| Summary: | The Cyprus issue appeared during the late 1950s when Britain decided to grant the Cypriot people their independence. The Republic of Cyprus emerged in 1960 provided with an unworkable constitution. As natural as it would be expected to be, intercommunal problems arose just after independence on Cyprus. Greece and Turkey became involved from the beginning as the "motherlands" of the two Cypriot communities. Since after 1963 there was mounting violence on the island republic, the danger of a military confrontation between Greece and Turkey was imminent. War between these two NATO allies in the midst of the Cold War would inevitably cause a defense vacuum in the east Mediterranean. Therefore, the United States, the leading nation of the western power structure, undertook efforts to resolve the dispute and maintain the power balances in the region.
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