Protaras history guide

Despite the island's prosperity (or perhaps because of it) things got off to a bumpy start with Phoenicians, Egyptians, Assyrians and Persians all fighting over it. By the 4th century B.C. Alexander the Great had taken the island and it was assimilated into his Greek-Egyptian kingdom.As the civilisation declined Cyprus was forgotten about and it was left to the Romans to pick up the pieces.Cyprus became a senatorial province and next appeared in the history books with St Paul establishing one of the first Christian ministries on the island.

Cyprus restructured itself between 332 and 365 when violent earthquakes destroyed many of the towns. Although Cyprus restored some degree of former glory, repeated Arab raids in the seventh and eighth centuries devastated many coastal settlements. The Middle Ages saw Cyprus conquered by the Knights Templar, the Lusignans and the Venetians, who heavily fortified a number of cities before later losing them to the Ottomans. The island then slid into a long period of decline, which only ended with the arrival of the British in 1878.

Three years after gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, the Turkish Cypriots abandoned parliament, and since then 24 of the 80 seats in the House of Representatives have remained empty. Partition followed in 1974 with 200,000 Greeks moving south whilst 65,000 Turkish Cypriots relocated to the north. The rest of the world, save Turkey, still refuses to officially recognise Northern Cyprus. 1300 United Nations Troops at an annual cost of $45 million currently man the border, locally known as 'The Green Line'. In the South of the island the governmental system remains a multiparty democracy, with President Tassos Papadopoulis of the National Unity Party its leader. The self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has successively re-elected the same President, Rauf Denktash, every five years since he came to power in 1976. The recent entry of the island to the EU on May 1st 2004 looks set to shake up the current status between the two sides of the island. The rejection of the EU unification plan by a majority in the South is a setback, but its acceptance in the North looks set to end the region's isolation as it wins EU favour.