble this apocalyptic scene of two huge armies dominated by an extravagant landscape seen from a very high viewpoint, which looks south over the whole Mediterranean from modern Turkey to include the island of Cyprus and the mouths of the Nile and the Red Sea ( behind the isthmus to the left ) on the other side.

For details of monumental evidence the articles on Crete, Mycenae, Tiryns, Troad, Cyprus, etc., must be consulted.

For nearly 150 years after, Venice did not own an inch of soil on the mainland of Greece, except the Ionian dependencies of Parga and Butrinto, but of her insular dominions Cyprus, Crete, Tenos and 6 Ionian islands still remained.

Cyprus recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina ’ s independence on 7 February 2000, both countries established diplomatic relations on the same date.

: Northern Cyprus, which the U. S. considers part of the Republic of Cyprus, is not given a separate entry because " territorial occupations / annexations not recognized by the United States Government are not shown on U. S. Government maps.

The two mountain ranges run generally parallel to the Taurus Mountains on the Turkish mainland, the outlines of which are visible from northern Cyprus.

Vasea of Cyprus are broadly divided into two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, who share many customs but maintain distinct identities based on ethnicity, religion, language, and close ties with their respective motherlands.

Turkey responded by launching a military operation on Cyprus in a move not approved by the other two international guarantor powers, Greece and the United Kingdom using as a pretext the protection of the Turkish minority from Greek militias.

There is now a focus on convincing Turkey to recognise the government of Cyprus, a requirement for Turkish admission advocated most strongly by Cyprus and France.

Cyprus ratified the new world trade agreement ( General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, GATT ) in 1995 and began implementing it fully on 1 January 1996.