Cyprus's population is a blend of various ethnic and religious groups that have settled on the island, shared its space and interacted throughout history. One such group is the Maronites, named after their ascetic teacher St. Maron, a Syrian hermit from the late fourth and early fifth centuries. Another small religious group is the Armenians, whose presence in Cyprus dates back to 578 A.D, during the Byzantine Era. Today’s Armenian-Cypriot community consists essentially of refugees from Anatolia (descendants of Genocide survivors) and new immigrants who arrived over the last 40 years from different countries.[1] The Muslims form another minority on the island, having emerged during the Ottoman period. This group included the Ottoman garrison, Islamized Greeks, and Turkish settlers from Anatolia, a less-developed region of Turkey. Since 1974, the Turkish government has actively encouraged settlement in the TRNC by offering housing and agricultural land. By 1998, the number of settlers was estimated at around 111,000, according to some international reports and Greek-Cypriot researchers. These settlers now outnumber the indigenous Turkish Cypriot population. In 2003, Jaakko Laakso, a Finnish rapporteur, prepared a report for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He noted that the settlers’ customs and traditions differ significantly from those in Cyprus. These differences are the primary source of tension and dissatisfaction among the indigenous Turkish Cypriot population, who often view the settlers as a foreign element.[2] The first generation of settlers did not fully integrate into Turkish-Cypriot society. They remain attached to their country of origin and aim to return and live there later.

There is also a Pontian community, numbering approximately 20,000, who reside in the Republic of Cyprus, with half of them in Paphos. They migrated from Georgia after obtaining Greek nationality, following the disintegration of the USSR.[3]  Before settling in Georgia near the Turkish frontier in the nineteenth century, they had lived in the Turkish cities of Kars, Trabzon and Erzurum. Thus, “they still speak Turkish in family circles besides Russian, Greek and Georgian.”[4] They participate in local elections and enjoy almost identical rights as Cypriots. In addition to the Pontian community, there are over 150,000 immigrants in Cyprus who originally came from the former Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union bloc, including Serbians, Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Moldavians, and Southeast Asia: Filipinos, particularly women, Sri Lankans, Indians, Pakistanis, and Chinese, as well as Iranians. Furthermore, there are British, Jewish and Gypsy communities residing on both sides of the island. The British community consists of retired and well-off British citizens. Some of them have purchased property in the TRNC and obtained TRNC nationality.[5] The Gypsies number about 3000 and consist of three groups: the Ghurbetis, who are turcophone Mulsim gypsies, the majority of whom live in the TRNC; the Mandis, who are Grecophone Christian Gypsies. They live in the Republic of Cyprus; and the Romans who came from Anatolia after 1974. There have been reports of mistreatment and discrimination against the gypsies by the TRNC. Some gypsies filed complaints in 1994 before the European Court of Human Rights, accusing Turkey of arbitrary arrests and the demolition of their houses.[6]  The Jewish community settled on the island after their expulsion from Andalusia. Some arrived during and after the Second World War. A large number of them left for occupied Palestine after the establishment of the state of ‘Israel’. Today, the Jewish community of Cyprus totals about 3,000 persons who originally came from Russia, Lebanon, and Syria. They built their first synagogue in 2005 in Larnaca.

According to the first census carried out by the British authorities in 1881, the total population of Cyprus was 186,173, of whom 137,631 (73,9%) were Greek Orthodox, 45,438 (24,4%) were Muslims and 3,084 (1,7%) were minorities of Maronites, Latins (descendants of French, Italian, Venetian, Spanish and Austrian nobles and merchants) and Armenians.[7] These religious groups vote in the Parliamentary Elections as part of the Greek Cypriot community. Each group elects one representative from their ranks to the Cyprus House of Representatives.[8] According to the Constitution of the future United Republic of Cyprus and the UN Annan Plan for a federal solution in Cyprus, the three religious groups (Latin, Maronite and Armenian) are referred to as minorities.[9] A few hundred Greek Cypriots and 140 Maronites live in the TRNC and participate in the elections on the Greek Cypriot side. Representatives of these two communities have been nominated by the Greek-Cypriot Government, but have not been recognized by the Turkish-Cypriot authorities.