PHOTO: “First Cypriots at West Point”… “…It is estimated that on average 30 Cypriot students per year undergo military education and training at U.S. military facilities. The cost of training Cypriot military personnel is shared between the United States and Cyprus…” (Phileleftheros, 11.1.2026).
source – simerini.sigmalive.com
By Fannoulla Argyrou (*)
The video that suddenly appeared on the X platform from London, by some unknown source, projecting an image of corruption in the Republic of Cyprus, bears strong traces of an “editing” process similar to that applied to President Trump’s speech!
Let me first recall the bad precedent involving the British BBC. That is, when the British public broadcaster BBC cut and stitched together a speech by the American President, Donald Trump, from January 6, 2021 (coincidentally, the same date pattern as the video some prepared for us), presenting an entirely different image that defamed Trump. This was broadcast by the BBC in its PANORAMA documentary program on October 28, 2024, at 8 p.m. on BBC 1.
The BBC ADMITTED that the editing of the program had given “the misleading impression” that Trump had “made a direct appeal for violent action.” However, it disagreed that there was any basis for a defamation claim.
However, when the Daily Telegraph published a leaked internal BBC memo in November 2025 criticizing the way the speech had been edited, this was followed by the resignations of the Director-General of the Corporation, Tim Davie, and the Head of News, Deborah Turness…
The American President promised to file a lawsuit against the BBC and said that “they changed the words coming out of my mouth.” He wants to know why PANORAMA edited together two excerpts of his speech to give it a “completely different meaning.” (link here).
Trump does not accept the BBC’s reaction that what happened was unintentional. He has already initiated legal action in a Florida court, seeking $5 billion in damages. I should add that the BBC apologized to the American President for the “editing,” but disputes that there is a defamation issue and argues that PANORAMA was not broadcast in the U.S. and therefore did not defame the American President.
Whether Trump proceeds legally or not, one thing is certain: he succeeded in exposing the British institution worldwide for the “editing” carried out against him.
The Video on the Republic of Cyprus
The video that suddenly appeared on the X platform from London, by some unknown, vanished/non-existent source, just hours before the Republic of Cyprus assumed the Presidency of the EU, projecting an image of corruption in Cyprus, bears strong traces of an “editing” process like that used on President Trump’s speech!
The difference is that President Trump won the elections and exposed the British “editors” at the BBC, while securing ACCEPTANCE and an APOLOGY. They admitted wrongdoing and the BBC was already punished. In the case of Cyprus, however, the Government was punished! In other words, the creators of the malicious video achieved their goal: the destabilization of the Cypriot Government, with two resignations so far at the time of writing.
Also very interesting is the… interest of the Financial Times in dealing with the video of unknown origin—not only that—entitled “The Republic of Cyprus Sinks Under a Corruption Scandal.” Notably, it carries the byline of a Greek journalist (“Eleni Varvitsiotis”).
Meanwhile, on January 11, 2026, the newspaper Phileleftheros published (when the news was already known to both locals and foreigners) the full military cooperation program developed by President Nikos Christodoulides with the Americans. It includes many millions of dollars for the Republic of Cyprus for defense infrastructure, the upgrade of the Paphos Air Base so that it is operationally useful both for the Cypriot Air Force and for the EU and NATO, the naval base at Mari and the construction of a helipad, among other things—defense equipment, military training, etc.
“Revealing: New Projects and Equipment with Investments of Millions…(link here)” Phileleftheros, Andreas Pimpisis, 11.1.2026
Therefore, the first question that now arises is the one already posed as a comment by the Greek website iEpikaira:
It goes without saying that with this alliance—and the billions of dollars that the Americans will evidently invest in Cyprus also for their own use—they will no longer need the use of the British Bases, for which they have been paying the British at least since 1973… while they did not pay the Republic of Cyprus a single penny for assistance, as had been agreed in 1960.
For Information: The Grants
In 1960, the United Kingdom agreed to pay grants (assistance, not “rent”) to the Republic of Cyprus for the facilities it would receive.
“Within six months immediately after 31.3.1965, and before the end of each five-year period thereafter, from 1965 onwards, the UK Government shall review, in consultation with the Republic of Cyprus, taking into account the economic needs of the Republic of Cyprus, and shall decide the amount of financial assistance to be given to the Government of the Republic of Cyprus…”
However, in March 1965, Britain paid into an account of the Republic of Cyprus in London the final installment (of the financial assistance it had agreed to) of £1.5 million—at the insistence of the then Minister of Defence Denis Healey (died 2015), who disagreed with the Foreign Office, which did not want to pay. The Foreign Office exploited Turkish prompting that any further grant should be shared with the Turkish Cypriot community. Since then, not a penny…
However, on 17.5.1982, the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktaş admitted to the then British High Commissioner in Nicosia that from the first grant of £12 million, the Republic of Cyprus had given £1.5 million to the Turkish Cypriot community. He did not make this public, he told them, so as not to cause them problems! And he hoped that if another grant were given, it too would be shared with the Turkish Cypriot community.
(See – “The British Sovereign Base Areas and the Myth of ‘Rents’,” F.A., Simerini, 9.11.2021)
As for the domestic reaction in our homeland, even before the said “video” was investigated, I believe it is sufficiently and satisfactorily covered here:
“The Video, Polarization, and the Level of Political Maturity,”
by Professor-Anthropologist at Philips University, Andreas Gr. Orphanidis, in Simerini, 12.1.2026
(*) Researcher / Journalist
Cyprus, Cuba, Japan, Diego garcia,Greenland – they are all aircraft carriers