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Cyprus British Forces on Cyprus
Under the provisions of the Treaty of Establishment,
Britain
retained perpetual sovereignty over two areas on the
southern coast
of Cyprus, totaling 256 square kilometers. A further
fifteen
reserved areas, including water sources and off-base radar
sites,
remained under British jurisdiction. Since 1960 the
British Army
and Royal Air Force (RAF) have garrisoned up to 10,000
troops in
the Sovereign Base Areas at Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
Formerly, two
squadrons of bombers and their fighter escorts were based
on
Cyprus, but since the late 1970s the RAF has no longer
stationed
combat aircraft on the island.
With the decline of the British military presence in
the Middle
East, the bases have been used as training sites for RAF
and ground
force units and staging areas between Britain and southern
Asia and
the Far East. With permission from the Cyprus government,
British
troops also carried on extensive training outside the base
area in
the Troodos Mountains. The bases provided support for UN
troops on
Cyprus and workshops for maintenance of UN equipment. The
most
important role of the bases was electronic intelligence
gathering
and communications relay. Intercepts were made of
aircraft, ship,
and satellite communications from the eastern
Mediterranean through
the Middle East to Iran. Information so acquired was
shared with
the United States. Although the bases had no formal link
to NATO,
their presence in the primary area of operation of the
Soviet naval
squadron in the Mediterranean was of material value to the
alliance.
The bases provided logistic support for peace-keeping
missions
by United States forces in the Middle East, including the
Multinational Force sent to Lebanon in 1982. U-2
reconnaissance
planes were based at Akrotiri beginning in the 1970s, to
monitor
the cease-fire in the Sinai. The United States also
maintained
Blackhawk helicopters there, which had flown support
missions on
behalf of the American Embassy in Beirut prior to its
closure.
As of 1990, the British personnel strength of the
Sovereign
Base Areas was about 4,000, plus approximately the same
number of
dependents. The army units consisted of one infantry
battalion plus
two infantry companies and one armored reconnaissance
squadron. The
only permanent RAF unit was a squadron of five Wessex
helicopters.
The army had six Gazelle helicopters, which also served to
support
UNFICYP activities.
The British bases were a long-standing source of
contention,
although most Greek Cypriots as of 1990 accepted the
presence of
British forces. Military relations were very good, and
British and
Greek Cypriot authorities cooperated closely in
antiterrorism
matters. Virtually all Greek Cypriot political parties
agreed that
Britain should eventually give up its rights on the
island. The
communist party, AKEL, was the most vocal in attacking the
use of
the bases for intelligence purposes and in calling for the
British
to relinquish the territory.
Data as of January 1991
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