30,000 Russians in Cyprus, claims general

THIRTY thousand Russians have been posted to Cyprus to oversee weapons sales to the National Guard, a Turkish general has claimed.

Commander General Necati Ozgen said the 30,000 Russians – who, he said, were also to be involved in technical support and management for weapons – were part of a Soviet plan to gain increased influence in the region.

Ozgen’s comments were made at a two-day symposium on Cyprus at Turkey’s War Academies Command in Istanbul, the Turkish Daily News reported yesterday.

Ozgen referred to government plans to buy S-300 missiles to make his point that Greek Cypriots were “arming to extreme degrees”, the paper said.

He reportedly told delegates per capita armaments expenditure in the free areas was now on a par with the US.

The general added that, despite this spending, Cyprus could never hope to challenge Turkey’s military superiority, the Turkish Daily News reported.

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.