IS BRITAIN EXPANDING ITS MILITARY PRESENCE IN CYPRUS? - in-cyprus 1/9 by Theodosis Pipis
At the edge of Cyprus’s Akrotiri Peninsula, the landscape changes abruptly. Behind the salt marsh and protected wetlands, a forest of antennas rises from the ground. The site forms part of one of Britain’s most strategically important military and intelligence installations on the island.
Now, residents say Britain wants to take more land. The proposed expansion has become the focus of a growing campaign against the British presence on the island, with protesters warning that the development threatens both private farmland and a sensitive environmental area.
Kouris Mayor Pantelis Georgiou told filenews that what was initially presented as a limited project to replace existing antennas has, according to information available to the municipality, grown into a far larger undertaking. “Today we’re talking about a ten-year project,” he said, with 68 new antennas planned for the first phase and another 68 for the second, while a third phase is still not fully outlined to the municipality.
Georgiou said the first phase also includes the construction of two new buildings to operate the installations, plus a third building next to the existing facilities. This differs from what local authorities were originally told, he added, under which the existing building was to be demolished and the site returned to public use.nd Phil Miller’s investigation for Declassified UK has aimed to uncover how Britain has used its major air base on Cyprus to move sensitive equipment without scrutiny.
According to campaigners, the initial proposal presented to them involved 20 antennas, ostensibly to replace existing equipment installed in 2021. But questions soon arose over why such a relatively small number of antennas would require the compulsory acquisition of around 450,000 square metres of land.
“What you can see behind me is Akrotiri Marsh, which is a very sensitive environmental protected area,” said Melanie Steliou, a local resident and broadcaster for Declassified UK. “The British government want to implement a forced land acquisition to install more antennas,” she added.
After seeking information from the Republic of Cyprus’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, campaigners told Decclassified UK that they also discovered that the project was considerably larger than originally indicated.
Campaigners accuse the British authorities of withholding information about the scope of the project. The dispute goes to the heart of an unusual arrangement that has existed on Cyprus for more than six decades.
Background
When Cyprus became independent in 1960, Britain retained sovereignty over two areas of the island: the Western Sovereign Base Area around Akrotiri and Episkopi, and the Eastern Sovereign Base Area around Dhekelia and Ayios Nikolaos. Together they cover around 254–256 square kilometres, approximately 3% of Cyprus. The British government continues to describe them as sovereign British territory and says their primary purpose is military.
Much of the land inside the Sovereign Base Areas is not occupied by British military installations. The British government has previously acknowledged that around 60% of the land is privately owned, much of it by Cypriot nationals. The areas also contain farms, villages, archaeological sites and internationally important habitats. That makes the proposed expansion at Akrotiri particularly contentious.
The antennas overlooking Akrotiri are part of a much older British intelligence and communications infrastructure. Project Pluto began around 25 years ago, when the British military erected a 100-metre mast and associated antennas near the Akrotiri Salt Lake. The installation provoked protests and a riot outside the base, amid concerns among local residents about the possible health effects of radiation, something British authorities have denied.
Further British expansion?
Today, the question facing residents is not simply whether existing installations should remain. It is whether Britain is now seeking to significantly expand them. The dispute at Akrotiri is one of several recent flashpoints surrounding Britain’s military presence in Cyprus.
Earlier this year, protesters also demonstrated at Mount Troodos against a British intelligence facility shared with the United States. The island’s British installations have become increasingly significant to Western military and intelligence operations across the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.
At Ayios Nikolaos, in the Eastern Sovereign Base Area, the British presence is even less visible to the public.
According to the recent investigation by Declassified UK the road leading towards the installation narrows through the Cypriot landscape before reaching the base, which is associated with Britain’s signals intelligence agency, GCHQ.
In the 1970s, investigative journalist Duncan Campbell came close to being imprisoned under the Official Secrets Act after reporting on GCHQ’s activities at Ayios Nikolaos. As Campbell later explained, Britain’s intelligence interests in the region extend across some of the world’s most politically volatile areas including Israel, Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon.
Over the past three years, this geography has become increasingly important. Israel has conducted devastating military operations in Lebanon, Syria and Iran, whilst also enacting what the United Nations has denounced as a genocide in Gaza.
British surveillance flights have also operated from RAF Akrotiri over Gaza during the war. The result is that installations once presented primarily as Britain’s inherited Cold War infrastructure are increasingly part of contemporary military and intelligence operations across the Middle East.
Last year, journalists Phil Miller and Alex Morris, of Declassified UK, captured footage of the Beechcraft 350 surveillance aircraft (call sign Crook12, tail number N6147U) departing the British base. The plane, leased from America’s Sierra Nevada Corporation and hired by the RAF to replace its own fleet, lifted off and banked left towards Gaza, according to their account.
This also led protestors to erect signs bearing the phrase “British Genocide Base” on the roads leading to the UK’s Akrotiri military base, amid growing local activism against foreign military bases on the island.
All this has raised a question in Cyprus: if Britain already possesses such an extensive network of bases, antennas, surveillance equipment and intelligence facilities, why does it need more land?
en.philenews reached out to the British Ministry of Defence for comment.
