ABSTRACT
The island nation of Cyprus is located in the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea about 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of Asia Minor, present-day Turkey. According to his tory and legend, the 9,250 square kilometre (3,570 square mile) island was first colonized by Greeks in about the twelfth Century BC; today about 80 per cent of the Cypriot population speaks Greek and follows the Greek Orthodox Church. In the sixteenth Century AD, predominantly Muslim Turkish settlers began arriving on Cyprus and today represent most of the other 20 per cent of the population of 665,000 people.
