The state of emergency is declared over on December 4, 1959.

Nine days later, Makarios is elected president, despite opposition from right-wing elements who claimed that he had betrayed enosis and from AKEL members who object to the British bases and the stationing of Greek and Turkish troops on the island.

On the same day, Fazıl Küçük, leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, is elected vice president without opposition.

Archbishop Makarios is elected president and Fazil Küçük vice president in December 1959; both men can exercise a veto in matters relating to security, defense, and foreign affairs.

Turkish Cypriots, who make up less than one-fifth of the population, are to represent three-tenths of the civil service and two-fifths of the army and to elect three-tenths of the House of Representatives, and a joint Greek and Turkish military headquarters is also to be established.

Cyprus's first general election for the House of Representatives takes place on July 31, 1960.

Of the thirty-five seats allotted to Greek Cypriots, thirty are won by supporters of Makarios and five by
AKEL candidates.

The fifteen Turkish Cypriot seats are all won by Küçük supporters.

The constitution becomes effective August 16, 1960, on the day Cyprus formally sheds its colonial status and becomes a republic.

The British government agrees to pay twelve million pounds in financial assistance over five years.

The new republic becomes a member of the UN one month later.

Independence does not ensure peace in Cyprus.

Serious problems concerning the working and interpretation of the constitutional system appear immediately.

These problems reflect the sharp bi-communal division in the constitution and the historical and continuing distrust between the two communities.

Turkish Cypriots, after eight decades of passivity under the British, have become a political entity. In the words of political scientist Nancy Crawshaw, "Turkish Cypriot nationalism, barely perceptible under British rule, came to equal that of the Greeks in fanaticism."

One major point of contention concerns the composition of units under the six-to-four ratio decreed for the Cypriot army.

Makarios wants complete integration; Kuciik favors segregated companies.

On October 20, 1961 , Kuciik uses his constitutional veto power as vice president to halt the development of an integrated force.

Makarios now states that the country cannot afford an army anyway; planning and development of the national army ceases.

Other problems develop in the application of the seven-to-three ratio of employment in government agencies.

Cyprus gains membership in the British Commonwealth in March 1961.

Despite these arrangements, the long-standing conflict between the Greek-Cypriot majority and the Turkish-Cypriot minority has intensified following independence.

Cyprus becomes a member of the International Monetary Fund in December 1961.

Underground organizations of both communities revive during 1961 and 1962.

EOKA and the TMT begin training again, smuggling weapons in from Greece and Turkey, and working closely with national military contingents from Greece and Turkey that are stationed on the island in accordance with the Treaty of Alliance.

Friction increases in 1962 regarding the status of municipalities.

Each side accuses the other of constitutional infractions, and the Supreme Constitutional Court is asked to rule on municipalities and taxes.

The court's decisions were unsatisfactory to both sides, and an impasse is reached.

Government under the terms of the 1960 constitution has come to appear impossible to many Cypriots.

Makarios advances a thirteen-point proposal designed, in his view, to eliminate impediments to the
functioning of the government, on November 30, 1963.

The thirteen points involve constitutional revisions, including the abandonment of the veto power by both the president and the vice president, an idea that certainly will be rejected by the Turkish Cypriots, who think of the veto as a form of life insurance for the minority community.

Kiicuk asks for time to consider the proposal and promises to respond to it by the end of December.

Turkey rejects it on December 16, declaring the proposal an attempt to undermine the constitution.