1.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
2.
Turkish language
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Outside of Turkey, significant smaller groups of speakers exist in Germany, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Northern Cyprus, Greece, the Caucasus, and other parts of Europe and Central Asia. Cyprus has requested that the European Union add Turkish as an official EU language, in 1928, as one of Atatürks Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a Latin alphabet. The distinctive characteristics of Turkish are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination, the basic word order of Turkish is subject–object–verb. Turkish has no classes or grammatical gender. Turkish has a strong T–V distinction and usage of honorifics, Turkish uses second-person pronouns that distinguish varying levels of politeness, social distance, age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a person out of respect. Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language group, the Turkic family comprises some 30 living languages spoken across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Siberia. Turkish is a member of the Oghuz group of languages, a subgroup of the Turkic language family, there is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and the other Oghuz Turkic languages, including Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, and Balkan Gagauz Turkish. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia, erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan, these date back to the second Turk Kaghanate. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, following the adoption of Islam c. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry, was influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a reform to replace loanwords of Arabic. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the terms of Arabic or Persian origin. The past few decades have seen the work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance, however, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka, political party—also failed to meet with popular approval, some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings, for example betik is now used to mean script in computer science
3.
Mediterranean Sea
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The sea is sometimes considered a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a separate body of water. The name Mediterranean is derived from the Latin mediterraneus, meaning inland or in the middle of land and it covers an approximate area of 2.5 million km2, but its connection to the Atlantic is only 14 km wide. The Strait of Gibraltar is a strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar. In oceanography, it is called the Eurafrican Mediterranean Sea or the European Mediterranean Sea to distinguish it from mediterranean seas elsewhere. The Mediterranean Sea has a depth of 1,500 m. The sea is bordered on the north by Europe, the east by Asia and it is located between latitudes 30° and 46° N and longitudes 6° W and 36° E. Its west-east length, from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Gulf of Iskenderun, the seas average north-south length, from Croatia’s southern shore to Libya, is approximately 800 km. The Mediterranean Sea, including the Sea of Marmara, has an area of approximately 2,510,000 square km. The sea was an important route for merchants and travelers of ancient times that allowed for trade, the history of the Mediterranean region is crucial to understanding the origins and development of many modern societies. In addition, the Gaza Strip and the British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri, the term Mediterranean derives from the Latin word mediterraneus, meaning amid the earth or between land, as it is between the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The Ancient Greek name Mesogeios, is similarly from μέσο, between + γη, land, earth) and it can be compared with the Ancient Greek name Mesopotamia, meaning between rivers. The Mediterranean Sea has historically had several names, for example, the Carthaginians called it the Syrian Sea and latter Romans commonly called it Mare Nostrum, and occasionally Mare Internum. Another name was the Sea of the Philistines, from the people inhabiting a large portion of its shores near the Israelites, the sea is also called the Great Sea in the General Prologue by Geoffrey Chaucer. In Ottoman Turkish, it has also been called Bahr-i Sefid, in Modern Hebrew, it has been called HaYam HaTikhon, the Middle Sea, reflecting the Seas name in ancient Greek, Latin, and modern languages in both Europe and the Middle East. Similarly, in Modern Arabic, it is known as al-Baḥr al-Mutawassiṭ, in Turkish, it is known as Akdeniz, the White Sea since among Turks the white colour represents the west. Several ancient civilisations were located around the Mediterranean shores, and were influenced by their proximity to the sea. It provided routes for trade, colonisation, and war, as well as food for numerous communities throughout the ages, due to the shared climate, geology, and access to the sea, cultures centered on the Mediterranean tended to have some extent of intertwined culture and history. Two of the most notable Mediterranean civilisations in classical antiquity were the Greek city states, later, when Augustus founded the Roman Empire, the Romans referred to the Mediterranean as Mare Nostrum
4.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
5.
Nicosia
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Nicosia is the largest city on the island of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaoria plain, on the banks of the River Pedieos, Nicosia is the capital and seat of government of the Republic of Cyprus, and as such is the farthest southeast of all EU member states capitals. It has been inhabited for over 4,500 years and has been the capital of Cyprus since the 10th century. The Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities of Nicosia segregated into the south and north of the city respectively in 1963, following the intercommunal violence that broke out in the city. Today, the part of the city is the capital of Northern Cyprus. Apart from its legislative and administrative functions, Nicosia has established itself as the financial capital. In 2012, Nicosia was the 5th richest city in the world in purchasing power. Nicosia has been in continuous habitation since the beginning of the Bronze Age 2500 years BC, Nicosia later became a city-state known as Ledra or Ledrae, one of the twelve kingdoms of ancient Cyprus built by Achaeans after the end of the Trojan War. Remains of old Ledra today can be found in the Ayia Paraskevi hill in the south east of the city and we only know about one king of Ledra, Onasagoras. The kingdom of Ledra was destroyed early, under Assyrian rule of Cyprus, Onasagoras was recorded as paying tribute to Esarhaddon of Assyria in 672 BC. By 330 BC, Ledra was recorded to be a small an unimportant town, according to tradition, the city was rebuilt by Leucus, claimed to be the son of Ptolemy I, around 300 BC or 200 BC, and named after him as Leucoton or Lefkotheon. The main activity of the inhabitants was farming. During this era, Ledra did not have the growth that the other Cypriot coastal towns had. In Byzantine times the town was referred to as Λευκωσία or as Καλληνίκησις. In the 4th century AD, the became the seat of bishopric, with bishop Saint Tryphillius. After the destruction of Salamis, the capital of Cyprus, by Arab raids in 647, Nicosia became the capital of the island around 965. The Byzantines moved the islands administration seat to Nicosia primarily for security reasons as coastal towns were often suffering from raids, from that point on it has remained as the capital of Cyprus. On his way to the Holy Land during the Third Crusade in 1187 and he himself stopped first at Crete and then at Rhodes
6.
Mount Olympus (Cyprus)
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Olympus, or Chionistra, at 1,952 metres, is the highest point in Cyprus. It is located in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus, Mount Olympus peak and the Troodos Square fall under the territory of Platres in Limassol District. A British long range radar currently operates at Mount Olympus peak, the Mount Olympus Ski resort consists of the Sun Valley and North Face areas. Each area has its own chairlifts and runs, writing in the late first century BC of first century AD, the geographer Strabo reported that on one of its promontories was a temple to Aphrodite of the Heights, which women were forbidden to enter
7.
Cyprus
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Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, the earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC, Cyprus was placed under British administration based on Cyprus Convention in 1878 and formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders, following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. On 15 July 1974, a coup détat was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis and these events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. The Cyprus Republic has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus, as well as its territorial sea and exclusive economic area, another nearly 4% of the islands area is covered by the UN buffer zone. The international community considers the part of the island as territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces. The occupation is viewed as illegal under law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus became a member of the European Union. Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean, on 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the eurozone. The earliest attested reference to Cyprus is the 15th century BC Mycenaean Greek
8.
Northern Cyprus
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Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, is a self-declared state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. Recognised only by Turkey, Northern Cyprus is considered by the community to be part of the Republic of Cyprus. Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point and its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the islands largest city and capital of both sides. A coup détat in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support. Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful, the Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus. Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences, the official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are varied and mostly moderate. Northern Cyprus is an observer of the OIC and ECO, and has status in the PACE under the title Turkish Cypriot Community. A united Cyprus gained independence from British rule in August 1960, the agreement involved Cyprus being governed under a constitution which apportioned Cabinet posts, parliamentary seats and civil service jobs on an agreed ratio between the two communities. Within three years, tensions began to show between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in administrative affairs, in particular, disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. In 1963 President Makarios proposed unilateral changes to the constitution, via 13 amendments, Turkish Cypriots filed a lawsuit against the 13 amendments in the Supreme Constitutional Court of Cyprus. On 25 April 1963, the SCCC decided that Makarios 13 amendments were illegal, on 21 May, the president of the SCCC resigned due to Makarios stance. On 15 July, Makarios ignored the decision of the SCCC, after the resignation of the president of the SCCC, the SCCC ceased to exist. The Supreme Court of Cyprus was formed by merging the SCCC and the High Court of Cyprus, on 30 November, Makarios legalized the 13 proposals. In 1963, the Greek Cypriot wing of the government created the Akritas plan which outlined a policy that would remove Turkish Cypriots from the government, the plan stated that if the Turkish Cypriots objected then they should be violently subjugated before foreign powers could intervene. Almost immediately, intercommunal violence broke out with a major Greek Cypriot paramilitary attack upon Turkish Cypriots in Nicosia, seven hundred Turkish hostages, including children, were taken from the northern suburbs of Nicosia. Nikos Sampson, a nationalist and future leader, led a group of Greek Cypriot irregulars into the mixed suburb of Omorphita/Küçük Kaymaklı
9.
