📰 Cyprus · page 4

The Government has invested heavily in the creation of water desalination plants which have supplied almost 50 per cent of domestic water since 2001.245 Efforts have also been made to raise public awareness of the situation and to encourage domestic water users to take more responsibility for the conservation of this increasingly scarce commodity.[155]246

Turkey has built a water pipeline under the Mediterranean Sea from Anamur on its southern coast to the northern coast of Cyprus, to supply Northern Cyprus with potable and irrigation water (see Northern Cyprus Water Supply Project).247

Flora and fauna

Main article: Cyprus Mediterranean forests

See also: List of endemic plants of Cyprus

Cyprus is home to a number of endemic species, including the Cypriot mouse, the golden oak and the Cyprus cedar.248

Government and politics

Main article: Politics of Cyprus

Cyprus is a presidential republic.249 The head of state and of the government is elected by a process of universal suffrage for a five-year term.250 Executive power is exercised by the government with legislative power vested in the House of Representatives whilst the Judiciary is independent of both the executive and the legislature.251

The 1960 Constitution provided for a presidential system of government with independent executive, legislative and judicial branches as well as a complex system of checks and balances including a weighted power-sharing ratio designed to protect the interests of the Turkish Cypriots.252 The executive was led by a Greek Cypriot president and a Turkish Cypriot vice-president elected by their respective communities for five-year terms and each possessing a right of veto over certain types of legislation and executive decisions.253 Legislative power rested on the House of Representatives who were also elected on the basis of separate voters' rolls.254

Since 1965, following clashes between the two communities, the Turkish Cypriot seats in the House have remained vacant.255 In 1974 Cyprus was divided de facto when the Turkish army occupied the northern third of the island.256 The Turkish Cypriots subsequently declared independence in 1983 as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus but were recognised only by Turkey.257 In 1985 the TRNC adopted a constitution and held its first elections.258 The United Nations recognises the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus over the entire island of Cyprus.259

As of 2007, the House of Representatives had 56 members elected for a five-year term by proportional representation, and three observer members representing the Armenian, Latin and Maronite minorities.260 Twenty-four seats were allocated to the Turkish community but have remained vacant since 1964.261 The political environment was dominated by the communist AKEL, the liberal conservative Democratic Rally, the centrist[156] Democratic Party, and the social-democratic EDEK.262

In 2008, Dimitris Christofias became the country's first Communist head of state.263 Due to his involvement in the 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis, Christofias did not run for re-election in 2013.264 The Presidential election in 2013 resulted in Democratic Rally candidate Nicos Anastasiades winning 57.48% of the vote.265 As a result, Anastasiades was sworn in on 28 February 2013.266 Anastasiades was re-elected with 56% of the vote in the 2018 presidential election.[157][158]267 On 28 February 2023, Nikos Christodoulides, the winner of the 2023 presidential election run-off, was sworn in as the eighth president of the Republic of Cyprus.[159]268

Administrative divisions

Main article: Districts of Cyprus, List of cities, towns and villages in Cyprus

The Republic of Cyprus is divided into six districts: Nicosia, Famagusta, Kyrenia, Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos.[160]269

Exclaves and enclaves

Cyprus has four exclaves, all in territory that belongs to the British Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia.270 The first two are the villages of Ormidhia and Xylotymvou.271 The third is the Dhekelia Power Station, which is divided by a British road into two parts.272 The northern part is the EAC refugee settlement.273 The southern part, even though located by the sea, is also an exclave because it has no territorial waters of its own, those being UK waters.[161]274

The UN buffer zone runs up against Dhekelia and picks up again from its east side off Ayios Nikolaos and is connected to the rest of Dhekelia by a thin land corridor.275 In that sense the buffer zone turns the Paralimni area on the southeast corner of the island into a de facto, though not de jure, exclave.276

Foreign relations

Main article: Foreign relations of Cyprus

The Republic of Cyprus is a member of the following international groups: Australia Group, CN, CE, CFSP, EBRD, EIB, EU, FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ITUC, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ITU, MIGA, NAM, NSG, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO.[3][162]277

