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A military base belonging to the British Royal Air Force, located south of the Republic of Cyprus. Since its establishment in 1960, this base has been used to carry out a number of British and American military operations in The Middle EastIncluding operations that targeted Libya, Syria, and Iraq, including air strikes that targeted Yemen against the backdrop of a standoff. The Houthis “Side with the Palestinians in battle.”Al-Aqsa flood” In the Gaza Strip.
While the United Kingdom still has two military bases in Cyprus (Akrotiri and Dhekelia), local residents reject the existence of these bases, and consider them “colonial remnants.”
History of the British bases in Cyprus
Cyprus has a strategic location, as it is located on the eastern edge for the Mediterranean Seanear Suez Canal It is considered a window to the Middle East, so when it gained its independence from the British Empire, the United Kingdom wanted to maintain influence in the region, which prompted it to establish two military bases there in 1960 under the London and Zurich Agreements, which is a group of agreements that were concluded between Turkey, Greece, and the United Kingdom. and Cypriot society.
These bases are known as “Sovereign Bases”, as they belong to the first base of the British Royal Air Force, and it is called “Akrotiri Base”, or Western Sovereignty Base, and is located in southwest Cyprus, while the second is called “Dhekelia Base”, or Eastern Sovereignty Base, and is located Eastern Cyprus.
These two areas are considered British Overseas Territories, and they extend over an area of 98 square miles, equivalent to 3% of the territory of Cyprus. The United Nations registered these bases in 1960 under the name Treaty No. 5476, and included the use of British military bases in Cyprus.
In addition to military purposes, these sovereign bases constituted a political refuge in some cases. In 1974, following a military coup by the Cyprus National Guard, Turkey intervened in northern Cyprus, leading to the establishment of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which has not been recognized internationally. However, this did not affect the presence of British bases.
During that period, Greek Cypriots fleeing Turkish forces were allowed to travel through the Dhekelia sovereign base and received humanitarian aid. The Turkish advance was halted when it reached the edge of this base to avoid military conflict with the United Kingdom.
As for the Akrotiri sovereign base area, a refugee camp was established to house Turkish Cypriots fleeing Limassol and the villages surrounding the area, until they were transported by air in 1975.
Some Greek Cypriot refugees still reside on lands in parts of the villages of Trashoni and Kolossi, which are located within the Akrotiri sovereign base area.
British administration
As for the way the United Kingdom administers these areas, the 1960 Founding Treaty stipulates that the United Kingdom intends to:
- Not developing sovereign base areas for non-military purposes.
- Not establishing and managing “colonies.”
- Not to establish customs centers or other border barriers between sovereign base areas and the Republic of Cyprus.
- Not to establish or permit the establishment of civilian commercial or industrial establishments except to the extent that they are related to military requirements, and not to harm the economic, commercial or industrial unity and life on the island.
- Not establishing commercial or civil ports or airports.
- Not allowing the settlement of new people in sovereign base areas except for temporary purposes.
- Private property within sovereign areas shall not be confiscated except for military purposes in exchange for fair compensation.
Since these sovereign zones were established primarily for military purposes, their administration falls under the Ministry of Defense in London. It has no official relationship with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or the British High Commission in Nicosia.
These areas have their own legal system, which differs from the systems of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Cyprus. However, the laws in Akrotiri and Dhekelia closely correspond to, and in some cases are identical to, the laws in force within the Republic of Cyprus.
Akrotiri base
According to the official page of the RAF Akrotiri, this base serves as a support unit for operations in the region, with the aim of “protecting the strategic interests of the United Kingdom.”
Akrotiri is used as a forward base for external operations in the Middle East and for aircraft training purposes as well. RAF Griffin helicopters in Akrotiri also carry out a search and rescue function in cooperation with the Republic of Cyprus Police and the National Guard Air Command.
Historically, the Akrotiri base was not only used for UK purposes. In the early 1970s, the United States built an over-the-horizon radar called the Cobra Boot, to monitor aircraft operations and missile tests in southern Russia. The RAF operated the radar on behalf of the USAF. The US use of the base was hidden from the Cypriot government due to the sensitivity of the issue.
It is worth noting that the pressure on the United Kingdom’s defense budget increased in 1974, so the British government at that time decided to completely withdraw British forces from Cyprus, but the United States strongly objected to this, because this would make Washington lose access to the signals of the intelligence bases located in Cyprus. Who agreed to contribute to paying the costs of the British government, which turned a blind eye to the closure plan?
Due to its relative proximity to the Middle East, the Akrotiri base was used for multiple purposes in the 1980s, including receiving wounded Americans after the bombing of Beirut barracks in 1983, and supporting United Nations operations in Lebanon during the period Civil war.
The United States also used the Akrotiri base in the mid-1980s to carry out attacks against Libya after its then leader, Muammar Gaddafi, was accused of involvement in the bombing of a nightclub in Berlin.
The RAF Akrotiri also played a major role as a transit point for the evacuation of personnel from Lebanon during the July 2006 war.
The military operations that were launched
In contemporary history, the Akrotiri base has played a role in a number of military and political operations in the Middle East. The US Air Force used it in 2010 as a platform for launching U-2 aircraft to carry out aerial reconnaissance operations over the skies of Lebanon and transmit information about fighters. Hizb allah To the Lebanese authorities. It was also used for aerial reconnaissance operations over Turkey and northern Iraq to transfer information to the Turkish authorities.
In March 2011, the station was used as a base for launching support aircraft participating in the NATO-led military intervention (NATO) in Lybia.
In August 2014, 6 British bombers were deployed to Akrotiri to carry out reconnaissance missions in Iraq, following the emergence of… Islamic State organization. On September 26, 2014, members of Parliament voted in favor of the British Royal Air Force carrying out air strikes on the organization in Iraq, and the strikes were repeated in 2019.
On September 30, 2014, two British Tornado planes launched from Akrotiri succeeded in intercepting and attacking ISIS targets.
The Akrotiri base was also used to support missile strikes directed by the United States, France, and the United Kingdom against multiple government sites in Syria in 2018.
As for the latest military operations launched from the Akrotiri base, they were raids launched by American and British forces on the Houthis in Yemen during the first month of 2024, using Typhoon fighter aircraft, against the backdrop of attacks launched by the Houthis on commercial ships in The Red Sea.
Because of the use of Cypriot territory as a launching pad for these attacks, the Cyprus government faced widespread protests and increasing criticism denouncing the presence of British military bases in the country.
A number of protesters gathered outside the entrance to the Royal British Air Force base in Akrotiri, near the coastal city of Limassol, demanding the closure of British military bases, considering that they are fueling regional conflicts in Gaza and Yemen.
Activists accused Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides of overlooking the risks that the state may face if the strategic facilities in Akrotiri continue to deploy military operations, and pointed to the possibility of the United States and the United Kingdom using the British bases in Akrotiri to send military aid to Israel.
The head of the Cyprus Peace Council, Tassos Kostias, said, “There is evidence that the spy planes that operated in Gaza were also launching from Akrotiri.”
This was confirmed by the investigative newspaper Declassified UK, which said that British planes took off from the Akrotiri base and carried out 50 reconnaissance sorties over the skies of Gaza since the beginning of December 2023, with the aim of providing intelligence information to Israel.
The British newspaper reported that the British Army used “1 Shadow R” aircraft in its air sorties, used in the fields of reconnaissance and surveillance.
Colonial remains
The protests that followed the air strikes on Yemen were not the first of their kind, as local residents have long protested the presence of British sovereign bases, and considered them “a remnant of colonialism.”
This is what prompted the Cypriot House of Representatives to adopt a unanimous resolution on the legal status of these rules, on June 30, 2005, as the resolution referred to “United Nations resolutions relevant to the abolition of colonialism, as well as the basic principles of international law, which prohibit the occupation of territories under the control of “Any other country.”
Accordingly, the House of Representatives decided that the United Kingdom did not have significant sovereignty over the British base areas, but only the necessary amount of “sovereignty for military reasons, and not for administrative, financial and/or other reasons.”
The resolution urged the UK government to “fulfill its financial obligations to the Republic of Cyprus that flow from the Establishment Treaty”, and also argued that the UK has no territorial waters in these areas. However, the UK Government does not recognize Cypriot claims that UK sovereignty in these areas is limited.
In fact, the position of the House of Representatives on these bases reflects the position of the Cypriot people as well. Before the issuance of the House of Representatives decision, Cypriots organized protests in July 2001, to express their dissatisfaction with British plans to build radio towers in the bases as part of the modernization of British military communications centers around the world.
Local residents claimed that these towers would endanger the lives of local residents and cause cancer, as well as have a negative impact on wildlife in the area. This is what prompted the British and Cypriot governments to commission the University of Bristol and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Cyprus to conduct joint health research. This research project reported in 2005 that there was no evidence of health problems resulting from electromagnetic fields from towers.
The Sovereign Base Areas Department also conducted assessments and surveys on impacts on wildlife, which fed into the Akrotiri Peninsula Environmental Management Plan, published in September 2012.
Although Britain still maintains sovereignty over the Akrotiri and Dhekelia bases, this dominance is met with popular discontent that surfaces from time to time.
