Britain is facing growing calls to withdraw its military bases from Cyprus as locals intensify protests against facilities deemed a threat to their security following an unprecedented drone attack on RAF Akrotiri.
Anger over the facilities spilled into the streets of Nicosia, the capital, as protesters chanting “out with the bases of death” marched on the colonial-era presidential palace on Saturday amid fears the Mediterranean nation could be drawn into the broader Iran conflict.
“They are a danger to our security and should never have been here in the first place,” said Mathaios Stavrinides, denouncing the existence of bases that were established as part of a negotiated independence agreement for the island. “We want them closed.”
The growing opposition came as the country’s Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos told The Guardian that the Iranian-made drone that attacked the air base had been launched from Lebanon, home to the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah and units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Less than 12 hours after the explosive device crashed into the facility on Sunday night, two other combat drones were also intercepted some distance from the island. They were also deployed from Lebanon, 150 miles east of the island.
“At this moment it is a fact that we have to look towards the Lebanese front,” said the minister, confirming for the first time the origin of the drones. “We cannot exclude anything from the broader northeast direction. We have to be very careful… we have to make sure that the existing systems cover all threat possibilities.”
Cypriot officials, who pride themselves on the neutrality and humanitarian role of an island nation that is also the closest EU state to the Middle East, are convinced that it is British bases, not the republic, that have been targeted since the start of the US-led offensive against Iran.
Nicosia, they say, had repeatedly raised the red flag over the threat posed by the facilities in talks with London that began last year. The warnings were not heeded.
RAF Akrotiri is the UK’s main forward position for overseas operations in the Middle East and is widely considered to be by far the most important piece of territory retained by Britain in 1960, when it retained 3% of the island’s land mass in return for independence.
“We have consistently communicated that bases could be a target if things move in a specific direction at the regional level,” Kombos said.
“This is a concern we consistently share…but the outcome of those conversations is clear in terms of what occurred Sunday night.”
It was clear, he said, that “not everything that could be done was done to the level of the expectations that we have, that the people who live and work on the bases also have, the Cypriots, and I’m sure the British government does too… but, right now, I want to focus on how cooperation improves.”
The rapid deployment of warships and air assets from several European states (military support that arrived at the request of Cyprus) would help bolster the defense of the facilities, he said.
The UK has also resupplied air defense systems, sending Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters capable of taking out aerial threats, plus “extra fast” F-35 fighter jets that arrived last month. But many consider the rollout too little, too late.
The destroyer HMS Dragon, which is being repaired and refitted in Portsmouth, is not expected to arrive off the coast of Cyprus until next week.
“We don’t want to just accumulate assets. We want assets that are useful,” Kombos said. The defense plans were being implemented with a Cyprus-wide approach and did not just focus on military installations on sovereign territory of the United Kingdom.
Although the protective cordon placed around the island is unprecedented, Kombos said his government would continue to push for NATO membership, something that has long been hampered by opposition from Turkey.
“In the meantime, we are trying to ensure that we have the ability to be able to link to NATO systems and structures to the extent that is possible for someone who is not a member of the alliance.”
As the Cypriot government faces the worst security crisis since 1974, when an attempted union with Greece led Turkey to invade the country, the president, Nikos Christodoulides, has insisted that the country has no intention of getting involved in any military operations and has called for calm.
Late on Friday, Cypriot Defense Minister Vasilis Palmas revealed that the Shahed-type drone had managed to go unnoticed and penetrate the base because it was flying “at an altitude of a thousand meters and at a speed of 90 to 100 miles,” too low and too fast to be easily detected by radar.
Anger over the bases has been fueled not only by lingering resentment over facilities seen as remnants of the colonial empire, but also by the changing narrative about what exactly happened at RAF Akrotiri.
Stavrinides, holding a giant banner proclaiming “Cyprus is not your launching pad,” said: “At first we are told it crashed into a runway, then there are photographs of a hangar being destroyed, a hangar that we later discover is used by American military assets, specifically U-2 spy planes parked there.
“It’s lie after lie. Everything they tell us we have to take with an ocean of salt, and that’s why these protests will continue.”
