Abstract:

With the 1877-1878 Ottoman-Russian War, Britain abandoned the territorial integrity policy of the Ottoman Empire, which it had been pursuing for nearly a century, and first reached Cyprus (1878) through a contract for the security of the eastern trade route in the Eastern Mediterranean, then occupied Egypt. He settled in (1882). Although Cyprus did not have enough infrastructure to be a naval base for the UK, which took its power from its navy at the first stage, it was accepted that it could be used for the purposes and activities of the UK with its strategic location and developable ports and storage areas to be built. However, with the occupation of Egypt a few years later, the British plans and intentions regarding Cyprus lost their effect. Britain, which was responsible for the administration of Cyprus since June 4, 1878, included Cyprus under the domination of the British Empire with the unilateral annexation decision on November 5, 1914, as a result of the Ottoman Empire's involvement in the First World War. Subsequently, Cyprus was indirectly involved in the war as part of the warring British Empire. During the First World War, Britain's war effort and burden were largely borne by the dominions and colonies. Even though the great war was lived in small dimensions for Cyprus, it also had its share of the war burden. With the start of World War I, the process of the British unilaterally changing the legal status of Cyprus and the inclusion of Cyprus in sharing the war burden of the British Empire are discussed in this study. Thus, both the developments that took place in Cyprus during the war were discussed and when the studies on Cyprus were taken into account, a contribution to the literature was made regarding the War and Cyprus.

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