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Cyprus: Exxon drillship on location in block 10, Turkey on edge

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By Elias Hazou

The Stena Icemax drillship has arrived on location in Cyprus’ offshore block 10 and is preparing to bore down into the seabed, energy minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis said on Monday.

He was speaking to the press after giving MPs a briefing on the overall state of play in the hydrocarbons space, with emphasis on the two exploratory wells to be carried out by ExxonMobil in the coming weeks.

The minister was giving reporters a broad outline of his briefing, which was held in a closed-door session.

He said the Stena Icemax vessel, leased by Exxon, had arrived on schedule at the first drilling target in block 10.

“Cyprus’ energy programme as it has been designed is being implemented, it is going forward and will continue without fanfare,” he added.

“For us, the important thing is for the drill to proceed without a glitch, technically speaking, and we hope for the best possible outcome.

“That is why I, as well as my colleague the foreign minister, urge you [the media] to exercise a little restraint in what we say day-to-day about the drill. We have got off to a good start, on schedule, and we are hoping it all goes well because this is an important drill in our overall energy plans.”

The minister also briefed lawmakers on the other planned drills in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), including in block 7, as well as on the situation concerning the development of the Aphrodite reservoir in block 12.

On Cyprus’ plans to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) for electricity generation until its own reserves come on tap, Lakkotrypis said that a call for tenders has been issued for the infrastructures. The project is being co-funded by the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility to the tune of €100m.

A second separate tender would follow, inviting bids for the supply of the fuel itself.

According to reports, the Stena Icemax drillship reached its destination at the ‘Delfini’ target in block 10 a little ahead of schedule, arriving there late on Sunday evening.

Drilling will commence sometime over the next few days, and is expected to be completed around mid-December. The vessel will then immediately head out to a second drill site.

Daily Phileleftheros reports that early on Monday morning a team of government officials were flown aboard the drillship by helicopter.

One of the support ships had set out from the port of Limassol and was en route to rendezvous with the Stena Icemax.

As a side note, the drillship’s automatic identification system (AIS) appears to have been switched off. Although the Stena Icemax is currently in Cypriot waters, AIS reported its last position off Sicily, recorded on November 11. The real-time position has not been updated since.

To the Cyprus Mail’s knowledge, this is the first time that a drillship’s location tracking has been disabled while operating off the island.

Cyprus: Leaders agree to open two crossing points next month

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The leaders of the island’s divided communities agreed on Friday to open two new crossings next month, it was announced following a meeting in Nicosia.

President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci agreed to open the crossings at Dherynia and Lefka on November 12, according to a joint statement.

The two leaders “also had a frank exchange of views on the way forward. They confirmed their readiness to engage constructively with Ms Jane Holl Lute, who will be visiting the island on 31 October 2018,” the statement added.

The two leaders were hosted by Deputy Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus Elizabeth Spehar at the Chief of Mission Residence in the United Nations Protected Area.

The latest round of UN-sponsored peace talks held in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.

After his return from Friday’s meeting, Anastasiades said they could meet again on November 12 if there is progress on issues relating to mobile telephony interoperability.

The opening of the Dherynia and Lefka crossings as well as the connection of the two side’s mobile telephony systems, among other confidence building measures (CBM), had been decided by the two leaders back in 2015.

Work on the crossings has recently been completed after more than three years but there had not been any concrete progress on the phone issue.

Anastasiades said The Turkish Cypriot leader had informed him that finding a solution would be possible.

“If this is the case then one more CBM would be realised, possibly giving us the opportunity to have one more meeting,” he told reporters.

The president said it was a very creative meeting in the sense that the two leaders exchanged views freely.

“There is common will for peace, stability, cooperation on the basis of everything discussed up until today,” he said. “We are both waiting for Ms Lute and the proposals she would possibly table to facilitate the resumption of dialogue.”

The president said he reaffirmed that the intended solution was of a bizonal, bicommunal federation, provided it generated a functional state.

During the meeting, Anastasiades explained his position of devolution in a bid to achieve a functional, lasting solution that will create a state which will be fully in line with everything the EU requires.

