Cyprus Gains Independence.

Cyprus was colonized by the Greeks during the second millennium b.c.e. The Turks settled on the island during Ottoman rule, which lasted from 1571 to 1878. By the time Great Britain took control in 1878, the Cypriot society’s biethnic character had been formed and consolidated. In 1960, when Cyprus became independent from British colonial rule, its population of 570,000 consisted of 78 percent Christian Greek Cypriots, 18 percent Muslim Turkish Cypriots, and 4 percent other minorities.