Akrotiri and Dhekelia


Akrotiri and Dhekelia, officially the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, is a British Overseas Territory that consists of two separate areas on the island of Cyprus. The areas, which include British military bases and installations that were formerly part of the Crown colony of Cyprus, were retained by the British under the 1960 treaty of independence signed by the United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey, the president of Cyprus and the representative of the Turkish Cypriot community.
British Forces Cyprus are stationed on this territory, including Ayios Nikolaos Station for signals intelligence.
Despite being under British control, Akrotiri and Dhekelia are integrated with the surrounding Cypriot communities and economies. The areas are notable for their strategic geopolitical value and rich environmental features, including the Akrotiri Salt Lake, a protected wetland. Education, policing, and healthcare services are provided in coordination with the Republic of Cyprus. The SBAs also play a significant role in intelligence and communications operations across the Eastern Mediterranean. Although not part of the European Union post-Brexit, the areas continue to be governed by protocols that align with certain EU laws to avoid disrupting the daily lives of residents.

History

The Sovereign Base Areas were created in 1960 by the London and Zürich Agreements, when Cyprus achieved independence from the British Empire, as recorded by the United Nations in 1960 as treaty 5476. The United Kingdom desired to retain sovereignty over these areas, as this guaranteed the use of UK military bases on Cyprus, including RAF Akrotiri, and a garrison of the British Army. The importance of the bases to the British is based on the strategic location of the island, at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, close to the Suez Canal and the Middle East; the ability to use the RAF base as staging post for military aircraft; and for training.
In July and August 1961, there were a series of bomb attacks against the pipeline carrying fresh water to the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area. The pipeline was breached by explosions twelve times.
In the early 1970s, the United States built an over-the-horizon radar named Cobra Shoe, which could observe aeroplane operations and missile tests in southern Russia. This was operated by the RAF on behalf of the U.S. Air Force. This augmented an earlier British system built in the early 1960s named Project Sandra. The American use of the base was hidden from the Cypriot government due to sensitivities between governments.
In 1974, following a military coup by the Cypriot National Guard, Turkey invaded the north of Cyprus, leading to the establishment of the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. This did not affect the status of the bases. Greek Cypriots fleeing from the Turkish forces were permitted to travel through the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area and were given humanitarian aid, with those from Achna setting up a new village which is still in the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area. The Turkish advance halted when it reached the edge of the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area to avoid military conflict with the United Kingdom. In the Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area a tented refugee camp was set up at "Happy Valley" to house Turkish Cypriots fleeing from Limassol and the villages surrounding the Area, until, in 1975, they were flown out of RAF Akrotiri via Turkey to northern Cyprus. Some Greek Cypriot refugees remain housed on land in the parts of Trachoni and Kolossi villages that fall within the Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area.
In 1974, the British government decided that British forces would be entirely withdrawn from Cyprus, because the sprawling bases had become undefendable in the light of increasing troop demands in Northern Ireland, and because of pressure on the defence budget. The American government strongly objected to any British withdrawal that would result in the United States losing access to GCHQ signals intelligence from Cyprus, since it had lost access to its many signals intelligence bases in Turkey due to its political dispute with Turkey following the invasion of Cyprus. The United States agreed to contribute to base costs, and the British cancelled the closure plan. American use of the base increased, such as Lockheed U-2 spy flights on Syria, though flights were generally at night "to avoid local curiosity".

Politics

Current status

The territory comprises two base areas. One is Akrotiri Cantonment, or the Western Sovereign Base Area, which includes two main bases at RAF Akrotiri and Episkopi Cantonment, plus all of Akrotiri village's district and parts of eleven other village districts. The other area is Dhekelia Cantonment, or the Eastern Sovereign Base Area, which includes a base at Ayios Nikolaos plus parts of twelve village districts.
As of 2024, based units include:
Akrotiri Cantonment :
;Dhekelia Cantonment:
  • 1st Battalion, The Rifles
  • Joint Service Signal Unit
  • Joint Service Adventure training Centre
Ayios Nikolaos Station, in the ESBA, is an ELINT listening station of the UKUSA Agreement intelligence network. The UKUSA signals intelligence system is sometimes known as "ECHELON".

