DIKO leader Nikolas Papadopoulos raised the possibility of Cyprus taking legal action to have the British Bases removed. He was speaking on Wednesday at a meeting of parliament’s Environment Committee, where parties and residents opposed the Bases’ plans to install new antennas at Merra in Akrotiri over concerns for public health and the environment.
Theodora Constantinidou, director general of the Foreign Ministry, told the committee that the Bases had not taken steps to install the antennas because talks with the British High Commission were under way. She said a first official meeting was scheduled in two weeks to discuss technical data Cyprus had received, with the main focus on protecting health and the environment.
Papadopoulos called the issue extremely serious, citing possible effects on residents’ health and the environment. He criticised the way UK authorities treat the Republic of Cyprus, saying it causes huge problems. He also asked officials what the existing agreement between the Bases and the Republic provides for works that may affect public health and the environment.
Constantinidou said the problems faced by residents within the Bases were a top priority. She said the foreign minister had raised them at meetings with British officials in July and September, and had also met local leaders. Cyprus had asked for detailed technical data, which had arrived and was being examined by the relevant services, and a coordination mechanism had been set up, she added.
Parties
AKEL’s Marina Nikolaou said her party categorically disagreed with the plans, saying they breached international law and the UN Charter. She said the initial plans provided for 20 new antennas to be installed and 18 removed. Later, she said, the plans were described in phases, with 68 antennas in the first and second phases and a further 31 to 34 in a third phase, in a strictly protected area.
ALMA parliament member Michalis Paraskevas said the Bases were not a state and their courts were illegal. He said they had no power to legislate, maintain a police force or try Cypriot citizens.
Direct Democracy Cyprus parliament member Giannis Laouris said the issue was one of health, and also of the “arrogance of the English government” in how it acts in Cyprus.
DISY’s Michalis Kounounis said the plans and studies needed to be examined on the basis of scientific data. His party colleague Giorgos Karaiskakis, who lives in Kourion municipality, asked for information on timeframes, the Bases’ plans, environmental studies and whether there were alternative sites.
Residents
Kourion deputy mayor Giorgos Konstantinou, said residents were fighting to stay in Akrotiri, an area already surrounded by antennas. He said a requisition of 450,000 square metres of land had been served on the Foreign Ministry on 3 August, and that a law firm had been hired to challenge it legally with the Bases.
He also called for the permitted radiation limits to be lowered, saying they were very high compared with other countries. “We don’t want to leave our home,” he said. Residents wanted protection, the removal of the existing antennas and no new ones, he added.
Marios Kaisis, coordinator of the Active Citizens’ Movement of Akrotiri Peninsula Communities, ‘Akrotiri Hour Zero’, condemned what he called the arbitrary requisition of about 455,000 square metres of community land by the British Bases. He also condemned the plans to install dozens of new military antennas.
He called for the requisition to be cancelled immediately and the antenna plans to be dropped. He said residents trusted neither the British military’s environment department nor the Republic’s Environment Department. They wanted any investigations carried out solely by independent European experts and university bodies, with no British or Cypriot involvement, he added.
Government departments
Ioanna Grigoriou of the Health Ministry said a 2007 epidemiological study by British experts had found low levels. A later study of cancer cases and deaths in the area had found no increased incidence, she added.
Pantelis Hadjigerou, head of the Game and Fauna Service, said the service had carried out studies in 2022 on an earlier antenna installation and was ready to carry out new ones for the planned antennas.
Neoklis Antoniou of the Environment Department said the department had no direct contact with the Bases and was in direct communication with the Foreign Ministry on the issue. The Forestry Department said it had not been informed about where the new antennas would be sited. A representative of the Department of Electronic Communications called the issue a high priority, saying the department received information through the Foreign Ministry.
Maria Tsotsi, an officer at the Office of the Commissioner for Administration, said it had received no related complaint and that the Bases did not fall within its remit.
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