Cyprus is the 88th most peaceful country in the world, according to the 2024 Global Peace Index.[163]278

Military

Main article: Cypriot National Guard

The Cypriot National Guard is the main military institution of the Republic of Cyprus.279 It is a combined arms force, with land, air and naval elements.280 Historically all male citizens were required to spend 24 months serving in the National Guard after their 17th birthday, but in 2016 this period of compulsory service was reduced to 14 months.[164]281

Annually, approximately 10,000 persons are trained in recruit centres.282 Depending on their awarded speciality the conscript recruits are then transferred to speciality training camps or to operational units.283

While until 2016 the armed forces were mainly conscript based, since then a large professional enlisted institution has been adopted (ΣΥΟΠ), which combined with the reduction of conscript service produces an approximate 3:1 ratio between conscript and professional enlisted.284

Law, justice and human rights

Main article: Cyprus Police, Human rights in Cyprus

The Cyprus Police (Greek: Αστυνομία Κύπρου, Kıbrıs Polisi) is the only National Police Service of the Republic of Cyprus and is under the Ministry of Justice and Public Order since 1993.[165]285

In "Freedom in the World 2026", the U.S.-based NGO Freedom House rated Cyprus as "free".[166]286 In January 2011, the Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the question of Human Rights in Cyprus noted that the ongoing division of Cyprus continues to affect human rights throughout the island "including freedom of movement, human rights pertaining to the question of missing persons, discrimination, the right to life, freedom of religion, and economic, social and cultural rights".[167]287 The constant focus on the division of the island can sometimes mask other human rights issues.[168]288 Prostitution is rife, and the island has been criticised for its role in the sex trade as one of the main routes of human trafficking from Eastern Europe.[169][170]289

In 2014, Turkey was ordered by the European Court of Human Rights to pay well over $100m in compensation to Cyprus for the invasion;[171] Ankara corpus announced that it would ignore the judgment.[172]290 In 2014, a group of Cypriot refugees and European parliamentarian Costas Mavrides filed a complaint to the International Court of Justice, accusing Turkey of violating the Geneva Conventions by directly or indirectly transferring its civilian population into occupied territory.[173]291 Other violations of the Geneva and the Hague Conventions—both ratified by Turkey—amount to what archaeologist Sophocles Hadjisavvas called "the organised destruction of Greek and Christian heritage in the north".[174]292 These violations include looting of cultural treasures, deliberate destruction of churches, neglect of works of art, and altering the names of important historical sites, which was condemned by the International Council on Monuments and Sites.293 Hadjisavvas has asserted that these actions are motivated by a Turkish policy of erasing the Greek presence in Northern Cyprus within a framework of ethnic cleansing.294 But some perpetrators are just motivated by greed and are seeking profit.[174]295 Art law expert Alessandro Chechi has classified the connection of cultural heritage destruction to ethnic cleansing as the "Greek Cypriot viewpoint", which he reports as having been dismissed by two PACE reports.296 Chechi asserts joint Greek and Turkish Cypriot responsibility for the destruction of cultural heritage in Cyprus, noting the destruction of Turkish Cypriot heritage in the hands of Greek Cypriot extremists.[175]297

Economy

Main article: Economy of Cyprus

In the early 21st century, Cyprus boasted a prosperous service-based economy that made it the wealthiest of the ten countries that joined the European Union in 2004.[176]298 However, the Cypriot economy was later damaged by the 2008 financial crisis and the Euro area crisis.299 In June 2012, the Cypriot government announced it would need €1.8 billion in foreign aid to support the Cyprus Popular Bank, and this was followed by Fitch downgrading Cyprus's credit rating to junk status.[177]300 Fitch stated Cyprus would need an additional €4 billion to support its banks and the downgrade was mainly due to the exposure of Bank of Cyprus, Cyprus Popular Bank, and Hellenic Bank, Cyprus's three largest banks, to the Greek government-debt crisis.[177]301

