British military installations in Cyprus have been branded ‘bases of death’ in the headline of a leading feature on the Euronews website.
The report, citing several articles, including by DeclassifiedUK and Haaretz, claims London and Washington are supporting Israel’s devastating offensive in Gaza with weapons and intelligence from Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
The bases, part of the Cyprus independence settlement in 1960, provide a strategic link for the West in the eastern Mediterranean. Both bases provide Britain with important radar and communication facilities.
One activist told the channel that ‘Western powers use Cyprus as an unsinkable warship….This cannot continue’.
“We don’t want our island to be part of these wars,” Athina Kariati, a member of United for Palestine in Cyprus, added. “They are not for democracy, peace or justice.”
The British government has repeatedly denied this, saying that no Royal Air Force flights to Israel have transported lethal cargo.
For their part, Cypriot officials have repeatedly insisted they are not involved in any military operations, with the UK not obliged to inform them about activity in the facilities under the bases’ treaty of establishment.
Last month, hundreds of demonstrators protested against the use of Akrotiri for military activities related to the Gaza conflict.
The Cyprus Peace Council, the organizer of the event, said that around 500 people marched to the gate of the airbase on the fringes of the southern port city of Limassol.
During the demonstration, the organization repeated its appeal for an immediate closure of the British airbases in Cyprus, saying they have been posing a constant danger to the security of the island country and its people.
The demonstrators held banners calling against the involvement of the base in the Gaza conflict. They handed a written message to a British officer at the gate of the base, saying that the Cypriot people do not want their country “to be involved in any way in the bloody massacre taking place in the Gaza Strip,” according to local media.
