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The speaker of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Parliament, Ziya Öztürkler, on Monday accused the Greek Cypriot administration of effectively surrendering control of strategic sites to Israel.
Öztürkler said the sovereignty of the Greek Cypriot side has become “in question” after its leader, Nikos Christodoulides, allegedly handed oversight of airports and military bases to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This requires careful attention,” Öztürkler warned in a written statement from the TRNC Parliament.
“We must be extremely careful during this period. We are all seeing Netanyahu’s aggressive stance,” Öztürkler said. “For a European Union member country to hand over its sovereignty is also a problem for Brussels.”
He added that the Greek Cypriot leader’s move has made the administration’s sovereignty “in question,” and accused Christodoulides of yielding to Israeli influence.
Öztürkler was referring to the Greek Cypriot administration’s agreement to hand over security responsibilities for Larnaca and Paphos airports to Israeli authorities in February this year. Greek Cypriot Defense Minister Vasilis Palmas announced in January that Israel would have “privileged status” at the Paphos Air Base, which is being upgraded with U.S. assistance. Palmas emphasized the strategic proximity of Israel, stating that “Israelis are totally next to us.”
Turkish Cypriot officials viewed this as a further extension of Israeli influence on the island and an indication of the Greek Cypriot side’s increasing dependence on Israel for military and strategic purposes.
The TRNC has expressed concern several times over growing defense and security ties between its southern neighbor and Israel. Officials have also criticized joint military exercises, intelligence sharing and the lifting of U.S. arms restrictions for the Greek Cypriot side as moves that could destabilize the region.
Last year, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan revealed Ankara had received intelligence that Greek Cyprus was serving as a military base to support Israel’s operations in the Gaza Strip, where relentless Israeli bombardment has killed at least 65,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7, 2023.
Fidan said labelling Greek Cyprus as a “logistics hub” was only an attempt to veil military operations and stressed the regional actors needed to prevent the militarization on the island.
Since Israel began bombing Gaza in October 2023, numerous outlets have reported that U.S. and U.K. military aircraft have increasingly arrived at Britain’s RAF Akrotiri base on the island, in an effort to reportedly assist Israeli forces in their offensive on Gaza by supplying arms and ammunition and conducting surveillance to collect and provide intelligence.
Greek Cyprus has denied the reports of its role in the offensive, with its President Christodoulides saying his administration is “absolutely not involved in any way and is not part of the problem.”
Meanwhile, Greek Cyprus has been a refuge and a transit route for Israelis during Israel’s war on Gaza and, more recently, Iran. Since October 2023, over 2,500 Israelis have arrived in Greek Cyprus. Earlier in the summer, there were reports of Israelis purchasing property in both the Greek south and Turkish north. In response to concerns over foreign influence, the TRNC government imposed new property restrictions on foreigners in 2023 to curb the trend of Israeli nationals settling on the island. At one point, the influx of Israelis to Cyprus stirred debates of a “Greater Israel” vision seeking footholds in the island through property acquisition and informal influence.
TRNC guarantor, Türkiye, last week said it was closely monitoring the Greek Cypriot plan to obtain air defense systems from Israel, stressing it would not allow security threats to develop on the divided island. Türkiye is at odds with Greek Cypriots over the decades-old Cyprus “question,” while its ties with Israel came to a standstill after the Netanyahu administration’s genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza and beyond.
Turkish Defense Ministry sources have said Greek Cypriot armament and activities would undermine peace and stability on the island and could have “dangerous consequences.” Türkiye views the Greek Cypriot plan as an attempt to disturb the balance on the island, sources said and stressed that Ankara is “taking necessary measures for security and peace of the TRNC.”
Cyprus is divided into two between the Turkish Cypriots, whose state is recognized by Türkiye, and the Greek Cypriot administration, recognized by other countries. The two sides’ efforts to find a compromise on the island have so far failed, and the TRNC advocates a solution on the status of the island that fully recognizes the Turkish Cypriot state’s sovereignty.
