Official complaint lodged over ‘spying’ incident

By Charlie Charalambous

THE FOREIGN Ministry yesterday lodged a complaint with the British High Commission over the alleged spying incident involving bases helicopters.

British High Commission officials were summoned to the foreign ministry to explain reports that two British helicopters flew low over a National Guard installation near Zygi, and took photographs.

“The foreign ministry has protested to the British High Commission over the alleged helicopter incident,” British High Commission spokesman Piers Cazalet told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

“We were asked for an explanation and we clarified that no Gazelle-type British helicopters were flying at that time, but two American Blackhawks were doing a routine flight, so there must be some confusion.”

Cazalet added that the British High Commission had at various times been given three different dates for the alleged incident — Saturday night, Sunday morning and Wednesday.

According to government sources, two British helicopters were seen flying over an army installation on Sunday morning; two warning flares were fired, and they flew away.

The British bases repeated yesterday that they had no aircraft out at the time of the alleged incident, 8.40 am last Sunday, but did say that two US blackhawk helicopters had left from Akrotiri that morning.

“Allegations of British helicopters spying and taking photos are just not true,” said bases spokesman Captain Jon Brown.

The US helicopters were on a routine flight to supply the American embassy in Beirut via Akrotiri and Larnaca.

“The officer in command of the blackhawk detachment has assured me that nothing unusual happened during that flight and that no flares were fired at his helicopter,” said Brown.

However, the fact that the National Guard is claiming the helicopters were Gazelles, which cannot easily be mistaken for the larger Blackhawk, has only added to the mystery.

As one informed military expert told the Cyprus Mail: “If it wasn’t the British, then the only other army in Cyprus which has Gazelles is the National Guard itself.”

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.