The president said he explained to Akinci that decentralisation would restore Turkish Cypriot trust that the Greek Cypriot majority will not abuse power. On the other hand it would allay Greek Cypriot concerns that the need for a Turkish Cypriot positive vote will not render the state dysfunctional.

“Concerns that may lead one or the other community to reject a solution if there is no effective way of tackling them,” he added.

Akinci returned from the meeting expressing his satisfaction over the opening of the crossings and because they discussed the island’s future “and this is good”.

The Turkish Cypriot leader said Anastasiades told him he was not thinking outside the UN parameters nor beyond a bizonal, bicommunal federal solution.

Cyprus: Fire burning out of control in Pano Pyrgos

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Crews are working to put out a fire that is raging out of control in Pano Pyrgos in the Tylliria area, the fire service said on Wednesday evening.

The fire broke out at around 8.15pm in the area of Ayios Andronikos.

Crews from the forestry department form Kampos, Yialia and Stavros tis Psokas have arrived in the area to assist the local team at Pyrgos.

The fire is burning pine trees, bushes and wild vegetation.

Senior official of the forestry department, Andreas Christou said that the firefighting task is difficult due to strong winds in the area.

Cyprus mark the 44th anniversary of the 1974 Turkish invasion

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Turkey’s stance on Cyprus has not wavered for more than four decades, President Nicos Anastasiades said on Friday night.

He was speaking at the presidential palace at an evening event to mark the 44th anniversary of the 1974 Turkish invasion.

“Turkey says that seizure of property, the violation of human rights, the settlements, and the presence of Turkish troops, are all supposedly because our compatriots feel unsafe,” he said.

The President added that Ankara is ‘voluntarily’ ignoring the fact that the Greek Cypriot community accepted the bizonal bicommunal federation with political equality, following a difficult compromise.

He said Turkey is ignoring the EU acquis and international law, “which is the protection of human rights and the protection of each person, regardless of ethnicity or religion.”

Regarding the Cyprus talks, the President said he is ‘sorry’ for this pretext Turkey is using, as it is in complete opposition to what was agreed during talks, namely that the security of one community could not come at the expense of the other.

“A member state of the UN and a full member of the EU cannot be considered independent and sovereign if it is subject to anachronistic guarantees and intervention rights of any third country.”

He said the UN also accepts this stance, as set out by organisation’s secretary general.

President Anastasiades said that at the Crans-Montana talks in 2017 the Greek Cypriot side’s proposal followed UN guidelines.

“We proposed an overall security architecture that would replace the anachronism and the strategic aspirations of third countries in Cyprus,” he added.

Responding to Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci’s comment that the Greek Cypriot community continues to see itself as the ‘only landlord’ of Cyprus, the president said: “Our respect towards our Turkish Cypriot compatriots is a fact and we prove it through the acceptance of political equality, and also their full participation in the governance of the country.”

However, Anastasiades said the Greek Cypriot side could not accept provisions that would equate to a numerical equality in governance or create a state where one community, ‘and in fact the lesser population-wise’, would enjoy benefits that would make the solution non-viable and dysfunctional.

“A state, which instead of creating the conditions for peaceful coexistence, would be stillborn through the constant impasses that would be caused by the constitutional provisions that are not prevalent in any federal member state of the UN and the EU,” he said.

The president added that he has reiterated the Greek Cypriot side’s will to restart talks to the international community, the EU, and the UN.

Anastasiades said he hoped UN envoy Jane Holl Lute’s meetings on July 23 would allow the UN secretary-general to start a new round of talks.

He added that he hoped the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey would meet the new perspective positively, and take into account all the parameters the secretary-general set during Crans-Montana and not just some of them.

He called on the Turkish Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriot leader to ‘understand that the Greek Cypriot community wants to find a solution as soon as possible.’

“In closing, I would like to emphasise that despite the differences between us, we share the same principles and values but, above all, the common will to end the occupation and create prosperity for future generations, and, I repeat, in security and stability. This is the most important.”

Cypriots woke up Friday to the sound of sirens at 5.30am, the time the Turkish invasion was launched and its troops landed on the island`s northern shores.

