Travel in Cyprus

What a wonderful island Cyprus! Imagine yourself in a culture that draws on the Middle East, Europe, and 9,000 years of continuous invasion. Take a look at the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, the island of Cyprus is situated almost at the corner of three continents, and its no surprise that for centuries Cyprus has been the meeting point of Africa, Asia and Europe. The heritage of the island is clear even nowadays, with the Green Line division between Greek and Turkish Cyprus a noticeable symbol of the island's history. Talking about demographics in Cyprus, Cypriots share many traditions but keep up diverse identities based on religion, language, and close ties with their original motherlands. After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus de facto partitioned the Republic of Cyprus in two; Greek is predominantly spoken in the south, where the majority are Greek Cypriots, Turkish in the north, where the majority are Turkish Cypriots and Turkish, and English is widely used. Before the invasion the peoples of Cyprus (then Greek 78%, Turkish 18%, Armenian and Maronites 4%) were living dispersed on the island of Cyprus. Cyprus has a well-developed system of primary and secondary education. The majority of Cypriots earn their higher education at Greek, Turkish, British, or American universities, at the same time as there are also sizeable emigrant communities in the United Kingdom and Australia. Private colleges and state-supported universities have been developed by both the Turkish and Greek communities. The Greek Cypriot community adheres to the Autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot community adheres to Islam. The religious groups of Armenians, Maronites and Latins, in accordance with 1960 constitution, opted to belong to the Greek Cypriot community.

Significant demographic changes have been triggered by the influx of settlers from Turkey and Bulgaria in the occupied areas. The south has seen an influx of British and Arab, for the most part Palestinian and Lebanese, immigration, as well as migrant workers from Poland, Russia, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, China and the Philippines. As the 2001 census was restricted to the Republic's unoccupied territories, and did not include persons without Cypriot ID's or passports, there is no available official data from which to make estimates of each of these groups quantity.

Next to the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974 and especially the last 10-15 years, there has been an unprecedented effort by Turkey to change the demographic character of the occupied northern Cyprus. The results of a Turkish Cypriot census at the end of April 2006 state that out of a total population of 264,172, only 100,000 were Turkish Cypriots. Turkish settlers from Anatolia moved to the island, whose number reached around 146,122 (2007 figures). Almost 1/3 of the Turkish settlers in northern Cyprus have been given the "Turkish Cypriot" citizenship by the Turkish Cypriot authorities; in other words they were naturalized. Settlement in Northern Cyprus , especially if this is accompanied by naturalization, is a violation to the Geneva Conventions Protocol of 1977 since the Turkish occupation has been declared illegal by the UN. As a result of illegal settlement and naturalization of mainland Turks, the Turkish Cypriots who remain in Northern Cyprus are today outnumbered by the Turkish settlers and security forces.

Cyprus has a properly well-developed system of primary and secondary education offering both public and private education. The high quality of instruction can be attributed to a large extent to the above-average competence of the teachers. State schools are by and large seen as equivalent in quality of education to private-sector institutions. However, the value of a state high-school diploma is limited by the fact that the grades obtained account for only around 25% of the final grade for each topic, with the remaining 75% assigned by the teacher during the semester, in a minimally transparent way. Greek and Cypriot universities ignore high school grades almost entirely for admissions purposes. While a high-school diploma is mandatory for university attendance, admissions are decided almost exclusively on the basis of scores at centrally administered university entrance examinations that all university candidates are required to take. The majority of Cypriots receive their higher education at Greek, British, Turkish, other European and North American universities.

Most Greek Cypriots, and thus the majority of the population of Cyprus, are members of the Greek Orthodox Church, whereas most Turkish Cypriots are Muslim. According to Eurobarometer 2005 , Cyprus is one of the most religious countries in Europe, along with Turkey, Malta, Romania, Greece and Poland. In addition to the Orthodox Christian and Muslim communities, there are also small Bahá'í, Jewish, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Maronite (Eastern Rites Catholic) and Armenian Apostolic communities in Cyprus. Greek Orthodox 81%, Muslim 11%, Maronite, Armenian Apostolic 0.4%, and other 7.6% including Roman Catholic, Buddhist, other Eastern Orthodox (2006 est.)