Cyprus - Occupation Sustains Empire: Stand Against All Colonizers and Foreign Militaries

Written by: Union of Cypriots on 7 March 2026

We are reprinting a statement below by the Union of Cypriots, a progressive organisation affiliated to both the International League of Peoples Struggles (ILPS) and the International Coordination of Revolutionary Parties and Organisations (ICOR).

Two days after the US-Israeli aggression against Iran, an Iranian missile was directed at a British base in Cyprus. People in Limassol near the base organised demonstrations demanding “British bases out!”. (See report from Al Jazeera here).

Cypriots in Australia are the second largest Cypriot community outside of Cyprus and Greece. As of 2014, there are over 80,000 people of Cypriot origin in Australia – eds.

02.03.2026 – US–Zionist-led attacks against Iran, and the reported missiles directed toward British military installations at Akrotiri, have renewed public debate in Cyprus regarding the status and implications of the British Bases. When foreign military infrastructure on Cypriot soil becomes a potential target, the issue shifts from abstract geopolitics to a direct matter of national security and public safety.

The British bases at RAF Akrotiri and Dhekelia were established under the 1960 Treaty of Establishment, drafted by the United Kingdom, Turkey, and Greece. Although the Republic of Cyprus became formally independent after the anti-colonial struggle of the 1950s, the independence agreements—imposed under colonial pressure—allowed the United Kingdom to retain control over designated base areas. Resistance to these arrangements by President Makarios was followed by the 1974 NATO-orchestrated Turkish occupation of Cyprus.

Today, the bases are not under the authority of the Republic of Cyprus, yet their operation exposes our people to retaliation. They place Cypriot citizens, without their consent, in the middle of conflicts they did not choose and do not wish to be part of. We cannot accept being turned into a frontline state for wars that are not ours.

Cyprus continues to endure the Turkish occupation of part of its homeland, while also living with the continued British occupation through its bases on the island. These realities exist within a broader geopolitical framework that has restricted Cypriot sovereignty for decades. While a significant portion of Cyprus’ territory remains outside the effective control of the Republic, some political forces in Cyprus and their allies abroad portray a country with a semi-colonial character as a fully sovereign Western state, detached from these structural limitations. This narrative shields external powers from accountability and normalizes the status quo.

International solidarity with Cyprus and the Cypriot people is essential. For a small country like ours, diplomacy and international law are not abstract principles but instruments of struggle. Mauritius showed this when it took Britain to the International Court of Justice over the detachment of the Chagos Islands. In 2019, the Court ruled that the UK’s continued administration is unlawful. That decision proved that colonial powers can be confronted and that unfinished decolonization must be challenged.

When we speak about the US presence in Cyprus, we must remember that the United States’ first CIA-operated spy planes landed on RAF Akrotiri in 1974—the same year Turkey’s occupation began—and they have remained ever since. At the time, the Republic of Cyprus was a non-aligned state calling for the removal of foreign militaries from its soil and supporting the liberation struggle of Palestine and other colonised lands. We cannot understand the continued British military presence on our island without situating it within the wider context of Turkish occupation. As the primary material contradiction affecting our island, the occupation has transformed Cyprus’ political identity, creating a politics of instability and survival that legitimises the continued exploitation of our island by the UK and the US in furtherance of material support towards the Zionist settler colony. Occupation sustains Anglo-American empire, and liberation from empire cannot be won so long as our sovereignty continues to be denied.

The generation that fought British colonial rule in the 1950s did so for sovereignty and self-determination. Their sacrifice was not made so that Cyprus would remain strategically hostage or exposed to dangers imposed by others.

As the Union of Cypriots, we affirm our commitment to full sovereignty and will continue to struggle until our country stands free from every colonial remnant.

Union of Cypriots

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