North Nicosia
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North Nicosia or Northern Nicosia is the capital and largest city of the de facto state of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It is the part of the divided city of Nicosia and is governed by the Nicosia Turkish Municipality. As of 2011, North Nicosia had a population of 61,378, the city is the economic, political and cultural centre of Northern Cyprus, with many shops, restaurants and shopping malls. It is home to a walled city, centred on the Sarayönü Square. Described as a city with high levels of welfare, it has seen great growth and development in the 21st century, including the construction of new highways. It hosts a significant number of tourists and a variety of activities, including its international festivals of theatre. With a student population over 34,000, North Nicosia is an important centre of education, in 1963, in the aftermath of constitutional amendments by the Greek Cypriots which were rejected by the Turkish Cypriots, intercommunal violence broke out. Nicosia was divided into Greek and Turkish Cypriot quarters by the Green Line, on 15 July 1974, there was an attempted coup détat led by the Greek military junta to unite the island with Greece. The coup ousted president Makarios III and replaced him with pro-enosis nationalist Nikos Sampson, on 20 July 1974, the Turkish army invaded the island, fearing that the coup would result in enosis. On 23 April 2003, the Ledra Palace crossing was opened through the Green Line and this was followed by the opening of Ayios Dometios crossing point on 9 May 2003. On 3 April 2008, the Ledra Street crossing was also reopened, as the capital, North Nicosia is Northern Cypruss political, economic and cultural centre. North Nicosia hosts the ministries of Northern Cyprus, the city is governed by the Nicosia Turkish Municipality, which is recognized by the constitution of the Republic of Cyprus. The Nicosia Turkish Municipality is headed by the mayor, Mehmet Harmancı from the Communal Democracy Party, each of these quarters are headed by a muhtar, who is elected by the residents in local elections. The northern part is richer in historical buildings and cultural works, with its Selimiye quarter retaining its historical character. The walled city overall has been declared an area by the Turkish Cypriot Department of Antiquities. At the centre of the city lies the Atatürk Square. It still hosts mass rallies during political campaigns and the headquarters of the National Unity Party, in the middle of the square stands the Venetian Column, known simply as the Obelisk to the locals and symbolic of the countrys government. The column was brought from the ancient city of Salamis by the Venetians in 1550, the coats of arms of six Italian noble families still remains at the bottom of the column, even though the statue of the lion on it has been replaced with a copper ball
10.
Akrotiri and Dhekelia
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Akrotiri and Dhekelia, officially the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, is a British Overseas Territory on the island of Cyprus. The territory is comprised of two Base Areas, one is Akrotiri, or the Western Sovereign Base Area, which includes two main bases at RAF Akrotiri and Episkopi, plus all of Akrotiri Villages district and parts of eleven other village districts. The other area is Dhekelia Cantonment, or the Eastern Sovereign Base Area, the Sovereign Base Areas were created in 1960 by the London and Zurich Agreements, when Cyprus achieved independence from the British Empire. The United Kingdom desired to retain sovereignty over these areas, as this guaranteed the use of UK military bases on Cyprus, including RAF Akrotiri, and this did not affect the status of the bases. The Turkish advance halted when it reached the edge of the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area to avoid conflict with the United Kingdom. Some Greek Cypriot refugees remain housed on land in the parts of Trachoni, locals claimed the masts would endanger local lives and cause cancer, as well as have a negative impact on wildlife in the area. As of 2010, around 3,000 troops of British Forces Cyprus are based at Akrotiri, Ayios Nikolaos Station, in the ESBA, is an ELINT listening station of the UKUSA Agreement intelligence network. The election of left-wing Demetris Christofias as Cypriot president in February 2008 prompted concern in the United Kingdom, Christofias pledged to remove all foreign military forces from the island as part of a future settlement of the Cyprus dispute, calling the British presence on the island a colonial bloodstain. In some Cypriot media it was stated that the interdiction of the Syrian civil war, utilising Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The Labour government under whom the proposal appeared was replaced by the first Cameron ministry, the SBAs were retained in 1960 to keep military bases in areas under British sovereignty, along with the rights retained to use other sites in what became the territory of the Republic. Not to set up and administer colonies, not to create customs posts or other frontier barriers between the Sovereign Base Areas and the Republic. Not to establish commercial or civilian seaports or airports, not to allow new settlement of people in the Sovereign Base Areas other than for temporary purposes. Not to expropriate private property within the Sovereign Base Areas except for military purposes on payment of fair compensation, the ancient monuments and antiquity will be administered and maintained by the Republic of Cyprus. Licences for antiquity excavation will be issued by the Republic but will be subject to the consent of the authorities of the Sovereign Base Areas, movable antiquities found in excavations or discovered will be the property of the Republic. It has no connection with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or the British High Commission in Nicosia. The territory is administered by an Administrator who is also the Commander of British Forces Cyprus, the Administrator is officially appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the Ministry of Defence. The Administrator has all the executive and legislative authority of a governor of an overseas territory, no elections are held in the territory, although British citizens are normally entitled to vote in United Kingdom elections. The areas have their own system, distinct from the United Kingdom
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This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/.
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