On Friday morning, a memorial service for army officers and soldiers killed during the invasion took place at the Makedonitissa Tomb in Nicosia, presided over by Anastasiades. The Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos also attended with his Cypriot counterpart Savvas Angelides, representatives of the Church and political leaders. This was followed by the ceremony for the Noratlas plane, and the main church service at Phaneromeni in Old Nicosia.

A series of other anti-occupation events took place throughout the day in all district. Political parties and various associations and organised groups have issued statements, condemning the Turkish invasion and the continuing occupation and reiterating their determination to fight for a just and viable solution.

In a message, Greek Foreign Minister Nicos Kotzias said the key to a functional and viable solution to the Cyprus problem was to make the reunited state of Cyprus a normal modern state for the benefit of the entire Cypriot people “a state with full sovereignty, complete independence and territorial integrity, free from foreign occupying troops, foreign dependencies and unilateral third-country intervention”

Kotzias hoped that the recent appointment of a UN envoy would create new momentum in the talks.

Greece would remain a supporter of the Cypriot people, he added.

Cyprus: North accuses Republic of trying to damage economy

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North accuses Republic

Officials in the north on Friday accused the Greek Cypriot side of using fuel checks to try to damage the economy by hiding behind excuses and preventing the implementation of the Green Line Regulation.

The Turkish Cypriot regime said the government’s decision earlier in the week to check vehicles at crossing points for fuel bought in the north will harm relations between the two sides.

In a written statement, Baris Burcu, spokesman for the Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, said the new checks include hundreds of excuses to prevent the Green Line Regulation from being effectively implemented and are a direct warning to Greek Cypriots who shop in the north.

Due to the constant fluctuations in the value of the Turkish lira against other currencies, he said, fuel prices in the north are sometimes cheaper or more expensive than prices in the south.

“We have never introduced such measures when prices in the south were cheaper. The Greek Cypriot side’s unacceptable and despotic stance in response to this temporary situation does not serve to develop the much-needed good relations and trust between the two communities,” he said.

Burcu said that improving relations between the two communities is the responsibility of both sides. He added that the Turkish Cypriot side is trying to do so but that they do not see the same positive response from the other side.

The Greek Cypriot side, he said, puts obstacles in the way of the application of many decisions regarding confidence building measures and remains insensitive towards efforts aimed at increasing cooperation and establishing an environment of trust.

‘Foreign Affairs Minister’, Kudret Ozersay said in a Facebook post said that such moves oppose efforts aimed at building trust and confidence between the two sides.

“The latest fashion on the Greek Cypriot side is to act in a way that damages the Turkish Cypriot economy or obstructs any benefit to our economy,” he said.

The Greek Cypriot side has resorted to the excuse that goods or services sold in the ‘TRNC’ do not meet required standards, he added.

Ozersay wondered if the standard of the fuel is upgraded when Turkish Cypriots fill up their cars in the north and crossover to the south.

He also recalled ‘other excuses’ given by the Greek Cypriot side on inferior standards, referring to reactions in the south in the past concerning tiles used in a school building in the south purchased from the north, and the transfer of tourists from the south to the north in Turkish Cypriot buses.

Ozersay also referred to the refusal by Greek Cypriot authorities’ to allow some third-country nationals to enter the country when they said they intended to visit the north.

He said that behind those excuses was an intention to harm the Turkish Cypriot economy or to prevent the Turkish Cypriots from benefitting economically.

Most Turkish Cypriot newspapers on Friday ran on their front-pages instructions given by the customs department on the intensification of checks at crossing points on Greek Cypriot vehicles to find out if they have bought fuel in the north.

The inspections will include taking samples from vehicles’ fuel tanks, customs said, as the sulphur content of diesel sold in the north does not meet the standards applied by the Republic. They said the sulphur content is higher and thus in violation of the fuel standards law. The measure was introduced to target illicit trade, customs said.

