Planned defence purchases a worrying sign

By Loucas Charalambous
I HAVE a feeling that President Anastasiades is attempting the un-achievable – proving a worse leader than Christofias. This fear grows by the day. Every day something happens to remind us that Cyprus, regardless of who is in the presidential palace, remains a political lunatic asylum.
A week ago, Defence Minister Fotis Fotiou gave a demonstration of what I am talking about. In a newspaper interview he said the government was exploring the purchase of two open sea patrol boats “so we would be able, as much as we could, to safeguard our sovereign rights in the exclusive economic zone of Cyprus”.
According to information the government was considering the purchase of two frigates. I do not think Anastasiades and his war-monger minister are unaware of the strength of the country from which they would protect our hydrocarbon deposits.
Currently, the Turkish navy has 48,600 men, 16 frigates, seven corvettes, 14 submarines, 27 ships with missile launchers and 75 planes. Turkey’s air force consists of 60,000 men, 700 fighter planes and 77 helicopters. In view of all this, is anyone in this country justified in ignoring the possibility that if Turkey decided to prevent the extraction of natural gas by force, she would need no more than 25 minutes to sink our frigates? The flying time for a F16 from Konya to Block 12 is about 17 minutes.
What are we going to do with the frigates? Are the debts we have not enough? Are we now going to borrow more money in order to buy targets for Turkish pilots to aim at?
In my view, one of two things could be happening. One possibility is that the cool breeze of May that is blowing through the cypress and pine trees of the presidential palace has gone straight to the head of our new president and made him forget the Anastasiades of 2004.
Back then he was the prudent and courageous politician who had the guts to take on all half-mad demagogues and vested business interests of the island, who joined forces in the axis of evil that imposed (in a democratic way) partition. He has now joined their camp – the camp of political madness – playing with them the fiery patriotic games that will at some point burn all of us.
The other possibility is that his government allies DIKO, the party of ‘kickbacks’, has decided to return to its old ways. And as Anastasiades does not seem prepared to stand in DIKO’s way over anything, I can only assume the party decided to indulge in a little cash generation. I cannot think of any other reasons to justify this insane decision.
Interestingly, some time ago, a former member of DIKO was telling me that until 2005 the party still had money in its bank account from the commissions paid for the purchase of Airbus planes by Cyprus Airways in the 1980s.
According to press information, the cost of purchasing the two patrol boats was estimated to be €120 million. I do not know where this figure was found, as, from what I know, the cheapest frigates (the Italian-made Masitrale) cost €120m each. In any case, the commission on even €120m – I estimate it to be 15 per cent – would be €18m and it will be very interesting to know how it would be distributed. It would appear that Anastasiades’ alliance with DIKO’s gang of political opportunists could prove his political grave.
There is also another question raised. Was the troika asked about this purchase as its loan would be financing the planned party? Will they be able to fool the troika into giving its approval?

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.