Governance

The sovereign bases were retained in 1960 to keep military bases in areas under British sovereignty, along with the rights retained to use other sites in what became the territory of the Republic. That makes them different from the other remaining British Overseas Territories.
The basic philosophy of their administration was declared by the British government in Appendix O to the 1960 treaty with Cyprus, which provided that the British government intended:
  • Not to develop the Sovereign Base Areas for other than military purposes.
  • Not to set up and administer "colonies".
  • Not to create customs posts or other frontier barriers between the Sovereign Base Areas and the Republic.
  • Not to set up or permit the establishment of civilian commercial or industrial enterprises except insofar as these are connected with military requirements, and not otherwise to impair the economic, commercial or industrial unity and life of the Island.
  • Not to establish commercial or civilian seaports or airports.
  • Not to allow new settlement of people in the Sovereign Base Areas other than for temporary purposes.
  • Not to expropriate private property within the Sovereign Base Areas except for military purposes on payment of fair compensation.
Appendix O also provides that various ancient monuments in the SBAs should be administered by the Republic of Cyprus. The Cypriot government issues licences for antiquity excavation in the SBAs subject to British consent, and any movable antiquities found in excavations or otherwise discovered become Cypriot state property.
According to the British Ministry of Defence:
The territory is administered by an Administrator, who is also the Commander of British Forces Cyprus, which as of 2022 is Air Vice-Marshal Peter J. M. Squires. The Administrator is officially appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the Ministry of Defence. The Administrator has all the executive and legislative authority of a governor of an overseas territory. A Chief Officer is appointed, and is responsible to the Administrator for the day-to-day running of the civil government, with subordinate Area Officers responsible for the civil administration of the two areas. No elections are held in the territory, although British citizens are normally entitled to vote in United Kingdom elections.
The areas have their own legal system, distinct from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Cyprus. This consists of the laws of the Colony of Cyprus as of August 1960, amended as necessary. The laws of Akrotiri and Dhekelia are closely aligned with, and in some cases identical to, the laws operating within the Republic of Cyprus. The Court of the Sovereign Base Areas is concerned with non-military offences committed by any person within Akrotiri and Dhekelia, and law and order is maintained by the Sovereign Base Areas Police, while offences involving British Forces Cyprus and military law are dealt with by the Cyprus Joint Police Unit. Fire and rescue services are provided by the Defence Fire and Risk Management Organisation through stations at Episkopi, Akrotiri, Dhekelia and Ayios Nikolayos. The Defence Medical Services provide emergency ambulance cover based from medical centres in the main bases. All emergency services are accessible from any telephone using the Europe-wide emergency number 112.

Reviews

In January 2010, a newspaper article appeared in the British press claiming that as a result of budgetary constraints arising from the Great Recession, the British Ministry of Defence drew up controversial plans to withdraw the United Kingdom's 3,000 strong garrison and end the use of Cyprus as a staging point for ground forces. The Labour government, under whom the proposal appeared, was replaced by the Cameron–Clegg coalition whose defence review did not mention the issue.
On 15 December 2012, in a written statement to the House of Commons, the UK's Secretary of State for Defence, Philip Hammond, revealed the findings of a report on the SBA military bases following the completion of a review of their operations by Lord Ashcroft:

Dispute and controversies

The Republic of Cyprus claims that the Sovereign Base Areas are a "remnant of colonialism". On 30 June 2005 the House of Representatives of Cyprus unanimously adopted a resolution on the legal status of the base areas originally proposed by Vassos Lyssarides. The resolution refers to "relevant UN decisions on the abolition of colonialism, as well as the fundamental principles of international law, which forbid the occupation of territory within the domain of any other country." It claims that "the United Kingdom does not have substantial sovereignty over the British bases, but it has as much sovereignty as is necessary for military reasons and not for administrative, financial and / or any other reasons." The resolution urged the UK government "to fulfil its financial obligations towards the Republic of Cyprus, which derive from the Treaty of Establishment." It also argued that the UK does not have territorial waters in the areas.
The UK government does not recognise Cypriot claims that the UK's sovereignty in the areas is limited.
In July 2001, protests were held at the bases by local Cypriots, unhappy with British plans to construct radio masts at the bases as part of an upgrade of British military communication posts around the world. Locals claimed the masts would endanger local lives and cause cancer, as well as have a negative effect on wildlife in the area. The British and Cypriot governments jointly commissioned health research from the University of Bristol and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Cyprus, and that research project reported in 2005 that there was no evidence of health problems being caused by electromagnetic fields from the antennas. The Sovereign Base Areas Administration has carried out assessments and surveys into the effects on wildlife, which have fed into an "Akrotiri Peninsula Environmental Management Plan", published in September 2012.
In 2004, the UK offered to cede of farmland as part of the rejected Annan Plan for Cyprus.
On 29 August 2013, during the Syrian civil war, some Cypriot and British media sources speculated that long-range ballistic missiles, fired from Syria in retaliation for proposed British involvement in military intervention against the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, could hit Cyprus, and could potentially deliver chemical weapons. In some Cypriot media it was stated that the proposed interdiction of the Syrian civil war, utilising Akrotiri and Dhekelia, could recklessly endanger the Cypriot populations near to those bases. Two days earlier, on 27 August 2013, Cypriot foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides had moved to calm Cypriot concerns, saying that the British bases were unlikely to play a major part in any intervention.
A spike in the US Air Force arms delivery from US and NATO depots in Europe to Akrotiri was reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, and "the illegal presence of thousands of American soldiers" at the base have drawn criticism. During his 2024 visit to the base dispatching surveillance planes to Gaza, the British prime minister Keir Starmer noted, "We can’t necessarily tell the world what you’re doing here" "for reasons that are obvious to you, the whole world is relying on you". Surveillance planes continued being dispatched towards Gaza after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began.