CYPRUS

CYPRUS (Northern) / Kuzey KIBRIS.

Cyprus stamp centenary and 20th anniversary of the Independence of Cyprus, 1960-1980.
Simplified map of Cyprus Island.
Second stamp in a set of 3, issued on 16.08.1980.
Face value: 15 Turkish lira.
Printed by Ajans Türk Matbaa. Ankara.

Catalogues
- Scott No. 91.
- StampWorld No. 91.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 99.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 81.

The first stamps from Cyprus, then under British administration, were issued on April 1, 1880. It was a set of six British stamps with CYPRUS overprint.

On August 16, 1960, Cyprus gained independence following the London-Zurich Agreement between the United Kingdom, Greece, and Turkey. On July 20, 1974, five days after the Greek military junta under Dimitrios Ioannides carried out a coup in Cyprus to unite the island with Greece, the Turkish army invaded the island, citing the right to intervene to restore the constitutional order of the 1960 Guarantee Treaty. The island was divided into two sectors, and on November 15, 1983, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, proclaimed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti), establishing a State of fact that is only recognized by Turkey.