A report on Cyprus, Turkey, Greece and Cyprus problem

It shares borders with the Black Sea to the north; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran to the east; Iraq to the southeast; Syria and the Mediterranean Sea to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and Greece and Bulgaria to the northwest.

It is the third-largest and third-most populous island in the Mediterranean, and is south of Turkey and west of Syria.

Cyprus is located off the south coast.

Greece shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast.

The international complications of the dispute stretch beyond the boundaries of the island of Cyprus itself and involve the guarantor powers under the Zürich and London Agreement (Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom), the United Nations, and the European Union, along with (unofficially) the United States and formerly the interference of Czechoslovakia and the Eastern Bloc.

Although the Republic of Cyprus is recognised by the international community as the sole legitimate state, the north is under the de facto administration of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, on which the Turkish Armed Forces are stationed.

From the 19th century onwards, the Greek Cypriot population pursued enosis, union with Greece, which became a Greek national policy in the 1950s.

These events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute.

While most of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands was under Ottoman control by the end of the 15th century, Cyprus and Crete remained Venetian territory and did not fall to the Ottomans until 1571 and 1670 respectively.

However, negotiations for solving the Cyprus dispute are still ongoing between Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot political leaders.

Following the resolution of the Macedonia naming dispute with the Prespa Agreement in 2018, the Ministry identifies two remaining issues of particular importance to the Greek state: Turkish challenges to Greek sovereignty rights in the Aegean Sea and corresponding airspace and the Cyprus dispute involving the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus.