TURKISH and Turkish Cypriot concern over next week’s ‘Argonaut’ exercise which is to be conducted under the auspices of the Foreign Ministry is misplaced, government officials said yesterday.
Fedon Anastasiou, Director of Consular Affairs/SCHENGEN at the Foreign Ministry, said that the nature of the ‘Argonaut’ exercise is solely humanitarian, therefore any concern is unwarranted.
‘Argonaut’ will be conducted between June 2 and June 6 in the framework of the ESTIA national crisis plan. Military forces from Greece and France will also take part in the exercise.
The last phase of ‘Argonaut’ will be held at the Evangelos Florakis naval base in Kiti on June 6 and will see various scenarios simulated such as a plane crash, a sinking ship, search-and-rescue and dealing with terrorist activity.
The Foreign Ministry, the National Guard, the Police and Civil Defence are all involved.
Anastasiou went on to say that all countries that face national disasters employ their armed forces.
“The scenarios which will be simulated are well known and there is no military tinge in any of them.”
French and Greek vessels and air support will also take part.
Commenting on the negative reaction to Argonaut, Government Spokesman Stephanos Stephanou said yesterday that Cyprus has “the right to co-operate with other countries so as to care for its civil defence.”
Anastasiou explained how the national crisis plan came about.
“ESTIA is the result of a large collective effort. The experiences gained from the Lebanese crisis of July 2006 were the foundations on which ESTIA was developed.
“Its main aim of which is to co-ordinate services to handle mass arrivals of foreign citizens either because of a serious political crisis or armed conflict, and provide them with humanitarian help.”
The plan also covers the entry of illegal immigrants into Cyprus either via the occupied areas or via the south.
Yesterday, a series of on paper exercises were conducted in which all the services involved participated, “so as to gauge the effectiveness of the plan in the conditions of a real crisis,” according to Anastasiou.
