When Western media talk about imperialism in the Middle East, the conversation rarely extends beyond Israel. Armed, funded, and politically shielded by the United States, Israel operates as Washington’s top regional enforcer—a de facto extension of the U.S. military. But just 200 miles northwest of Haifa, in the eastern Mediterranean, another “unsinkable aircraft carrier” has long served the same purpose for NATO: the island of Cyprus.
While Cyprus formally gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, the end of colonial rule came with a catch. Under the terms of the London-Zurich agreements, Britain retained control of two so-called “Sovereign Base Areas” at Akrotiri and Dhekelia—effectively carving out chunks of Cypriot territory for permanent use by the British military. These bases remain operational today, hosting thousands of troops and dozens of aircraft and acting as logistical hubs, surveillance centers, and launchpads for air and intelligence operations across the Middle East.
In recent years, Cyprus has once again found itself implicated in imperialist wars—not by choice, but by geography and the persistent presence of foreign bases on its soil. The British Royal Air Force has used Akrotiri to conduct bombing runs on Syria. Intelligence gathered from Cyprus has supported operations in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. NATO infrastructure on the island is tightly interwoven with U.S. and Israeli military interests.
This militarization is not an accident—it’s by design.
The Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL), a consistent voice for peace and anti-imperialism in the region, has long opposed the foreign military presence on the island. For decades, AKEL has demanded the full demilitarization of Cyprus and the removal of the British bases, arguing that these facilities serve imperialist interests, not the Cypriot people.
In a powerful and timely statement issued following the recent U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, AKEL warned that this escalation “entails nightmarish dangers to the peace and security not only of the region but also of the entire world.”
The party condemned the attacks as “a new gross violation of international law” and part of a broader imperialist project “to redraw the borders of the Middle East to suit [Western] geopolitical and energy interests.” That plan, the statement emphasized, includes “the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, which is continuing with unabated intensity.”
AKEL connected the dots clearly: Cyprus, though often absent from headlines, is implicated in this unfolding imperialist strategy. The British bases—vestiges of colonialism—enable these interventions, often without the consent or even the knowledge of the Cypriot people. The party reiterated its call for a return to diplomacy and a rejection of the false justifications used by aggressors.
“The pretexts used by Trump and Netanyahu,” the statement declared, “are blatantly hypocritical and a repeat of Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and so on.” The true motivations, AKEL noted, lie in the economic and strategic desires of Western imperialist powers—not in the pursuit of peace or democracy.
In this context, the island’s division—between the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus in the south and the Turkish-occupied north—only deepens the injustice. While half the island remains under illegal Turkish military occupation, the other half is partially occupied by British forces. This double occupation by two NATO powers, has long been condemned by AKEL and by Cypriot civil society, which demands reunification under a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with political equality and no foreign interference, troops, or bases.
The wider implications of Cyprus’s militarization are becoming more apparent. Energy discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean have brought new attention—and new threats—to the region. NATO’s posture toward Russia has intensified its interest in the region, while Israeli expansionism and Western interventionism continue to destabilize the broader Middle East. Cyprus, caught in the middle, is being used without consent.
As AKEL rightly points out, imperialism is not only about warplanes and invasions—it is also about control of land, manipulation of treaties, and the use of small nations as pawns on a global chessboard. The demand for a Middle East free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction—another long-standing call by AKEL—remains more urgent than ever. And so too does the demand for the full sovereignty of Cyprus and the removal of foreign military bases.
Progressives in the United States and Europe must take heed. The presence of U.S. and British forces in the region does not make the world safer, rather, it places us all on the brink. Peace means standing with the Cypriot people, not with the war machines that occupy their land. It means recognizing that colonialism didn’t die in 1960; it just put on a new uniform and called itself “strategic partnership.”
As AKEL reminds us, the struggle for peace is global and the frontlines include not only Gaza, Tehran, and Damascus, but also the quiet military enclaves in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
Cyprus is not just a beautiful island in the Eastern Mediterranean; it’s also a battlefield in the struggle for sovereignty, peace, and freedom from imperial domination.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.
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