An unofficial referendum on

enosis ''Enosis'' (, , "union") is an irredentist ideology held by various Greek communities living outside Greece that calls for them and the regions that they inhabit to be incorporated into the Greek state. The idea is related to the Megali Idea ...

(reunification) with

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

was held in

British Cyprus British Cyprus (Modern Greek, Greek: Βρετανική Κύπρος; Turkish language, Turkish: ''Britanya Kıbrısı'') was the island of Cyprus under the dominion of the British Empire, administered sequentially from 1878 to 1914 as a British ...

between 15 and 22 January 1950. The vote was not sanctioned by the British authorities.Zypern, 22. Januar 1950 : Anschluss an Griechenland
Direct Democracy Only

Greek Cypriots Greek Cypriots (, ) are the ethnic Greeks, Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest Ethnolinguistic group, ethnolinguistic community. According to the 2023 census, 719,252 respondents recorded their ethnicity as Greek, forming al ...

voted, and the proposal was approved by 95.71% of those taking part; the result was never implemented.

Background

On 12 December 1949 Archbishop Makarios II had called on the British authorities to hold a referendum on the future of the island. After they refused, the Church Council and the Enosis organisation organised a referendum. Signature books were provided in churches between 15 and 22 January 1950. The books had two columns, entitled "We demand union with Greece" and "We are against the union of Cyprus with Greece".

Results

Aftermath

After the referendum, the Church of Cyprus publicly admonished those who had voted against enosis. In the latter years of British rule in Cyprus, the Church sought to silence dissenting opinion among Greek Cypriots, sometimes by violent means. In February 2017 the Cypriot parliament voted in favour of commemorating the referendum in schools every year. The decision was received negatively by Turkish Cypriot politicians, causing talks between Cypriot President

Nicos Anastasiades Nicos Anastasiades ( ; born 27 September 1946) is a Cypriot politician and businessperson, who served as the seventh president of Cyprus from 2013 to 2023. Previously, he was the leader of Democratic Rally between 1997 and 2013 and served as Me ...

and the Turkish Cypriot leader

Mustafa Akıncı Mustafa Akıncı (; born 28 December 1947) is a Turkish Cypriots, Turkish Cypriot politician who was the president of Northern Cyprus from April 2015 until October 2020. An architect by profession, Akıncı in 1976 became the first elected mayor ...

to be halted.

References

{{Cypriot elections Referendums in Cyprus

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

Referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

Cyprus dispute British Cyprus Greek Cypriot nationalism

Sovereignty referendums Megali Idea