By Jean Christou
CYPRUS is seeking legal means to justify an unauthorised flight by two Greek warplanes over the British bases during military exercises on Tuesday.
Official British sources yesterday branded the overflight of Akrotiri RAF base and Episkopi garrison at noon on Tuesday “dangerous and stupid” and said it was not the first time such an incident had occurred.
An official written protest was lodged by Britain with the Cyprus Foreign Ministry on Thursday, and the issue was raised at a routine meeting yesterday between British High Commissioner David Madden and Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides.
Government spokesman Manolis Christofides confirmed that the written protest about the overflight had been received from the British authorities and that an investigation was under way.
But Christofides made it clear the investigation would focus on whether permission had been obtained and whether the two military bases legally possessed sovereign air space over the island under the 1960 Treaty of Establishment.
“From the establishment of the Republic until today, the co-operation between Cyprus and Britain has been absolute in relation to the security, safety and effective functioning of the bases,” Christofides said.
“I would also draw attention to Article 3 of the Treaty, which mentions that the Republic of Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and the UK undertake to negotiate and co-operate for the common defence of Cyprus.”
Christofides said the protest would be answered soon, after the attorney- general had been consulted on the air-space issue.
“The British bases are there, the agreements are adhered to and their sovereignty is not being questioned,” Christofides said.
But the British sources told the Cyprus Mail that, as far as they were concerned, “according to the Treaty of Establishment we have air space over Cyprus.”
“We are not steamed up over the sovereignty issue, but the overflights had serious safety implications,” the sources said, referring to incoming and outgoing flights from the RAF base.
“It would be like our air traffic flying willy nilly over Larnaca Airport. There had been no clearance so it was just dangerous and stupid.”
The sources said Britain did not want make a fuss and that the protest had comprised the “mildest form of diplomatic rebuke”.
They added, however, that it was not the first time Greek planes had overflown the bases. Britain protested orally at the time.
“Last spring, Greek planes flew over the bases and much lower,” the sources said. “We explained to the foreign ministry why it is dangerous. That’s why we were surprised to see it happen again.”
In Tuesday’s incident, the two Greek F-16s flew over the bases at a height of around 2,000 feet during the wrap-up of the annual Nikiforos exercises held jointly with Greece.
Britain has not protested to the Greek government, the sources said, because “they were Cyprus military exercises”.
