Turkey’s defence ministry on Thursday warned France against pursuing further military ties with the Republic of Cyprus, following Monday’s signing of a status of forces agreement between the Republic of Cyprus and France, which will, among other things, allow France to station troops on the island.
“We reiterate once again that any military alliance targeting the rights and interests of Turkey and the TRNC has no chance of success against Turkey,” it said.
“The Turkish armed forces have the strength and the determination to give the strongest response to hostile attitudes which threaten the Turkish Cypriots’ security.”
The agreement was signed by French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin and Cypriot Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas in Nicosia, on the sidelines of the day’s informal European foreign affairs council (Fac) meeting in its defence configuration.
Plans for a status of forces agreement had been announced by Cypriot government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis when French President Emmanuel Macron most recently visited the island in April.
President Nikos Christodoulides had said at the time that the agreement will “strengthen humanitarian military cooperation and joint action at a regional level”, and “provide for the presence of French forces on Cypriot territory for humanitarian purposes”.
Macron had spoken at length on the matter of defence during his visit to Cyprus, saying that the mass deployment of European military hardware in and around Cyprus after the island was hit by an Iranian-made drone in March, “constituted a reaffirmation of our determination to secure Europe’s space”.
“I said it in a simple way on March 9, that when Cyprus was attacked, it was Europe which was attacked,” he said.
Turkish Cypriots had earlier in the week expressed bemusement at the deal, with ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel accusing the Greek Cypriot side of “increasingly intensifying” the buildup of military assets in and around the island “under the guise of humanitarian purposes”, while instead aiming to “gain military advantages”.
This, he said, “disregards the Turkish Cypriot people’s inherent rights to sovereign equality on the island” and “is intended to disrupt the delicate balances established concerning the security and stability and our region”.
He went on to say that the “signing of military cooperation and armament agreements with various states … including those which do not even have a coastline in the eastern Mediterranean” on the part of the Greek Cypriot side is a “manifestation of [its] insincerity” with regard to the Cyprus problem.
Opposition political party CTP deputy leader Asim Akansoy, meanwhile, described the timing of the agreement as “quite unfortunate” given that it came on a day when United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin was on the island and “making efforts for the demilitarisation of [it] and a just and lasting peace”.
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