This statement is reproduced from the Union of Cypriots website, with thanks.
*****
The Union of Cypriots stands unconditionally with the Palestinian people and supports their resistance. The Cypriot people have consistently expressed their unwavering solidarity with our neighboring Palestinian people. Both Cypriots and Palestinians have become victims of ongoing occupation, settler colonialism, and violations of international law.
Since the Palestinian resistance began on 7 October 2023, reports suggest that the island of Cyprus has been used to aid Israel in its war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Craig Murray, former head of the Cyprus section at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the United Kingdom, stated that Britain is now providing the Israeli military with live feeds of intercepted Palestinian resistance communications from its listening base at the Troodos signal station in Cyprus.
Furthermore, there are calls for the International Criminal Court to investigate British ministers for allegedly facilitating the use of United Kingdom bases in Cyprus to commit war crimes in Gaza. The British Ministry of Defence recently admitted to conducting military transport flights from the Akrotiri military base to Israel.
When Cyprus gained its independence from British colonialism in 1960 as a non-aligned republic, the United Kingdom, Greece and Turkey compelled Cypriots to accept treaties that placed approximately 3 percent of the island under British control. Since then, Britain and Nato have used these territories to perpetuate their imperialist terror throughout the middle east.
Today, five Nato militaries – the United Kingdom, Turkey, Greece, the United States and France – maintain a military presence in Cyprus.
The existence of these military bases was guaranteed with the creation of the Cyprus issue, fuelled by separatist and segregationist activities on the island, instigated by imperialists and Turkey’s occupation of Cyprus in 1974. Like the ‘two-state solution’ imposed on Palestine by foreign powers and occupiers, the current status quo in Cyprus is protected by the imposition of a ‘bicommunal bizonal federation’ or a ‘two-state solution’.
Today, the Union of Cypriots is the sole political organisation that highlights the role of British imperialism in the genocide of Palestinians, unconditionally supports Palestinian resistance, and consistently advocates for a one-state solution for Palestine, as it does for Cyprus. The people of Cyprus will not allow their land to be used in the genocide of Palestinians!
Long live international solidarity!
Long live national-liberation struggles of all nations under foreign occupation!
