Northern Cyprus

A de facto Turkish-Cypriot state in the north of a divided island, proclaimed in 1983 and recognised only by Turkey, while the United Nations and the wider world regard the territory as part of the Republic of Cyprus under Turkish occupation.

Northern Cyprus, formally the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a self-declared state occupying roughly the northern third of the island of Cyprus. Its emergence is rooted in the island's Ottoman period, which from 1571 established a Turkish-Cypriot Muslim community alongside the Greek-Cypriot majority, in British rule from 1878, and above all in the breakdown of the bicommunal Republic of Cyprus founded in 1960. After intercommunal violence from 1963, a 1974 coup by Greek-Cypriot nationalists backed by the military junta in Athens, and the Turkish military intervention that followed and partitioned the island, Turkish Cypriots formed a separate administration that on 15 November 1983 unilaterally declared independence. The United Nations Security Council, in Resolutions 541 (1983) and 550 (1984), declared that declaration legally invalid and called on states not to recognise it; only Turkey has done so, and the international community continues to regard the area as part of the Republic of Cyprus. The island remains divided by the UN-patrolled Green Line through Nicosia, the failed 2004 Annan Plan referendum the last major reunification attempt, with the dispute unresolved to the present.