By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
As I was writing these lines, the biggest storm of recent years was taking place outside. I hope that we will overcome this latest storm and extreme temperature drops without any incidents, which is indeed another sign that the island of Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean have started to feel the climate crisis in the harshest way but this is not the subject of this article.
The topic is about another upcoming storm, a political storm.
So the Greek weekly newspaper Kathimerini, available in the south, published a very striking news report yesterday and brought to the agenda an issue that I have frequently been mentioning in the recent times: Cyprus’ membership to NATO!
According to the Washington correspondent of the newspaper, Lena Argyris, during the historic Joe Biden-Nikos Christodoulides meeting held in Washington on 30 October, the Greek Cypriot leader presented Biden with a plan for Cyprus to join NATO.
According to the news, the plan, which was “well-received” by Washington, was described as “a detailed and long-term approach, consists of interdependent stages.” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan even described the plan as a “win-win” vision with “significant opportunities.”
According to the report, Christodoulides also presented the same plan to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during the European Political Community Summit in Budapest—the same summit where Christodoulides had his first conversation with President Erdoğan over a coffee.
Of course, there are other interesting details in the news.
For instance, this plan had already been in Christodoulides’ mind for a long time and guess who he shared it with for the first time last summer? Of course, former US Undersecretary of State, Victoria Nuland! Then, not content with that, he also shared it with a senior Pentagon official.
In the most vital parts of the news report, details were given regarding the Biden-Christodoulidis meeting, and a road map was foreseen with three strategic goals.
According to this, the main goal of Christodoulides’ plan was conveyed as the institutionalisation of the Republic of Cyprus’ relationship with NATO. However, in order for this process to begin, a chain of events must take place, with positive developments in the Cyprus problem and progress in EU-Turkey relations being the main starting point. What also attracts attention in the news report are as follows: “Positive outcomes in these areas could unlock significant benefits for Ankara, such as access to European organizations and resources – a prospect currently obstructed by Cyprus’ veto. The success of this initiative will require multi-level international cooperation, which the Republic of Cyprus is prepared to support.”
According to the news piece, in parallel with these, and simultaneously with the emergence of favourable political conditions, Christodoulides asked the United States to fulfil three main strategic objectives.
The first of these is the request that the embargo on light-defence weapons, which was lifted in 2019 and renewed every year, be lifted for periods of three, or five years.
According to the news report based on reliable sources, it is claimed that during the meeting in the Oval Office, President Biden promised the Greek Cypriot leader that he would make the necessary consultations with Congress to meet this ‘reasonable’ request. It is also emphasised in the news report that an amendment to the existing legislation is required for this to happen, while New Jersey Senator Cory Booker’s proposal for the relevant amendment is currently pending and its inclusion in the US defence budget by the end of the year cannot be ruled out.
According to the news, the second request relates to the further development of the steps taken for the joint training of members of the Greek Cypriot National Guard in US military academies. Within the scope of training programmes that have already been included in the decision to lift the embargo and are currently being carried out, it is requested that the current two US Military Academy programmes be increased to five.
Again, according to the report, the third request is for the United States to contribute to the gradual upgrading of Cyprus’ defence capabilities, military forces, facilities and vehicles to meet NATO standards. “The country already boasts significant infrastructure, including ports, airports, and military facilities that currently serve US forces. These assets have impressed Washington and are considered vital for long-term regional strategy. Additional developments might even include the possibility of granting Cyprus free defence equipment and articles through foreign sales programs,” the article said.
One other detail that draws attention in the news report is as follows: “One key area of interest is the Andreas Papandreou Base in Paphos, which has reportedly drawn US attention for a potential permanent military presence. However, spatial constraints due to existing foreign deployments currently preclude such an arrangement. To address this, Nicosia is ready to seek financial assistance from Washington to expand the base, allowing it to meet US standards and host US personnel on a permanent basis.”
If I start from the end, what is written in the third request reveals that the US wants to establish a permanent military base on the island of Cyprus and to have permanent troops on the island. While doing this, it will also ensure the upgrading of the Greek Cypriot army in line with its own standards of equipment, settings, power and technology.
Do you know what this actually means? It means that the USA is acting as a kind of guarantor of the Republic of Cyprus!
At this point, I do not think even for a moment that the statements of Michael Rubin, who was once a political advisor to the re-elected US President Donald Trump, in an article he wrote in recent months that “we need to stop whatever we are doing and protect the territorial integrity of the Republic of Cyprus” were made in vain. In other words, this work is planned with a program to be followed!
Yet, this also leads us to a critical question: If, in the light of what I have written above, the US has come to ‘protect the territorial integrity of Cyprus’ as Rubin put it, which Cyprus is this Cyprus?
Is it the Cyprus south of the green line, or is it the whole Cyprus, including north of the green line?
At this point, it would not be wrong to suggest that how and in what way the Cyprus problem will be solved depends on the answer to this question.
At least, in my understanding, the Security and Guarantees chapter will be shaped in line with these developments. In fact, Christodoulides also attributes these developments to the ‘developments in the Cyprus problem’.
My boss gets angry when I write long articles, but I will not skip mentioning one more detail at the end of my article.
Because it seems like the USA, which is preparing to enter the island with tanks and rifles, does not want other countries active on the island to ‘scurry around’. At least those in the south!
At this point, there are those who claim that the US is making a number of attempts not only for the opening of new bases, but also for the British bases that are already on the island.
The same Rubin, in one of his articles, writes that the British bases on the island have had their day and that the US should replace them.
Another development was also emphasised in the article, and that is the decision of the International Court of Justice against the UK in recent months regarding the Chagos Islands. In the decision, it was recognized that the real owner of the Chagos islands was Mauritus, and that the UK did not transfer the status of these islands to Mauritus during the de-colonisation process. There is the Diego Garcia base there, which is jointly used by the USA and the UK. Therefore, this decision paves the way for the Republic of Cyprus to follow the same process and demand the closure of the British bases.
Judging by yesterday’s bi-communal demonstration in the south, one of the things that a significant part of the solution forces on the island agree on is the desire to close the British bases on the island. However, it was also voiced during this demonstration that no other military bases are wanted. Of course, we cannot just say that any solution is good as long as it is a solution, no matter what it may look like.
Consquently, the natural storm we are going through now will of course end.
However, the political storm we are about to step into does not seem like it will be short-lived.
And, of course, we do not know which potential harbours this storm will toss us…
Of course, there may be good ones among them, but I don’t even want to think about some other possibilities…
Source: THE APPROACHING POLITICAL STORM