The Ethnic Cleansing of Northern Cyprus Confessions of a Turkish-Cypriot Mass Murderer

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by Uzay Bulut,

  • “Why is there not peace yet? How can we make peace when we have rabid murderers living among us? Instead of prosecuting them, we enable them to appear on TV and to boast about their murders…. If you do not even bring to account a murderer who says, ‘killing was my art,’ who will you bring to account?” — Şener Levent, the editor-in-chief of the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Afrika.
  • So far, these “rabid murderers” have not been held accountable for the slaughter of innocent Greek Cypriots: the ethnic cleansing of northern Cyprus. The greater issue is that he and his partners in crime were aided and abetted by the Turkish authorities. All of those responsible need to be tried at international criminal tribunals — the sooner, the better.

Is Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who keeps talking about Cyprus as a security threat to the eastern Mediterranean, trying to deliver a message? Erdogan has long been warning Cypriot and international companies exploring energy resources in the region not to “trust the Greek side in Cyprus.”

The Turkish president’s repeated verbal attacks on Greek Cypriots also shed light on a recent interview, broadcast live on Turkish Cypriot TV, with 84-year-old Turgut Yenağralı — a former member of the paramilitary Turkish Resistance Organization (TMT), founded in 1957 and known for its criminal activities in Cyprus.

Yenağralı, in the interview, boasted about his role in the mass murder of Greek Cypriots and the reason for it.

“We traveled across Cyprus and either beat up or killed those who committed crimes against Turkishness,” he began.

Question: Why did you engage in those activities? Was it an adventure or for excitement?

Yenağralı: No, it was for Turkishness.

Question: Was it easy to kill these people?”

Yenağralı: There is nothing more enjoyable… We took great pleasure after we killed those people.

Question: Did you care about whether these people were criminal or not?

Yenağralı: Why would anyone [care]? Criminal or not… As long as they are kafirs [infidels], they belong to the same race of dogs… When we wanted to shoot the kafir, [the two women members of the group] hid guns in their [brassieres] and carried them for us.

Yenağralı said that he and his friends were never told by Turkish Cypriot leaders to reduce or stop their activities. This omission is probably not surprising, given that one of TMT‘s key founders was Rauf Denktaş, who served as the head of the “Turkish Federated State of Cyprus” between 1975 and 1983 and subsequently as the president of the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” from 1983 to 2005 — both “states” recognized only by Turkey.

Yenağralı said that after Cyprus gained independence from British rule in 1960, the TMT buried their weapons and continued their activities in an “underground” way — only to take them back later. However, “Guns kept coming from Turkey,” he added. “We started sending men to Turkey for military training. I too went to Turkey twice for military and intelligence training before 1960.”

Yenağralı claimed that when the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) was established in 1964, he befriended some UN officials — something that made it even easier for the TMT to reorganize and take up positions in the area. “A UN commander prepared a UN Peace Corps uniform for me,” he said “and I wore it and traveled in his UN vehicle. Because I sent them lamb meat every week and I sent them two women [prostitutes] one night.”

“Killing was my art,” he said, describing his group’s activities after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. “It was the Turkish Cypriots who killed the Greek Cypriot captives more than the Turkish military did.”

He also expressed sadness that a Turkish commander prevented him from killing Greek Cypriot prisoners of war on the Karpas peninsula after the invasion. “I am still grieving over missing [that opportunity],” he said.

Yenağralı said he was also involved in transporting illegal settlers from Turkey to Cyprus, to replace the Greek Cypriots who had fled the carnage in the northern part of the island to seek refuge in the free, southern part. The invasion was what changed the demographic structure of the island, turning what was once a Greek majority in the north into a Turkish area for the first time in the island’s history.

One thing Yenağralı’s confessions do is to expose the lie behind Turkey’s referring to its invasion as a “peace operation” launched to protect Turkish Cypriots. Turkey, as Yenağralı illustrated, had been involved in criminal activities in Cyprus for decades prior to the invasion — both before and after Cyprus’ independence in 1960.

