bill cobbett wrote:georgios100 wrote:I posted several threads proposing the removal of the SBAs from Cyprus soil. These bases are a pain in the ass!
The only way to get rid of them is to demonstrate outside the gates till they get the f**k out.
If they don't then we torch them.
All these might sound too drastic but it's the only way the Brits understand - violence & brute force - exactly what they used against us during the dark years of their colonial era.
We might suffer losses but remember Kenya, approx 1 million died during their struggle for independence from the Brit occupation.
Anyone has a better idea?
No mate, not one but two much better and far more peaceful ideas...
1. Be wise enough not fall for what was a blatant and obvious bit of provocation by MrH. one designed to solicit reactions of the worst kind
2. At the appropriate time, press for a change of status to end the sovereign nature, to a leasehold tenure, with a maximum length of lease of say 99 years. CY has every right under the UN Charter to end the remnants of colonialism but let's be clever enough to do it in an achievable, not to mention non-violent, way.
Bill,
As an observation the bases have been a part of Cyprus since 1960 (established by Treaty) and they were not a cause of the inter-communal violence in the 1960's or the invasion of the 1970's. They may be controlled by a foreign power but they can be distinguished from the pseudo puppet state in the North as they are legally established and internationally recognised by the 1959 treaties that established the ROC.
Nor do they stand in the way of a settlement between the legitimate government of the ROC and the illegal secessionist/occupied puppet regime in the North as Mr Preparation H seeks to to disingenuously argue.
As to complaints about 1974, bearing in mind that the Greek backed invasion/coup was launched in direct violation of the 1959 treaties, the British (if anything) should probably have come out against the Greek Invaders/coupists for the same ostensible reasons the Turks used to legitimise the invasion (and it is clear it was just an excuse and the invasion was ultimately itself an illegitimate act just the Greek backed invasion/Coup was ) i.e. to prevent the Greek Invasion/Coup succeeding - as it is they kept out (despite Turkish requests to intervene) and more important denied them the use of the SBA, creating a border which prevented further Turkish Incursion into the SE of the Island.
Don't however hold out hope of Labour sympathy - it was a Labour government that was in power for most of the 1960's during the inter-communal troubles, and in 1974 when the invasion took place. It today has Turkophiles like Jack Straw as significant figures.
As to the future of the SBA's, your ideas I agree with - the SBA are an anomaly and I think a luxury the British will find are increasingly unaffordable, in particular with the present reductions in the armed forces which render the idea of any "peace keeping" ops involving British troops to be increasingly a complete joke. Its just that the British are still coming to terms with their reduced status in the world which they still have not recognised.
The military facilities themselves (including the barracks and housing) probably occupy just small percentage of the SBA and the majority of the SBA includes areas such as (in the WSBA) Akrotiri, Erimi , and other Cypriot villages where as far as I can see there is very little reason at all for to for them to remain outside of the ROC. I would thoroughly support negotiations to hand over the civilian areas to the full control ROC and for the military facilities themselves to be on a lease, possibly even denominated for EU military purposes as opposed to British only.
