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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Cyprus
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Member of the *Commonwealth since 1960. The island was part of the Turkish empire from 1573 to 1878, when the Turks ceded control (though not sovereignty) to Britain in return for British defence against a threat by sea from Russia. Britain annexed the island in 1914, when Turkey was an enemy in World War I. Cyprus then became a crown colony, but it was troubled by constant unrest between the Greek majority and Turkish minority; this culminated in a period of prolonged terrorism, sparked off after World War II by an aggressive Greek campaign for enosis (union with Greece).
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The leader of the Greek cause was Archbishop Makarios (1913–77), who became president of an independent Cyprus in 1960. The constitution, supposedly strengthened by guarantees from Britain, Greece and Turkey, was intended to share power between the two communities and thus to avoid partition. It soon proved unworkable. In 1975 the Cypriot Turks, led by Rauf Denktash, declared their own state in the northern part of the island. A United Nations peace-keeping force, sent to Cyprus in 1964, has remained to preside over an uneasy impasse.
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