Lefkoniko use `for military purposes’

TURKISH Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said yesterday his breakaway administration would extend the use of an airport in the north of the divided island of Cyprus for military purposes.

“Because of the air base given to the Greeks in the south, Gecitkale will be used as a rapid-deployment military base,” the Turkish Cypriot TAK news agency quoted him as saying.

The Lefkoniko airport, known in Turkish as Gecitkale, was used as a military base earlier this month when Turkish war planes flew in as a tit- for-tat response to a brief stopover by Greek fighter jets at the Greek Cypriot air base at Paphos.

Denktash did not elaborate on details of the air base plan, but his remarks appeared to be a fresh challenge to the Greek Cypriot government of Cyprus and the government in Greece.

A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman in Ankara declined to comment and comment was immediately from the Cyprus government.

The latest row over Greek and Turkish air force stopovers on the island led to tension on Cyprus.

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.