After Yenağralı’s interview, Şener Levent, the editor-in-chief of the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Afrika, wrote:

“Our Greek Cypriot brothers who have migrated from Mesarya [Mesaoria] villages who read this might ask: ‘Did this man [Yenağralı] kill my father? Did he kill my mother, my sibling?’ I too would ask if I were them. This man is still alive and lives in Mağusa [Famagusta]. I know he is not the only one. There are others. A citizen of ours says that ‘another one in Serdarlı [Tziaos] also boasted like that for crushing the head of a Greek Cypriot with a piece of rock. And he is proud of that!

“Then we ask: Why is there not peace yet? How can we make peace when we have rabid murderers living among us? Instead of prosecuting them, we enable them to appear on TV and to boast about their murders. Are we still looking for missing people? Go and ask this man… After carrying out his ‘art,’ in what wells did he dump those he murdered, or where did he bury them? If he and the like do not know, who else will? If you do not even bring to account a murderer who says, ‘killing was my art,’ who will you bring to account?”

So far, these “rabid murderers” have not been held accountable for the slaughter of innocent Greek Cypriots: the ethnic cleansing of northern Cyprus. The greater issue is that he and his partners in crime were aided and abetted by the Turkish authorities. All of those responsible need to be tried at international criminal tribunals — the sooner, the better.

Uzay Bulut, a journalist from Turkey, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute. She is currently based in Washington D.C.

Greece, Cyprus and Israel together in Washington

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While the leaders of Greece, Cyprus and Israel confirmed once again in Nicosia their strategic choice to follow a common course on a number of issues and to promote cooperation in a series of sectors – leading with energy – diaspora organizations from the three countries organized a joint conference in Washington, during which they worked on joint actions aimed at securing the support of the United States.

These include efforts to better inform the Trump administration and especially Congress, the branch of the US government where sales of military equipment are approved or rejected.

Cooperation between the diasporas preceded cooperation between the three countries, since members of the Greek-American community, of both Greek and Cypriot origin, have for decades maintained channels of communication with the Jewish community. Now, with the rapid upgrading and deepening of relations at a state level, their cooperation has gained even greater momentum and substance.

Discussions with members of the Jewish community in Washington, on the sidelines of the conference co-hosted by the Hellenic American Leadership Council and the American Jewish Committee, confirmed that the tripartite cooperation is not only important for Greece and Cyprus, but also for Israel.

For a country surrounded by enemies and opponents, long-term strategic relationships that acquire the characteristics of an alliance are extremely useful and important, almost irreplaceable, as, apart from cooperation in the areas of security and counterterrorism, Greece and Cyprus have lately also been acting as a political and economic bridge between Israel and the European Union.

In the past five years, the Congressional Hellenic Israel Alliance (CHIA) caucus has been formed in the United States, and already includes 40 Congressmen led by one Republican, Greek-American Gus Bilirakis, and one Democrat, Ted Deutch, who is Jewish.

Currently, the CHIA is promoting an end to the arms embargo on Cyprus, as well as efforts to freeze the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey.

David Harris, the head of the American Jewish Committee, noted eloquently how the course of this particular relationship is progressing, at the country level but also in the diaspora: “Relations between Israel, Cyprus and Greece are an example of cooperation in a world desperately needing such examples.”

The activities of the Greek-American community in the decision-making centers of the superpower should be and are extremely useful and supportive of Greece and its interests, which more often than not seem to coincide with those of the US.

What’s yours is ours: Turkey’s gunboat diplomacy in Cyprus

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Turkey’s gunboat diplomacy

Turkey’s gunboat diplomacy

‘What we stole from you is ours and what we haven’t stolen from you, you must share.’ 

This is in effect Turkey’s position with regard to the hydrocarbon energy resources of the Republic of Cyprus, an independent member state of the Commonwealth, Council of Europe and European Union. 

Having ethno-religiously cleansed more than 170,000 Greeks and Christians from 36 per cent of the territory (and 57 per cent of the coastline) of the Republic of Cyprus and having arbitrarily appropriated the homes and properties of the indigenous people it forcibly displaced, the Turkish government is now brazenly attempting to deny this sovereign state access to its own energy resources. This is nothing other than neo-imperialism from the modern incarnation of the Ottoman Caliphate and Empire, the imperial ruler of the Island of Cyprus from 1571 until 1878.

