20th Century
| Year | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1904 | Sir Charles King-Harman became Crown commissioner. | |
| 1911 | Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams became Crown commissioner. | |
| 1914 | Britain annexed Cyprus in response to Turkey's alliance with Germany and Austro-Hungary in World War I. | |
| 1915 | Sir John Eugene Clauson became Crown commissioner. | |
| 1920 | Sir Malcolm Stevenson became Crown commissioner. | |
| 1925 | Cyprus became a British Crown Colony. Sir Malcolm Stevenson was made governor. | |
| 1926 | Sir Ronald Storrs became governor. | |
| 1931 | Greek Cypriots demanding Enosis, the union with Greece, instigated their first serious riots. The government-house in Nicosia was burned down; martial law was declared afterwards and the legislative council was abolished. The Greek National Anthem and the display of the Greek flag were banned. The British invented the terms "Greek Cypriot" and "Turkish Cypriot" and used the latter against the "Greek Cypriots" so as to cease Enosis demands. | |
| 1932 | Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs became governor. | |
| 1933 | Sir Herbert Richmond Palmer became governor. | |
| 1939 | Cypriots fought with the British in World War II, Greek Cypriots demanding Enosis at war's end. The Turkish Cypriots wanted British rule to continue. | |
| Sir William Denis Battershill became governor. | ||
| 1941 | Sir Charles Campbell Woolley became governor. | |
| 1946 | The British Government began to imprison thousands of displaced Jews in camps on Cyprus. | |
| Sir Reginald Fletcher, Lord Winster, became governor. | ||
| 1949 | The British Government finished imprisoning displaced Jews. | |
| Sir Andrew Barkworth Wright became governor. | ||
| 1950 | Archbishop Makarios III was elected the political and spiritual leader of Cyprus, the head of the autocephalous Cypriot Orthodox Church and leader of the campaign for Enosis with the support of Greece. | |
| 1954 | Sir Robert Perceval Armitage became governor. | |
| 28 July | Minister of State for the Colonies, Henry Hopkinson, says that there were certain territories in the Commonwealth 'which, owing to their particular circumstances, can never expect to be fully independent'. | |
| 1955 | Sir John Harding became governor. | |
| 1 April | A series of bomb attacks marked the start of a violent campaign for Enosis by the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) under George Grivas, a Cypriot ex-colonel in the Greek army. Grivas took the name Dighenis and conducted guerrilla warfare from a secret hideout in the Troodos Mountains. | |
| 1956 | Britain deported Makarios to the Seychelles in an attempt to quell the revolt. | |
| 1957 | Field Marshal Sir John Harding was replaced by the civilian governor Sir Hugh Foot in a conciliatory move. | |
| 1958 | 27 January | First of 2 days of serious rioting by Turkish Cypriots. Seven were killed by British security forces. |
| 7 June | Turkish press office in Nicosia is bombed. Inter-communal clashes as Turkish Cypriots invade Greek sector. On June 26, 1984 the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On January 9, 1995 Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey. | |
| 12 June | The first massacre between Greeks and Turks on Cyprus. British police released from arrest a group of 35 Greeks in the region of Guenyeli. A Turkish mob attacks the unarmed group, killing some of them. | |
| 1959 | 18 October | British minesweeper HMS Burmaston intercepts the Turkish registered boat, Deniz. Loaded with weaponry, the boat is scuttled by its 3 member crew. The crew, all Turkish nationals, are arrested for importing munitions without a permit. |
| 28 October | Archbishop Makarios III and Dr. Fazil Kuchuk appeal to their respective communities to hand over illegal weapons. | |
| 15 November | Deadline to hand over illegal weapons. | |
| 1960 | British occupation ended. | |
| The British, Greek and Turkish governments signed a Treaty of Guarantee to provide for an independent Cypriot state within the Commonwealth of Nations and allow for the retention of two Sovereign Base Areas at Akrotiri and Dhekelia. Under the treaty, each power received the right to take military action in the face of any threat to the constitution. Cyprus became independent of foreign rule. The Greek Cypriot Archbishop Makarios became the first president, with Turkish Cypriot Dr. Kutchuk his vice president. Both had the right of veto. Turkish Cypriots, who formed 18% of the population, were guaranteed the vice-presidency, three out of ten ministerial posts and 30% of jobs in the public service. They were further guaranteed 40% representation in the army and separate municipal services in the five major towns. Overall, a very complex constitution was drafted, which demanded a majority of votes overall as well as within each community for many decisions. | ||
| 1963 | Greek Cypriots began to view the constitution as unworkable and proposed changes abolishing all veto rights and many ethnic clauses; these proposals were rejected by Turkish Cypriots and the Turkish government. Inter-communal fighting erupted. Tylliria was bombarded with napalm bombs. A UN Peace Keeping Force was sent in, but soon proved powerless to prevent incidents. Thousands of Turkish Cypriots retreated into enclaves where they were embargoed by the Greek Cypriots. The UN attempted to supply them with food and medicine. Akritas plan | |
| 1964 | The Battle of Tylliria takes place. Greek-Cypriot forces storm the Turkish-held Kokkina enclave, prompting a Turkish military intervention and airstrikes on the Greek forces. However, Soviet pressure prevented the Turks from going any further, and when the battle ended after four days of fierce fighting, the Kokkina enclave had been reduced to 50-40% of its original size. | |
| 1971 | EOKA B' is being created | |
| 1973 | The Turks emerged from their enclaves. | |
| 1974 | see Timeline of events in Cyprus, 1974 | |
| 1975 | Turks announced a Federate State in the north, with Rauf Denktaş as leader. UN Forces remained as buffer between the two zones. | |
| 1977 | Makarios died. He was succeeded by Spyros Kyprianou. | |
| 1983 | The Turkish Federated State declared itself the independent Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), with Denktaş as President. The new state was not recognised by any country except Turkey and was officially boycotted. | |
| Fearing a "second Cyprus", the Greek government adopts a policy of referring to the Turkish community in Greek Thrace as Greek Muslims or Hellenic Muslims, and does not recognise a separate Turkish minority. | ||
| 1992 | UN sponsored talks began between the two sides. | |
| 1995 | The UN talks ran into the sand, but with a commitment to resume. |
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of Cypriot History
Famous quotes containing the word century:
“So that he seemed not to relinquish life, but to leave one home for another.”
—Cornelius Nepos (1st century B.C.)