 Cyprus was accordingly proclaimed an independent state on 16 August 1960.After the failure of the Agreement in 1963 and the "de facto" military partition of Cyprus into Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot regions, the larger Greek-Cypriot Region, controlled by the Cypriot government, claims that the 1960 Constitution basically remains in force, but the Turkish-Cypriot region claims to have seceded by the Declaration of Independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983.The constitution, provided for under the agreements, divided the Cypriot people into two communities, based on ethnic origin.