He beat the nationalist incumbent Dervis Eroglu. Mayor of the Turkish Cypriot municipality of North Nicosia between and , Mr Akinci pioneered cooperation with his southern counterpart on practical sanitation and heritage projects. This experience has informed his later support for reunification. He founded the Peace and Democracy Movement in in support of the UN's Annan Plan for a united Cyprus within the European Union, and has also advocated a policy of greater independence from Turkey in policy matters.
But deteriorating relations between Greece and the Cypriot government on one hand and Turkey on the other gave a boost to the anti-reunification nationalist Ersin Tatar, who beat Mr Akinci in the October presidential election. Mr Tatar favours closer ties with Turkey, and a permanent two-state arrangement on Cyprus.
The status of Northern Cyprus as a separate political entity is recognised only by Turkey. The Cypriot media mirror the island's political division, with the Turkish-controlled zone in the north operating its own press and broadcasters.
Some key dates in the history of Cyprus:. Britain had occupied the island in , although it remained nominally under Ottoman sovereignty. Inter-communal violence erupts. Turkish side withdraws from power-sharing. Airports of Cyprus. Cyprus has two international airports. Larnaca International airport is the main entry point to Cyprus with hundreds of flights every week.
The second airport in Cyprus is the Paphos International airport. Most of the European countries and countries of the Middle East have multiple weekly connections with Larnaca airport and Paphos airport.
To find out more information regarding flight connections with Cyprus, visit the official website of Cyprus Airports. Ethnic groups of Cyprus. Because of its position on the map, many rulers passed from Cyprus through the ages.
As a result, many different ethnic groups live in Cyprus. These two ethnic groups have the status of a community. There are also three much smaller groups that have the status of minorities. These are Armenians, Maronites, and Latins. All these three minorities have decided and are attached to the Greek Cypriot community. They speak Greek as well as their respective languages.
Each one of these minorities consists of a few thousand people. Armenians are a community in Cyprus with Armenian origin, as their name suggests. They are in Cyprus for hundreds of years, thriving in trade, arts, and literature among others. They came to Cyprus because of the problems they faced in their then home country in four waves, between the 8th and 13th centuries AD. Since then they are a distinctive part of the society of Cyprus.
Maronites' religion is a version of Catholicism and they are part of the Catholic Church. Latins come from different European countries. They are the descendants of the people from various European countries that ruled Cyprus through the centuries.
What they have in common is their religion. They follow the Roman-Catholic church. In today's complex world, with people traveling everywhere, there are four more notable group of people: The first group is European citizens, as Cyprus is a full member of the European Union. There are also large communities of British and Russian people who live permanently on the island.
The last group is foreign workers from third countries. So, to summarize, Cyprus society comprises officially of two communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and three small minorities, Armenians, Latins, and Maronites. Additionally today there are large groups of European citizens, UK and Russian citizens, and foreign workers. Add to these the millions of visitors and tourists from many different foreign countries, and you have an open, multinational and multicultural society.
Official languages of Cyprus. The official languages of Cyprus are Greek and Turkish. Other, widely spoken languages are English and Russian. In addition to them the three minorities in Cyprus have their own languages:. Each of them accounts for very few thousands of people.
All three minorities decided to join the Greek Cypriot community. They use the Greek language into their day to day lives, but they do have their own languages, customs and religions as well, which define them as minorities.
Armenian people's language is Armenian. Maronite language is a variety of Arabic, called Cypriot Maronite Arabic. It is spoken for more than years and is an ancient branch or Arabic, with elements from the now-extinct Aramaic language, which was the language spoken in the Middle East when Jesus Christ was on Earth. Their religion is Christian Catholic.
Religions of Cyprus. There are six major cities in Cyprus. Each one of them is the capital of one of the six districts of Cyprus, with the same name.
The list of the biggest cities of Cyprus is according to their population:. Nicosia The capital and largest city of Cyprus, Nicosia is the only city of Cyprus that is not located on the seashore. Cyprus map also shows that Cyprus is an island located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Surprisingly, the small island country has very high income economy along with high Human Development Index. It is one of the favorite destinations for tourists. There are some of the historical sites that attract tourists across the world.
Besides, Cyprus is home of some of the oldest water wells and also popular for the oldest known site of feline domestication. At present, Republic of Cyprus is partitioned into two main parts de facto i.
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