On 10 February, Turkey’s belligerence was shamelessly demonstrated by its harassment of the drilling vessel Saipem 12000 which belongs to Italian oil giant ENI. The Italian vessel was blocked from entering a location within block 3 of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone by Turkish warships. A stand-off continues.

Turkey’s hypocrisy knows no bounds.

On the one hand, Turkey asserts that its illegal subordinate entity in the Turkish-occupied zone is an ‘independent state’. Yet on the other hand, Turkey lays claim to the energy reserves in the area of the Republic of Cyprus to the south that Turkey does not occupy. At the same time, Turkey refuses to recognise the Republic of Cyprus.

In a similarly hypocritical vein, Turkey has purported to invoke international law while remaining one of a minority of states which have never become state parties of the UN Law of the Sea Convention of 1982; the others in the same boat as Turkey include North Korea.

Ankara’s cynical contention that the resources of the Republic of Cyprus should be ‘shared’ by ‘the two communities’ exposes its mendacity. It also exposes Ankara’s segregationism and neo-imperial desire to control Cyprus as a territory and to exploit its people and resources.

Since its two invasions of the Republic of Cyprus launched in 1974, Turkey showed the world its unique interpretation of the concept of ‘sharing’. To begin with, Turkey purported to carve Cyprus into two, including an ethno-religiously cleansed Turkish-occupied northern zone. By means of an illegal puppet regime owing its loyalty to Ankara, Turkey then illegally usurped the properties belonging to forcibly displaced persons. These properties were then illegally distributed to Turkish citizens who had been illegally imported to illegally colonise the illegally occupied north.

Ankara’s claim that it is acting to secure a ‘share’ of Cyprus’ energy resources for the Turkish Community is as bogus as its absurd claim that it invaded and occupied part of Cyprus for the sake of ‘peace’.

In truth, Turkey invaded the Republic of Cyprus with the pre-planned aim of transforming its north into a de facto province of Turkey.

The increasingly unhinged President Erdogan has reacted with his usual brand of neo-imperial outbursts mixed with naked threats. In his view: “Those who think that we’ve erased from our hearts the lands from which we withdrew in tears a hundred years ago are wrong.” With regard to companies commissioned by the Cyprus government to explore the island’s energy reserves, President Erdogan has claimed: “Their swagger lasts only until they come across with our army, ships and planes… our rights in the Aegean and Cyprus are the same”. What President Erdogan really means is ‘might is right’.

We welcome statements by EU officials such European Parliament President Tajani who called on Turkey to respect international law and refrain from engaging in dangerous provocations in what he called “Cyprus’ territorial waters”. However, the response from the United Nations, as ever, was found wanting. To quote one of its recent statements: “The [UN] Secretary-General regrets that tensions over hydrocarbons exploration has escalated once again, and emphasizes that all concerned parties should do their utmost to defuse tensions.” The UN Secretary-General did not explain that, under his nose, only one party is raising tensions. That party is Turkey.

Perhaps President Erdogan should come to terms with the fact that the days of the Ottoman Caliphate and Empire are long gone. He should refrain from destabilising the eastern Mediterranean region and threatening a member state of the EU. He should accept that the resources of the Republic of Cyprus belong to it as an independent sovereign state. He should also ensure that Turkey becomes a state party to the UN Law of the Sea Convention and if Turkey has any dispute with the Republic of Cyprus this should be addressed by the dispute resolution mechanisms built into the Convention.

Turkey’s policies of partition, segregation, colonisation and exploitation do not serve the interests of any citizen of the Republic of Cyprus or of the European Union of which it forms part. It is high time that the Republic of Cyprus, its properties and its resources were left to it and, by extension, to its citizens of all ethnic, religious or other backgrounds.

In the meantime, we call upon the UN, the EU and all sovereign states to do what they have hitherto failed to do in relation to the bully of the eastern Mediterranean known as Turkey: they should impose sanctions and other restrictive measures. 

