ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the newly founded Republic of Cyprus of 1960, which had many characteristics of an ‘underdeveloped country’, managed to build within a few years a strong and stable economy marking impressive growth rates. Nonetheless, this ‘economic success story’, was mainly enjoyed by the Greek-Cypriot community and the island’s territory controlled by the Cyprus Government. Conversely, the Turkish-Cypriots, residing into the enclaves after December 1963 and having limited resources for economic and social development, were economically dependent on Turkey’s financial assistance. As a result, the economic and social schism between the two communities during the most crucial decade of 1964-1974 had gradually being aggravated. This factor had inevitably affected the evolution of the Cyprus problem. Therefore, this chapter aims to focus on identifying the dynamics of this impressive economic development of the Republic of Cyprus and how this development affected the Cyprus problem in general as well as the relations between the two communities, mainly after the inter-communal clash and separation of December 1963 until the Turkish invasion of 1974.
