Cyprus flag 10 x 15 cm

Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean east of Greece, west of Lebanon, Syria, and Israel, south of Turkey and north of Egypt.

Cyprus is the third largest Mediterranean island and one of the most popular tourist destinations, attracting over 2.4 million tourists per year. A former British colony, it became an independent republic in 1960 and a member of the Commonwealth in 1961. The Republic of Cyprus is one of the advanced economies in the region, and has been a member of the European Union since 1 May 2004. It adopted the euro on 1 January 2008.

In 1974, following years of intercommunal violence between ethnic Greeks and Turks and an attempted coup d'état by Greek Cypriot nationalists aimed at annexing the island to Greece and engineered by the military junta then in power in Athens, Turkey invaded and occupied one third of the island. This led to the displacement of thousands of Cypriots and the establishment of a separate Turkish Cypriot political entity in the north. This event and its resulting political situation are matters of ongoing dispute.

The Republic of Cyprus, the internationally recognised state, has de jure sovereignty over the entire island of Cyprus and its surrounding waters except the 3% which appendix O of the Treaty of Establishment of the Republic allocates to the United Kingdom as sovereign military bases. The island is de facto partitioned into four main parts:

the area under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus, in the south of the island;

the Turkish-controlled area in the north, calling itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (recognised only by Turkey);

the United Nations-controlled Green Line, separating the two; and

two British Sovereign Base Areas (Akrotiri and Dhekelia).

reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus

The Flag of Cyprus came into use on August 16, 1960 under the Zürich and London Agreements, whereby a constitution was drafted and Cyprus was proclaimed an independent state.

The national flag features a map of the entirety of the island, with two olive branches below (a symbol of peace) on white (another symbol of peace). The olive branches signify peace between the Turks and Greeks. The map on the flag is a copper-yellow color, symbolizing the large deposits of copper ore on the island (chiefly in the form of chalcopyrite, which is yellow in color), from which it allegedly received its name. Founded in 1193, the Kingdom of Cyprus experienced centuries of conflict. Cyprus was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1571, which increased Turkish settlement on the island. It then fell under British control in 1878. The flag, adopted at independence in 1960, deliberately chose peaceful and neutral symbols in an attempt to indicate harmony between the rival Greek and Turkish communities, an ideal that has not yet been realized. In 1974, Turkish forces occupied the northern part of the island, forming the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The two parts of the island also fly the national flags of Greece and Turkey.

reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Cyprus