You Are Here Ornament – Cyprus

Starbucks You Are Here Ornament – Cyprus is a very nice looking mini mug with the blue being the most used color. The string is also light blue. And it’s no wonder, because blue and white are the national colors of Cyprus, which you can find everywhere on the island: from the national flag to multiple white houses with blue rooftops along the coast.
The history of Cyprus, recorded through archaeological finds, myths and later written history, can be traced through 9,000 years. Due to its location on the Middeteranian Sea, it has been under influence of many Empires: Assyria, Egypt, Persia, Macedonia and Rome in the BCE period. It had a predominantly Greek population, till, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, it was ruled by Byzantium, the Franks, the Venetians and the Ottoman Turks. It was during the Ottoman period that the ancestors of the Turkish Cypriots settled on the island. Three hundred years later, during World War I, Cyprus was annexed by the UK, and then become independent in 1960. The existence of the two communities, however, was always an issue, leading to riots and clashes. And while Greek Cypriots were seeking for the enosis (union with Greece), the Turkish Cypriots were, obviously, against that. The UN Buffer Zone (commonly called the Green Line) was marked out in 1964 as a temporary measure to restore peace after a decade of inter-communal fighting. The barrier has instead stood in place ever since, expanding to slice through the entire island after the 1974 Turkish invasion and today separating Nicosia from North Nicosia (Lefkoşa; capital of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey).