Govt seeks legal advice over treaty which established British bases

The government has sought legal advice regarding the treaty which established the United Kingdom’s two sovereign bases in Cyprus, deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou said on Tuesday.

He told CyBC radio that the government has “received legal advice on the issue of the 1960 agreements”, and that “the issue of security is complex and will be the subject of discussion with the British side”.

The Treaty of Establishment of the Republic of Cyprus entered force in 1960, having been signed by the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities of the day Archbishop Makarios III and Dr Fazil Kucuk, who would go on to become the republic’s first president and vice president.

Its first article states that “the territory of the Republic of Cyprus shall comprise the island of Cyprus, together with the islands lying off its coast, with the exception of the two areas … which shall remain under the sovereignty of the United Kingdom” – the base areas in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.

In a later article, the same treaty states that “the United Kingdom authorities shall have the right for United Kingdom military aircraft to fly in the airspace over the territory of the Republic of Cyprus without restriction other than to have due regard for the safety of other aircraft and the safety of life and property in the Republic of Cyprus”.

Antoniou’s comments come after the European Council had last week declared that it stands ready to assist” the Cypriot government in discussions regarding the future of the British bases.

In one of its conclusions adopted after last week’s summit, it said that it “acknowledges the intention of Cyprus to initiate a discussion with the UK on the UK bases in Cyprus and stands ready to assist when needed”.

That conclusion came after President Nikos Christodoulides had promised upon his arrival at the same summit that “we are going to have an open and frank discussion with the British government” over the future of the bases. 

“The British bases in Cyprus are something that is a colonial consequence … We have more than 10,000 Cypriot citizens within the British bases. We have a responsibility to those people, and when the situation in the Middle East, we are going to have an open and frank discussion with the British government,” he said. 

Those comments come a day after he had described the bases as a “colonial remnant”, though he did say on Wednesday that the “level of cooperation” between the British and Cypriot governments is “extremely positive”, and are a part of a conscious emboldening of rhetoric on the government’s part regarding the bases’ future.

This notwithstanding, the British government has thus far appeared to be in no mood to discuss any change to their future, with the UK’s parliamentary undersecretary of state for the armed forces Al Carns said last week that the bases’ future is “not in question”. 

Carns had also said that when the country’s Defence Secretary John Healey had visited the island earlier this month, “the Cypriot national guard reaffirmed that our relationship is closer now than ever before”.

Earlier, Akel leader Stefanos Stefanou had outright demanded the bases’ abolition, saying  that his party has been “emphasising this for decades, calling for the abolition of the bases”, and that “the challenge now is to make it clear at every opportunity that Cyprus is not and does not want to become a war base”. 

Opposition to the bases’ existence is bicommunal, too, with Turkish Cypriot opposition political party CTP deputy leader Asim Akansoy having said that the UK’s continued possession of two sovereign bases on the island is “a great mistake of history”.