Every occupied country had a rebel leader fighting — a lot of times violently — to throw off the yoke of the colonialist. For Cyprus, that man was Archbishop Marakios III. As the religious head of the Cypriot Greek community, he was also the de facto political leader, which thrust him into the middle of the debate on Cypriot independence from Britain. He refused to denounce the terrorism campaign of the nationalist EOKA group, for which the British exiled him out of the country. But Marakios kept on fighting for what he believed.

On this day, August 16, in 1960, through the tireless work of Archbishop Makarios and Dr Kutchuk, the leader of the island’s Turkish community, Cyprus formally declared its independence from Britain.

Marakios originally argued for “Enosis” — union with Greece — but dropped the idea at the best of British and Turkish authorities in favor of complete independence for Cyprus. Under the terms of the agreement, a Greek Cypriot would be president (Marakios was overwhelmingly elected to be the first) and a Turkish Cypriot vice president. Britain also gained from the deal, allowed to retain two military bases on the island.