Lobby for Cyprus is a non-party-political human rights organisation that campaigns for a Cyprus free from Turkish occupation and a unitary Cypriot state without segregation along ethnic and religious lines.

Source: https://lobbyforcyprus.wordpress.com/2018/02/22/cyprus-eez/

From Cyprus to Syria: Turkey’s Continued Invasions “with full impunty from West”

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From Cyprus to Syria: Turkey’s Continued Invasions

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On January 20, the Turkish military began an invasion of the Kurdish-controlled Afrin region in northern Syria. Turkey’s government has declared that its operation aims “to preserve Syria’s territorial integrity,” remove “terrorist elements,” and protect civilians.

The Independent, however, published the first Western media report from Afrin, and Robert Fisk reports that the list of dead includes infants. “One-year old Wael al-Hussein, a refugee…was killed on 21 January, six-year old Moussab al-Hussein from Idlib (clearly from another refugee family) on the same day,” he writes.

Many journalists in Turkey, in the meanwhile, are rubbing their hands. Necati Doğru, a columnist with one of the most read Turkish newspapers, Sözcü, for example, proudly declares that Afrin “should be Turkey’s second Cyprus.” He writes: “You can’t say ‘I will enter Syria, strike them, cleanse the area and return. You should stay there permanently. We are having our second Cyprus.”

The Turkish invasion of Cyprus is considered a “victory” in Turkey and is celebrated every year. For the Republic of Cyprus, however, it was and still is a horrific crime that has completely changed the country ever since.

In 1974, Turkey claimed it was bringing “peace” to Cyprus, which it invaded with a brutal military assault that it calls the “Cyprus peace operation.” The Turkish military code-named the invasion “Operation Attila,” named after Attila the Hun(reigned 434-453 CE). A Turkic military leader from Central Asia, he is known for his ruthless and destructive campaigns and invasions, including those targeting Western and Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empires, and at one time he invaded Italy, devastating its northern provinces.

Following the invasion of the Republic of Cyprus in 1974, Turkey deployed around 40,000 of its soldiers in the northern part of the island, which has turned Cyprus into the most militarized turf in the world. Since the invasion, some 37 percent of Cypriot territory has been under Turkish occupation. Bülent Ecevit, Turkey’s prime minister at the time of the invasion, is still hailed by many in the country as “the conqueror of Cyprus,” although others have recently claimed that it is Necmettin Erbakan, the then deputy PM, who actually deserves the title.

The campaign was accompanied by mass murder, abduction, and rape of Greek Cypriots by Turkish troops. The European Commission on Human Rights has documented the rape of women and children aged 12 to 71.

In their article titled “Gender and Genocide: Armenian and Greek Women Finding Positive Meaning in the Horror,” scholars Artemis Pippinelli and Ani Kalayjian detail the sexual assaults by Turkish troops against Greek Cypriot women and children, which they call the “Cyprus gendercide.” They write:

Rape victims suffered severe gynecological problems as well as psychological trauma. In some cases, women were forced into prostitution. Many were collected from different villages and held in separate rooms of empty houses where they were repeatedly raped by Turkish soldiers. In other cases, members of the same family were repeatedly raped, some in front of their children. Rapes also occurred in public before spectators. The brutality of these violent sexual attacks was followed by extreme physical trauma, including near suffocation. Children and pregnant or mentally retarded women were not spared.

In 1983, Turkey proceeded to issue the unilateral declaration of independence of a new “state” in Cyprus which they call “the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (TRNC). Only Turkey recognizes the TRNC, which has transformed northern Cyprus into a Turkish province.

Turks have applied the same methods used to de-Hellenize and Turkify Asia Minor (today’s Turkey), which had a Greek majority until the 1453 Turkish sack of Constantinople (Istanbul), to Turkify northern Cyprus.

For example, the Greek geographical names of the occupied north have been changed to Turkish names. And the violent destruction of the cultural heritage of the area at the hands of its Turkish regime is still ongoing. Hundreds of historic and religious monuments have been destroyed, looted, and vandalized. Many churches have been converted into stables, casinos, nightclubs, warehouses, barracks, and mosques, among other things.