At the edge of Cyprus’s Akrotiri Peninsula, the landscape changes abruptly. Behind the salt marsh and protected wetlands, a forest of antennas rises from the ground. The site forms part of one of Britain’s most strategically important military and intelligence installations on the island.
Now, residents say Britain wants to take more land. The proposed expansion has become the focus of a growing campaign against the British presence on the island, with protesters warning that the development threatens both private farmland and a sensitive environmental area.
Kouris Mayor Pantelis Georgiou told filenews that what was initially presented as a limited project to replace existing antennas has, according to information available to the municipality, grown into a far larger undertaking. “Today we’re talking about a ten-year project,” he said, with 68 new antennas planned for the first phase and another 68 for the second, while a third phase is still not fully outlined to the municipality.
Georgiou said the first phase also includes the construction of two new buildings to operate the installations, plus a third building next to the existing facilities. This differs from what local authorities were originally told, he added, under which the existing building was to be demolished and the site returned to public use.nd Phil Miller’s investigation for Declassified UK has aimed to uncover how Britain has used its major air base on Cyprus to move sensitive equipment without scrutiny.
According to campaigners, the initial proposal presented to them involved 20 antennas, ostensibly to replace existing equipment installed in 2021. But questions soon arose over why such a relatively small number of antennas would require the compulsory acquisition of around 450,000 square metres of land.
“What you can see behind me is Akrotiri Marsh, which is a very sensitive environmental protected area,” said Melanie Steliou, a local resident and broadcaster for Declassified UK. “The British government want to implement a forced land acquisition to install more antennas,” she added.
After seeking information from the Republic of Cyprus’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, campaigners told Decclassified UK that they also discovered that the project was considerably larger than originally indicated.
Campaigners accuse the British authorities of withholding information about the scope of the project. The dispute goes to the heart of an unusual arrangement that has existed on Cyprus for more than six decades.
Background
When Cyprus became independent in 1960, Britain retained sovereignty over two areas of the island: the Western Sovereign Base Area around Akrotiri and Episkopi, and the Eastern Sovereign Base Area around Dhekelia and Ayios Nikolaos. Together they cover around 254–256 square kilometres, approximately 3% of Cyprus. The British government continues to describe them as sovereign British territory and says their primary purpose is military.
Much of the land inside the Sovereign Base Areas is not occupied by British military installations. The British government has previously acknowledged that around 60% of the land is privately owned, much of it by Cypriot nationals. The areas also contain farms, villages, archaeological sites and internationally important habitats. That makes the proposed expansion at Akrotiri particularly contentious.
The antennas overlooking Akrotiri are part of a much older British intelligence and communications infrastructure. Project Pluto began around 25 years ago, when the British military erected a 100-metre mast and associated antennas near the Akrotiri Salt Lake. The installation provoked protests and a riot outside the base, amid concerns among local residents about the possible health effects of radiation, something British authorities have denied.
Further British expansion?
Today, the question facing residents is not simply whether existing installations should remain. It is whether Britain is now seeking to significantly expand them. The dispute at Akrotiri is one of several recent flashpoints surrounding Britain’s military presence in Cyprus.
Earlier this year, protesters also demonstrated at Mount Troodos against a British intelligence facility shared with the United States. The island’s British installations have become increasingly significant to Western military and intelligence operations across the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.
At Ayios Nikolaos, in the Eastern Sovereign Base Area, the British presence is even less visible to the public.
According to the recent investigation by Declassified UK the road leading towards the installation narrows through the Cypriot landscape before reaching the base, which is associated with Britain’s signals intelligence agency, GCHQ.
In the 1970s, investigative journalist Duncan Campbell came close to being imprisoned under the Official Secrets Act after reporting on GCHQ’s activities at Ayios Nikolaos. As Campbell later explained, Britain’s intelligence interests in the region extend across some of the world’s most politically volatile areas including Israel, Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon.
Over the past three years, this geography has become increasingly important. Israel has conducted devastating military operations in Lebanon, Syria and Iran, whilst also enacting what the United Nations has denounced as a genocide in Gaza.
British surveillance flights have also operated from RAF Akrotiri over Gaza during the war. The result is that installations once presented primarily as Britain’s inherited Cold War infrastructure are increasingly part of contemporary military and intelligence operations across the Middle East.
Last year, journalists Phil Miller and Alex Morris, of Declassified UK, captured footage of the Beechcraft 350 surveillance aircraft (call sign Crook12, tail number N6147U) departing the British base. The plane, leased from America’s Sierra Nevada Corporation and hired by the RAF to replace its own fleet, lifted off and banked left towards Gaza, according to their account.
This also led protestors to erect signs bearing the phrase “British Genocide Base” on the roads leading to the UK’s Akrotiri military base, amid growing local activism against foreign military bases on the island.
All this has raised a question in Cyprus: if Britain already possesses such an extensive network of bases, antennas, surveillance equipment and intelligence facilities, why does it need more land?
en.philenews reached out to the British Ministry of Defence for comment.
