A Modern History Cyprus

A fast moving and incisive history of the island’s divisions within itself and due to the grip of foreign states, most notably Greece and Turkey. Also somewhere prey to the clutches of the USA, the now resurgent Russia, not to mention the role of the British in the island since their acquisition of the territory in 1878.



Cyprus is particularly studied as a place historically and currently caught between the national interests and rivalries of Greece and Turkey and with a population very firmly still divided between the Greek and Turkish communities. These issues have been brought in to sharp focus by Cyprus’s entry into the European Union and Turkey’s own drive to join.



Mallinson makes use of latest source material, interviews with key players and reports that raise important, if awkward and embarrassing, questions. His critical eye also reveals the underlying story of British and American involvement in the island’s affairs. Firstly, as a key base in the Cold War, secondly, now as a key asset in the ‘war on terror’.