THE
ARMENIANS
OF CYPRUS
15
socioeconomically to the development of Cyprus. On
24 April 1975, Cyprus became the first European
country (and the second world-wide, after Uruguay)
to recognise the Armenian Genocide with Resolution
36/1975 of the House of Representatives. Cyprus
was also the first country to bring the issue before
the UN General Assembly on 21 January 1965.
Over the past decades, the dynamics of the Armenian-
Cypriot community have changed with the increased
number of marriages with Greek-Cypriots and the
arrival over the last 35-40 years of a large number of
Armenian political and economic immigrants, because
of the civil war in Lebanon (1975-1990), the insurgencies
in Syria (1976-1982), the Islamic revolution in Iran and
the Iran-Iraq war (1978-1988), as well as after the
Spitak earthquake (1988) and the dissolution of the
Soviet Union (1991). According to the European Charter
for Regional or Minority Languages of the Council of
Europe, Armenian was recognised as a minority
language of Cyprus as of 1 December 2002. Finally, on
3 April 2015 Cyprus became the fourth country in the
world to criminalise denial of the Armenian Genocide,
with Law 45(I)/2015, which was published in the
Government Gazette on 9 April 2015.
l
The first Genocide march in Nicosia (1975).
l
Two Armenians escaping to the government-controlled sector
of Nicosia after the 1963-1964 intercommunal troubles and
their eviction from the Armenian quarter of the city.
l
Archbishop Makarios III and Catholicos Khoren I inaugurate
Nicosia’s Nareg School (1972).
