If claims that the United Kingdom used its bases in the Greek Cypriot administration as a conduit for weapons transfers to Israel are true, this will not be welcomed by the Turkish Cypriot side, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar said Monday.
Tatar told Anadolu Agency (AA) that “The U.K., as a respected country, must not support such a massacre” and that the island will not welcome being used for Israel’s atrocities targeting Palestinians.
Tatar reminded us that the U.K. has to fulfill its responsibilities as a guarantor in exchange for which it got the bases.
“We condemn Israel’s attacks. As the Turkish Cypriot society, we voiced our disturbance at the highest level,” he said.
Tatar further said that the U.K. stood by during the massacre of 1963 by the extreme nationalist EOKA terrorist organization on the island when hundreds of Turkish Cypriots were killed.
“While Turkish Cypriots were being subjected to massacres, while our children were being taken alive to the graves and being shot, we always waited for the intervention of the British bases as the guarantor country, but that intervention never happened,” he said.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported that more than 40 U.S. planes, 20 U.K. cargo planes and seven cargo helicopters transported weapons, equipment and personnel to the U.K.’s Akrotiri air base in the Greek Cypriot administration.
Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said that the bases on the island were used by the U.K. and the U.S. for preparations for possible evacuations.
Meanwhile, Cyprus Mail reported on Nov. 21 that the number of soldiers at British bases in the Greek Cypriot administration and the Eastern Mediterranean has surged by around 1,000 after the start of the war between Israel and Palestine on Oct. 7.
U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had also announced on Oct. 13 that the country placed two warships, three military helicopters and some aircraft on its Cyprus bases to support Israel, increase deterrence and strengthen regional stability.
Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.
In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.
It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the U.K.
The U.K. has maintained two military bases at Akrotiri and Dhekelia since the island gained independence from Britain in 1960.
