US to conduct military training with Republic of Cyprus

The United States has announced plan to conduct military training with the Republic of Cyprus.

The announcement, which has drawn criticisms from Turkey, came months after the US Congress late last year ended an arms embargo on the entire island.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops seized its northern third in response to an Athens-inspired Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the eastern Mediterranean island with Greece.

Seeds of conflict were sown earlier, prompting the dispatch of a United Nations peacekeeping mission in 1964.

Turkey still maintains tens of thousands of soldiers on the island’s north, which in 1983 declared itself to be a republic and is recognised only by Ankara.

US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said on Wednesday that the State Department for the first time had included Cyprus in its International Military Education and Training funding programme for 2020 as part of “our expanding security relationship”.

“This is part of our efforts to enhance relationships with key regional partners to promote stability in the Eastern Mediterranean,” Pompeo said.

The self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), however, has condemned the plan.

“Initiatives that do not observe balance between parties will not contribute to establishing a secure environment on the Island, nor will they help keep peace and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean,” foreign ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement.

“As we have stressed many times before, these steps will not contribute to finding a solution to the Cyprus issue but instead strengthens the uncompromising approach of the Greek side,” he added.

Source: MRC and News Agencies