IMAGE: Cyprus by Abraham Ortelius, 1527-1598. KB National Library of the Netherlands, Amsterdam. Public Domain.
By Evaggelos Vallianatos
Northern Cyprus: A hub of threatening Turkish danger
Shay Gal, an Israeli strategist suggested recently that Israel, Greece and Cyprus need to think and possibly act to end Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. Of course, Israel would join Greece and Cyprus to fight Turkey not for humanitarian grounds or the freedom of Cyprus but, primarily, for its own security. “It is not Israel’s role or desire to liberate Northern Cyprus,” Gal said. “However, if the threat from the area [0f Northern Cyprus] reaches a critical threshold, Israel’s strategic posture must shift. Israel, in coordination with Greece and Cyprus, must prepare a contingency operation for liberating the island’s north. Such an operation would neutralize Turkish reinforcement capabilities from the mainland, eliminate air-defense systems in Northern Cyprus, destroy intelligence and command centers, and finally remove Turkish forces, restoring internationally recognized Cypriot sovereignty.”
This proposal makes sense for Cyprus, Greece and Israel. The Turks don’t belong in Cyprus, they never did. They occupied northern Cyprus in 1974 because of confused and delusional US strategic priorities at the end of the long and bitter colonial war Americans fought and lost in Vietnam.
Why Turkey captured northern Cyprus
In 1973, the White House Watergate corruption forced President Richard Nixon to resign in disgrace. His successor, Jerald Ford, had neither knowledge nor interest in foreign affairs. This gave illegitimate power to Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State, who saw fit, if thoroughly abominable and vindictive, to reward Turkey with northern Cyprus in order to keep Turkey in NATO. The European allies in NATO, especially England, congratulated Kissinger for stabbing Greece and Cyprus in the back. The Cold War in 1974 was still very hot. It had to be invigorated to nearly annihilation with a European-made Turkey.
The European allies, especially France, Italy, Spain, and Netherlands, and to a much lesser extent, Germany, knew Greece was the reason for being European and civilized. But after World War II and seeing the results of America’s atomic bombing of Japan, they followed America even to death. So, Kissinger’s immoral and criminal decision to sacrifice half of Cyprus, the most beautiful Greek island of Aphrodite, to savage Moslem Turkey was “normal.”
Greece in 1974
As for Greece, which should have never tolerated Kissinger’s madness, it gave in like it was a divine order. The country, then under military rule, had been almost annihilated by the barbarian Germans during their savage occupation of the country, April 1941-October 1944. They burned to death 1,700 villages, killed thousands of Greeks resisting their tyranny, and starved the country. The Greeks also remembered the 1955 pogrom Turkey employed for the destruction of the property and livelihood of 85,000 Greeks living in Istanbul. They also suspected that behind their civil war, 1946-1949, there lurked the fingers of Germany and England. Their country in 1974 was still very poor. They clearly understood that the US and NATO and even the European Union favored Turkey over their country.
The doings of Turks in Cyprus
The Turks in northern Cyprus did the usual: killed thousands of Greek Cypriots, forced into exile hundreds of thousands of Cypriot Greeks, wrecked and vandalized Christian churches and imported Moslems from Turkey. Then in the last 51 years of occupation, they converted Northern Cyprus into a terrorist mini state with an army of occupation and secret and open offensive military forces.
Shay Gal describes the Turkish militarization of Northern Cyprus:
“Northern Cyprus is not just a Greek Cypriot problem – it is also an Israeli one. In practical terms, Northern Cyprus functions as an international no-man’s land, enabling Turkey and terrorist groups… unrestricted operational freedom. Since the invasion [of 1974]… Turkey’s presence has quietly transformed [Northern Cyprus]. The area is now a forward base for Turkey’s military, hosting sophisticated weapons systems, cyber surveillance, and signals intelligence (SIGINT) infrastructure capable of intercepting both military and civilian Israeli communication, alongside covert terrorist facilities supported by Ankara… [Northern Cyprus] has become a hub for terrorism financing and money laundering, with Iranian and Turkish illicit funds flowing through shell companies…Turkish control over Northern Cyprus enables Turkey and Iran to bypass sanctions and escalate their strategic threat against Israel. Moreover, hotels, casinos, universities, and ports in Northern Cyprus have reportedly become covert hubs for espionage, blackmail, and intelligence operations coordinated by Turkish security forces and organized crime networks, including ‘honey trap’ operations targeting international officials.”
Strategy of liberating northern Cyprus
Shay Gal is probably telling the truth about the growing danger of the Turkish-armed Northern Cyprus. He speaks like an Israeli concerned about the security of Israel. But the data he cites probably reflect reality: an unacceptable risk of the Turkish mini state in northern Cyprus, armed to the teeth by Turkey. This condition should be ringing bells of danger to the Democracy of Cyprus and Greece and, of course, to the United States that, still, foolishly supports Turkey.
Greece, Cyprus and Israel should examine this issue in detail and act in a strategic way to liberate northern Cyprus. Israel has the influence in the US to alter the views and policies concerning Turkey. With that done, Israel ought to convince the US to help arm Greece to the teeth in order to be able to defeat Turkey in the certain war that would erupt the moment Greece joins Cyprus and Isreal dismantling Turkish’s subsidiary state in Northern Cyprus. Furthermore, the US should expel Turkey from NATO, hence any war of Turkey against Greece would be a war against NATO.
There is no way the United States would accept a policy and greenlight an action that would push Turkey out of NATO. It simply goes against US foreign policy doctrine. Trump may seem like an adventurous thinker at times, but we can clearly see how Lindsay Graham (who word has it played a key role in persuading Trump not to denounce the Armenian genocide back in his first term) is influencing him to retain the traditional NATO structures and doctrines at all costs. Every time Trump threatens to hammer NATO, he ends up walking it all the way back. And nobody in the transatlantic establishment (including the UK) would ever want to deal with a Turkey-less NATO, reducing critical access to such a strategically key piece of real estate as well as a large recruitment base for infantry (the lifeblood of any military campaign).
Much easier and cheaper to keep playing Erdogan’s horse trading games and be ready to replace him with some Kemalist rival at the right moment, than to kick the bee hive of Ankara which can have huge destabilizing effects that will bite Israel in the bum – a problem the US will be forced to pick up the tab to clean up.
I’m not even analyzing the issue of whether Israel would ever care to send its soldiers to die for another country, unless that country were to become a colonial subject of Israel. In essence it’d be like returning Cyprus to British colonial rule. At least now, 60% of the island is operating with some semblance of sovereignty. An ‘Israeli liberated Cyprus’ would also then become a target for all the countries that hate Israel, as it would be treated as an Israeli proxy.
I’m totally in favor of liberating the north of Cyprus. However this sounds not only fantastical, but little more than an intentional PR stunt on behalf of some deft Israeli politicians who are trying to quell the noise that Cypriots are making over how many Israelis are moving to Cyprus and buying up the country, while the government looks away.