A. SUMMARY OVERVIEW OF HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT.

1. Cyprus has played an important part in the history of the Eastern Mediterannean. Its histrory spans nine millennia. In the second millennium B.C., the Achean Greeks established city-kingdoms in the island on the Mycenaean model. They introduced the Greek language and culture which are preserved to this day despite the vicissitudes of history.

2. Cyprus was well-known to the ancients for its copper mines and forests. Its geostrategic/geographic position, placed at the cross-roads of three continents and its wealth, accounted for a succession of conquerors such as the Assyrians (673-669 B.C.), the Egyptians (560-545 B.C.) and the Persians (545-332 B.C.).

3. During the fifth century B.C., there was considerable interaction between Athens and Cypriot city-states, particularly Salamis.

4. On the partition of the empire of Alexander the Great, who liberated the island from Persian rule, Cyprus became a significant part of the empire of the Ptolemies of Egypt. The Hellenistic period ended in 58 B.C., when the Romans colonised Cyprus as part of the Roman Empire, until the 4^th century A.D..

5. The introduction of Christianity to Cyprus by apostles Paul and Barnabas, the latter being a Cypriot, in 45 A.D. was the most important event during the period of Roman rule.

6. In 330 A.D., Cyprus became part of the Eastern Section of the Roman Empire, and later (395 A.D.) of the Byzantine Empire, until the 12^th century A.D..

7. During the period of the Crusades, Cyprus was conquered by Richard the Lionheart of England (1191), who sold the island to the Knights Templar. They were followed by the Fankish Lusignans, who established a Kingdom on the western feudal model (1192-1489). Cyprus then came under the rule of the Republic of Venice until 1571, when it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman occupation lasted until 1878 when Cyprus was ceded to Britain. In 1923, under the Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey relinquished every right to Cyprus, and recognized its annexation to Britain, already proclaimed by the British Government in 1914.

8. After a long but unsuccessful peaceful political and diplomatic effort, which included a referendum for self-determination in 1950, the Greek Cypriots in 1995 rebelled against the colonial regime, and fought for their freedom.

9. During the anticolonial struggle, Turkey encouraged the Turkish Cypriot leaders to identify themselves with the colonial government, in an effort to thwart the struggle for self-determination of the people of Cyprus. The "divide-and rule" policy of the colonial government, gave rise inevitably, to serious incidents between the two communities.

10. The British rule lasted until August 1960 when, on the basis of the Zurich- London Agreements, the island became independent and was proclaimed a Republic.