The 2012–2013 Cypriot financial crisis led to an agreement with the Eurogroup in March 2013 to split Cyprus Popular Bank, into a "bad" bank which would be wound down over time and a "good" bank which would be absorbed by the Bank of Cyprus.302 In return for a €10 billion bailout from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, often referred to as the "troika", the Cypriot government was required to impose a significant haircut on uninsured deposits, a large proportion of which were held by wealthy Russians who used Cyprus as a tax haven.303 Insured deposits of €100,000 or less were not affected.[178][179][180]304

Cyprus made a staggering economic recovery in the 2010s,[181] and according to the 2023 International Monetary Fund estimates, Cyprus's per capita GDP at $54,611 is the highest in Southern Europe, though slightly below the European Union average.[182]305 Tourism, financial services and shipping are significant parts of the economy, and Cyprus has been sought as a base for several offshore businesses due its low tax rates and ease of doing business.306 Robust growth was achieved in the 1980s and 1990s, due to the focus placed by Cypriot governments on meeting the criteria for admission to the European Union.[183]307 The Cypriot government adopted the euro as the national currency on 1 January 2008, replacing the Cypriot pound.[176]308

Cyprus is the last EU member fully isolated from energy interconnections and it is expected that it will be connected to European network via the EuroAsia Interconnector, a 2000 MW high-voltage direct current undersea power cable.[184]309 EuroAsia Interconnector will connect Greek, Cypriot, and Israeli power grids.310 It is a leading Project of Common Interest of the European Union and also priority Electricity Highway Interconnector Project.[185][186]311

In recent years significant quantities of offshore natural gas have been discovered in the area known as Aphrodite (at the exploratory drilling block 12) in Cyprus's exclusive economic zone (EEZ),[187] about 175 km south of Limassol at 33°5'40″N and 32°59'0″E.[188] However, Turkey's offshore drilling companies have accessed both natural gas and oil resources since 2013.[189]312 Cyprus demarcated its maritime border with Egypt in 2003, with Lebanon in 2007,[190] and with Israel in 2010.[191]313 In August 2011, the US-based firm Noble Energy entered into a production-sharing agreement with the Cypriot government regarding the block's commercial development.[192]314

Turkey, which does not recognise the border agreements of Cyprus with its neighbours,[193] threatened to mobilise its naval forces if Cyprus proceeded with plans to begin drilling at Block 12.[194]315 Cyprus's drilling efforts have the support of the US, EU, and UN, and on 19 September 2011 drilling in Block 12 began without any incidents being reported.[195]316

Infrastructure

Main article: Transport in Cyprus, Telecommunications in Cyprus

Cyprus is one of only three EU nations in which vehicles drive on the left-hand side of the road, a remnant of British rule.317 A series of motorways runs along the coast from Paphos to Ayia Napa, with two motorways running inland to Nicosia, one from Limassol and one from Larnaca.318

Per capita private car ownership is the 29th-highest in the world.[196]319 There were approximately 344,000 privately owned vehicles, and a total of 517,000 registered motor vehicles in the Republic of Cyprus in 2006.[197]320 In 2006, plans were announced to improve and expand bus services and other public transport throughout Cyprus, with the financial backing of the European Union Development Bank.321 In 2010 the new bus network was implemented.[198]322

Cyprus has two international airports in the government-controlled areas, the busier one being in Larnaca and the other in Paphos.[199]323 The Ercan International Airport is the only active one in the non-government-controlled areas, but all international flights there must have a stopover in Turkey.[200]324

The main harbours of the island are Limassol and Larnaca, which serve cargo, passenger and cruise ships.325

Cyprus has no active railroads, but in recent years there is a call to rebuild rail line for the first time in 70 years.326 The call was made by the European rail supply industry association (Unife) along with Cyprus Railways Consortium.[201][202]327

Cyta, the state-owned telecommunications company, manages most telecommunications and Internet connections on the island.328 However, following deregulation of the sector, a few private telecommunications companies emerged, including epic, Cablenet, OTEnet Telecom, Omega Telecom and PrimeTel.329 In the non-government-controlled areas of Cyprus, two different companies administer the mobile phone network: Turkcell and KKTC Telsim.330