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Türkiye vs. Greece

These two countries share quite a lot of their history, but dislike each other a lot. Why?

These two countries share quite a lot of their history, but dislike each other a lot. Why?


Our first look into this matter takes place in the 1820’s, when Greece achieved independence from Türkiye’s predecessor, the Ottoman Empire. From then till 1913, Greece, along with Serbia and Bulgaria, took much territory away from the empire. And when World War 1 ended in 1918, Greece almost took more.


Our second look takes place in 1967, when the island country of Cyprus was ethnically divided between the Greeks and Turks. The Greek Cypriots were in power at the time, and they wanted to join Greece, so in retaliation the Turk Cypriots created their own government. Then in 1974, Türkiye invaded Cyprus and took over the northern half of the island. The British and the U.N. eventually stepped in to broker peace. In 1983, though, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, or just Northern Cyprus, declared independence. To this day, Cyprus is backed by Greece, and Northern Cyprus is backed by Türkiye.





What will happen in the future? Will Cyprus and Northern Cyprus come to terms? Will Greece and Türkiye stop fighting? Only time will tell.



By Mihir Gupta

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