And worshippers in those mosques in the occupied area are now reciting the Koranic verse Surah al Fath (verse of conquest) “for the victory of Turkey’s military operation on Afrin” every day until the invasion ends—as instructed by the government-funded Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet).

Turkey also rejects the Greek identity of Cyprus. According to the official websiteof the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Cyprus has never been a Greek island,” and “there has never been in Cyprus a ‘Cypriot nation.’”

The Turkish ministry is wrong. Not until the Turkish invasion in 1974 did the northern part of the island have a Turkish majority. The occupation forced around 170,000 indigenous Greek Cypriot inhabitants of northern Cyprus out of their homes and flee to the free, southern part of the island. The Turkish government then replaced Greek Cypriot natives with illegal settlers from Turkey, thus forcibly changing the demographic status-quo of the island. That is how a Turkish majority was created in the northern part of Cyprus, which had always had a Greek majority until 1974.

Similarly, Erdogan refuses to recognize Kurdish rule in Afrin, declaring his plan for changing the demographic status-quo there.

“Fifty-five percent of the population of Afrin is Arab, 35 percent is Kurds, who were settled there later, and 6 or 7 percent is Turkmen. The entire issue is to give Afrin back to its real owners. Our aim is to immediately send the 3.5 million Syrians in Turkey back to their homeland,” he said in a public speech.

In recent years, Turkish expansionism has become alarmingly popular within pro-government groups. Turkey’s new maps, published by the pro-government media, have even reclaimed the Ottoman Empire, including Greece and Iraq.

In parallel to that, many Turkish politicians from both the government and opposition have publicly expressed their desire to invade and capture Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. Most recently, Yigit Bulut, one of Erdogan’s principal advisers, has threatened Greece over the islet of Imia, which Turks call “Kardak.” He said:

Athens will face the wrath of Turkey worse than that in Afrin. We will break the arms and legs of officials, of the Prime Minister [Alexis Tsipras] and any minister who dares to step on the Kardak islet in the Aegean. There is not an armed force in this region that could contend against the Turkish armed forces. So, everyone will know their place. All imperialists will accept that the people in this land are Turks and the nation in this land is Islamic ummah [nation] and they will kiss the hand that they cannot bend.

In the meanwhile, the Greek Defense Ministry announced that Turkey violated Greek airspace 138 times in one day alone, on February 1.

Since 1974, Turkey has been a proud and unapologetic occupier in Cyprus. Now Turkish authorities are targeting Afrin, knowing from past experience that they will not be held accountable. They can kill and torture civilians and commit campaigns of ethnic cleansing wherever they wish. Yesterday, their target was northern Cyprus; today it is northern Syria. What country will be the next target? Before even greater catastrophes occur in the region, Turkey has to be reminded that the Ottoman Empire is dead and will never be resurrected.

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Uzay Bulut, a journalist and political analyst born in Turkey, is currently based in Washington, DC. She is an associate fellow of the Philos Project.

Back off Cyprus gas or face confrontation, Egypt warns Turkey

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Turkey will face a confrontation with Egypt if it does not respect Cairo’s rights for gas exploration won in a deal with Greek Cyprus, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid warned on Tuesday.

The maritime border demarcation deal in question was signed in 2013 between Egypt and Cyprus, and gives Cairo access to an area of the East Mediterranean that is of particular interest for hydrocarbon companies since the discovery of the huge Zohr gas fields in 2015.

However, Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu appeared to contest the deal, when he declared that Turkish Cypriots had been unfairly prevented from claiming their “inalienable rights to the natural resources” around the island, and revealed Turkish plans to begin exploration in the area.

“Nobody can contest the validity of the agreement,” the Turkish daily newspaper Sabah quoted Abu Zeid as saying in response, adding that the deal has been delivered to the United Nations.

Reuters reported that the foreign ministry spokesperson warned that “any attempt to infringe or diminish Egypt’s rights in that area” would be confronted.

Turkey’s relations with Egypt have been unfriendly since the current president, Abdel Fettah al-Sisi, deposed his predecessor, Mohamed Morsi, in a popularly-supported coup in 2013.