Cyprus's Financial Crisis and the Threat to the Euro

Cyprus has existed as a potential flashpoint of international conflict from the very beginning of its existence as an independent nation in 1960, when its anticolonial liberation struggle from Britain by the 80 percent Greek majority failed to achieve its national aspirations for enosis. Along the way, additional interested parties were drawn into the fray, including the United Nations and more recently the European Union, after Cyprus first became a full member in 2004 and subsequently adopted the euro currency in 2008. The Greek-dominated and internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus has since managed to restructure its economy after the loss of the most productive and resource-rich northern areas by investing heavily in tourism, banking, shipping, and financial services. Just as the Cyprus problem had begun to take on a perennial nature, to the point of being abandoned by the international community as one of those intractable conflicts that had no plausible resolution, the picture began to change quickly, taking many astute international observers by surprise.