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Cyprus BACKGROUND
The Republic of Cyprus was created in 1960 through
international agreements reached in Zurich and London in
February
1959, with a constitution that went into effect in August
1960. The
constitution recognized the strong bicommunal character of
the new
state, with elaborate safeguards for the minority Turkish
Cypriot
community. In the preindependence debate over the
governmental
structure of the new state, neither Britain nor the
Turkish Cypriot
community accepted the concept of "minority rights" as an
organizing principle. Rather, the Turkish Cypriots were
recognized
as one of two "communities" with certain rights; the
legitimacy of
the state would derive from the partnership between the
two
communities. The Cypriot consociational experiment had
some unique
features designed to achieve a delicate balance between
the
prevailing Greek Cypriot preference for a unitary state
and the
Turkish Cypriot desire for as much recognition as a
separate
political entity as possible. The tension between these
two
communal priorities proved insurmountable.
Since 1964, the constitution of 1960 has not been the
legal
document governing relations between the two communities,
although
it remains the basis of government and law for the 80
percent of
the population that are Greek Cypriot and residing in the
twothirds of the island controlled by the authorities of the
Republic
of Cyprus. The "TRNC" approved a new constitution in 1985,
which
established a parliamentary system in the north.
Data as of January 1991
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