British military bases in Greek Cyprus

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Jul 28, 2010 at 21:09

James Burke wrote :

>Forget about Cyprus - no oil there and not useful to the Brits.<

It is not only oil that makes possessing and controlling lands useful. The British may have given Cyprus independence but made at the same time sure no real use could be of this independence since it was paralyzed by an internal and external war. The British were supporting the Turks against the Greeks as they had supported earlier the Arabs against the Jews in Palestine - interesting analogy, isn't it, always on the Moslems' side ! And yet in rump Greek Cuprus they have retained two large military bases (Akrotiri and Dhekelia) , including 'Ayios Nikolaos' which is perhaps the biggest listening station in the Near East. They know what the Moslems say about them and and accordingly as you correctly write "cannot jump on all fours fast enough".

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