Enosis (Greek: Ένωσις, IPA: [ˈenosis], "union") was an irredentist ideology and political movement calling for the union of then British-ruled Cyprus with Greece. It was held among the island's Greek Cypriot majority and was associated with the campaign for Cypriot self-determination.
Cyprus
In 1828, the first Governor of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias, called for the union of Cyprus with Greece, and numerous minor uprisings took place. Cyprus was at that time part of the Ottoman Empire.
At the 1878 Congress of Berlin the administration of Cyprus was transferred to British Empire, and upon Garnet Wolseley's arrival as the first high-commissioner in July the Archbishop of Kition requested that Britain transfer the administration of Cyprus to Greece. The death of Limassol–Paphos MP Christodoulos Sozos during the course of the Battle of Bizani during the First Balkan War, left a lasting mark on the Enosis movement and was one of its most important events before the 1931 Cyprus revolt. Greek schools and courts suspended their activities, and a court in Nicosia also raised a flag in honour of Sozos, thus breaking the law since Britain had maintained a neutral stance in the conflict. Mnemosyna were held in dozens of villages across Cyprus, as well as in Cypriot communities in Athens, Egypt and Sudan. Greek Cypriot newspapers were swept with nationalist fervor comparing Sozos with Pavlos Melas. A photo of Sozos was placed in the Hellenic Parliament.
Britain annexed Cyprus in 1914. Britain offered to cede the island to Greece in 1915 in return for Greece joining the allies in World War I, but the offer was refused. Turkey relinquished all claims to Cyprus in 1923 with the Treaty of Lausanne, and the island became a British Crown colony in 1925. In 1929, a Greek Cypriot delegation was sent to London to request enosis, but this was refused. After anti-British riots in 1931, the desire for self-government within the British Commonwealth developed, but the...
