Will the armed forces of Cyprus be defending US interests?
The mission of our country’s armed forces is to defend our homeland and the people of Cyprus, not the interests of any foreign power
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 8TH July 2020, Nicosia
The military training which the United States intends to provide to the Republic of Cyprus, as announced today by the US Embassy in Nicosia, represents yet another step in the implementation of the notorious Menendez-Rubio (East Med) law. AKEL had warned from the very beginning that the law – which the Anastasiades government was celebrating – would involve Cyprus in the dangerous geopolitical plans of the US for the Eastern Mediterranean. This doesn’t just represent Cyprus’ one-sided orientation to the US-NATO axis. It above all promotes the dissolution of Cyprus-Russia relations. In any case the US for the lifting the US embargo on the sale of American weapons to the Republic of Cyprus also set as a demand the ban on Russian ships present in Cypriot ports. The US statement clarified that military training aims at “strengthening military partnerships and international coalitions that defend the national security interests of the United States”.
The government must clarify whether it intends to proceed with this “cooperation” and whether Cyprus’ armed forces will now be ordered to defend American interests. What exactly is this “regional stability” that the United States is promoting, when the Trump administration is inflaming the Middle East with its decisions, violating international law and withdrawing from the international security system? What is the “common understanding of shared international challenges” when the United States, to “keep Turkey in the West”, provides cover for Turkey’s aggressive actions and Erdogan’s flagrant provocative actions against Cyprus and Greece? Will the propaganda machine cultivating illusions about the Anastasiades government’s ‘powerful allies’ that will supposedly shield Cyprus begin once again, allies that in the end never show up to support Cyprus and its people?
AKEL completely opposes the orientation of the Menendez-Rubio law. The mission of the armed forces of our country is to defend our homeland and the people of Cyprus, not the interests of any foreign power. Cyprus has an interest in being a bridge of peace for the peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean and not a military bridgehead for any foreign power, let alone for powers that are responsible for the blood being shed in every corner of the world.
