Turkey Accuses Cyprus of Hosting Military Operations Against Gaza Amid Rising
Tensions In response, Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said that Cyprus had been used allegedly as a military base for operations in Gaza. Commenting on this issue in an interview aired by Haberturk on Monday, Fidan underlined that intelligence information daily points to the fact that the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus is supporting operations aimed at Gaza.
“In intelligence, it is known that the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus is a headquarters of certain countries in operations against Gaza,” Fidan stressed. He condemned European peers for calling the island a “logistics base” when the Turkish side raised the matter with them.
Citing the matter in great detail, Fidan pointed out that carrying out some military operation nearby would not be useful to Greece or the Greek administration in the divided island, and referring to it as a ‘logistics hub’ was mere dishonesty intended to cover up military operations. There is serious militarisation there. ” In the case of sexual violence, someone once said that it has to be prevented.
Democrats’ statement comes after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s last Wednesday warning Cyprus, with urging against facilitating Israel to use military facilities for training as expectations for an Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon are expected to rise.
Nasrallah said: “Enduring the existence of the enemy’s aeroplanes and bases at the Cypriot airports and bases to target Lebanon means that the Cypriot government is declaring war and the resistance will treat it as such. ”
In the view of Fidan, the Hezbollah threat means that the conflict with Israel might expand a little farther to Gaza. “Currently, such low-level conflicts are pulling in other players,” he pointed out. Media articles cover the narrative involving the US and the UK supporting Israeli strikes by providing logistics and surveillance.
In the previous year alone, over 40 American transport planes, 20 British transport planes and seven amphibious transport helicopters landed at the British-controlled Akrotiri base on the island, stated Haaretz. Also, different military and civil flights have been accused of delivering military supplies and bullets to the Israeli side during the war. The now-defunct Declassified UK in May informed that RAF had flown 200 surveillance missions in Gaza since Dec 3.
As to these claims, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides last week denied the allegations made by Hezbollah, stating that Cyprus provided Israel with the opportunity for military training using the airports and bases of Cyprus. I thus renew my insistence that Cyprus, our country, is in any way, shape, or form, not implicated and is not a component of the issue at hand, Christodoulides said. He further accentuated it, saying,
“On the contrary, we prove to the world in deeds that we are part of the solution,” pointing at Cyprus’s participation in the humanitarian maritime convoy to the Gaza Strip.
Comments in the given text, Fidan’s reveal the political antagonism regarding Cyprus and the Middle Eastern conflict. For the global audience, the roles developed by Turkey, Hezbollah, and other local parties are rather problematic, as the militarization of Cypriot relations poses the threat of enhancing local conflicts.
The matter reveals the tangled relations of military actions and conflicts of interests that are unculminating in Middle Eastern countries today. Thus, Turkey’s accusations regarding modified missiles, together with Hezbollah threats and Cyprus’s negative response, indicate that the international relations of today are rather unstable in the region. The stakeholders in the conflict must employ keen diplomatic strategies to avoid further aggression in realising the causes of the conflict.
