On those celebrating the lifting of the embargo on the sale of US arms to Cyprus
By Giorgos Koukoumas, AKEL C.C. Spokesperson and member of the Central Committee
September 2022
The government, the mass media, the ruling DISY party and the rest of the “national-minded” forces are celebrating the lifting of the embargo on the sale of US arms to Cyprus. In fact, the President of the ruling DISY party Averof Neophytou and Nikos Christodoulides [presidential candidate and former Foreign Minister/Government Spokesperson in the Anastasiades government for nine years] are competing with each other to see who this…diplomatic victory belongs to. Since the sun does not come out of the west and the earth is not flat, it would be good for the celebrators to remember a thing or two.
The US imposed an embargo on the sale of US arms to Cyprus since 1987 to “support peace in Cyprus”. The US has been selling arms for decades to Turkey, which invaded and continues to occupy half of Cyprus, apart from a brief spell in the 1970’s. Indeed, the then US Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger broke the hypocrisy record by claiming that there was no problem with US arms reinforcing the occupying army Turkey in Cyprus because it was “for defensive purposes”! That is to say, according to the Americans, Turkey is defending itself in Cyprus and Cyprus is a danger to peace! And anyone who says anything to them is accused of “sterile anti-Americanism”… None of those celebrating could find it in themselves to say anything on this precise point.
This outrageous reversal of logic and law lasted for 35 long years. Now, it is finally being lifted completely, but not because reason has prevailed in Washington, and certainly not out of gratitude or without getting anything in return. Cyprus accepted the American conditions in order not to be considered a “danger to peace”.
More specifically, Cyprus will be scrutinised, among other things, whether it prohibits Russian ships from docking on our island and that it cooperates with the US in the fight against money laundering by Russian oligarchs, apparently. (One wonders whether this fight will begin with Anastasiades’ law firm, or will it go ‘poignantly’.) In other words, the US also demanded more to put an end to the embargo and the Anastasiades government of course gave them what they wanted. Such is the magnitude of the diplomatic success…
And those forces and circles who are in a hurry to arm themselves with the weapons of the US war industries to defeat Turkey and take Istanbul would do well to remember what the US State Department dutifully pointed out two years ago when it decided to partially lift the embargo: the US does not want a “fundamental change in the balance of power in the region”. That is to say, even if we give everything we have for the purchase of American weapons, the US itself will not let Turkey, NATO’s deputy leader in the region, lose its superiority.
Illusions will continue to be cultivated, so long as customers are found.
