USAID Representative:
Alan Davis
U.S. Embassy
Nicosia, Cyprus
Tel: +357-22-393391
Fax: +357-22-393923
Email: nicosiausaid@state.gov |
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Overview
Cyprus’ location in the Eastern Mediterranean endows it with a strategic significance far beyond its small size. The long-standing, unresolved conflict in Cyprus represents a major foreign policy concern for the U.S., whose regional interest is to secure strategic geopolitical stability and promote economic prosperity and security. The persistent division of the island and tension between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities is the consequence of a long history of conflict that erupted in inter-communal violence in the 1960s and which culminated in armed conflict in 1974 with Turkey’s military intervention following an unsuccessful coup d’etat directed from Greece. The unresolved conflict continues to raise tensions between important NATO allies Greece and Turkey. The U.S. Congress has, since the events of 1974, consistently backed this policy perspective with legislation and regular annual Economic Support Fund (ESF) earmarks “aimed at reunification of the island and designed to reduce tensions and promote peace and cooperation between the two communities on Cyprus.” September 2008 marked the official resumption of the United Nations-led peace process.
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