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Politics and Economy in Cyprus after Independence

After Independence in 1960, the Constitution of Cyprus Republic adopted Presidential system of Government. The most salient feature was a specific provision of weighted power sharing ratio to protect the interests of Turkish Cypriot minorities. The constitution defined independent functioning of the main three wings of the administration, namely, Executives, Legislatives and Judiciary. The first President of the country was Archbishop Makarios – a Greek Cypriot, the Vice-President was a Turkish Cypriot Dr. Fazal Kucuk. They were elected by their respective community for a five-year term. The House of Representative was elected by separate voter’s rolls. However, following the clashes between the two communities in 1964, the House of Representative virtually became non existent with total non representation of Turkish Cypriot seats.

After the Coup to remove Archbishop Makarios by Military junta in 1974 and Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus – the total scenario changed considerably. The Turkish Cypriots established their own separate National Assembly and elected their President and Prime Minister. In 1983, the Turkish Cypriot declared an independent state of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The market economy in the Republic of Cyprus is dominated mainly by the service sector , namely, Tourism and Financial services .But, Tourism gets affected by political instability in the region and economic conditions in European countries particularly Western Europe. However, the economy in the area under Government control is growing better than European Union’s average. Further, the government has taken aggressive austerity drive which is giving rich dividends which has possibly prompted the European Union to invite Cyprus to adopt euro as currency from 2008.

The area under Turkish Cypriots is experiencing the perennial problem of water scarcity. The rainfall is constantly fluctuating from year to year. The area is certainly poorer to its southern sector. Its economy has 45% of the per capita GDP of the Greek Cypriots. However, higher growth in construction sector is auguring well for Turkish Cypriots.