Denktash accuses Clerides and Simitis of raising tension

By Jean Christou

THURSDAY’S Cyprus-Greece joint statement on military issues could raise tension on the island, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash has warned.

Commenting to Turkish Cypriot newspapers, Denktash described the joint statement by President Glafcos Clerides and Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis as “attempting to camouflage Cyprus and Greece’s continuing dangerous adventurist stance in the region”.

He accused the Greek Cypriots and Greece of being responsible for escalating tension in Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean with their defence dogma, the Paphos air base, the S-300 missiles and “their continuing threats”.

In Thursday’s communique issued in Athens, the Greek and Greek Cypriot leaders said the missiles would be deployed as planned and that Greece would back Cyprus militarily in the event of any strike by Turkey against their deployment.

Both leaders stressed they did not want tension which would lead to confrontation and that the missiles constitute a threat only to those who dare attack.

Meanwhile reports in yesterday’s press suggested that the missiles would arrive on the island next month and not in November as recently stated.

Quoting from the September issue of Jane’s Intelligence Review, two Greek Cypriot papers said the missiles would be shipped via Gibraltar on Russian naval vessels.

The decision was taken by President Clerides and Russian President Boris Yeltsin on July 13, the review is quoted as saying.

The magazine also reportedly said that 48 Cypriots had just completed three months’ training in the use of the missiles in Russia.

Clerides has offered to cancel the S-300 missiles if Turkey accepts his proposal for demilitarisation of the island, or if there is progress in the UN-sponsored talks for the reunification of the island.

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.