Foreign Office reassures British tourists

THE BRITISH Foreign Office yesterday said there was no reason for Britons not to holiday in Cyprus, despite increasing tension on the island.

A Sunday Times report last month claimed the Foreign Office had prepared a contingency plan for evacuation of 250,000 British tourists in the event of an outbreak of war on the island this Summer. The arrival of Greek and Turkish air force F-16s in Cyprus this week has added to the talk of war, sparked by the expected delivery of Russian S-300 missiles to the island in the Autumn.

But a Foreign Office spokesman yesterday told the Cyprus News Agency that there was no reason for tourists to stay away.

“Our position regarding visits to Cyprus by British citizens has not changed as a result of recent developments on the island,” the spokesman said in London.

“British citizens can visit Cyprus as usual and we do not see any reason for those who are planning such visits to change their plans,” he said.

The spokesman also said Britain’s special representative for Cyprus, Sir David Hannay, was planning to visit the island “next month”.

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.