www.talkcyprus.org

brother · Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 8920 Location: London/Cyprus

Quote: CYPRUS AND France are close to signing a bilateral military agreement that would involve cooperation in a number of areas, including use by the French of the Andreas Papandreou air base in Paphos.

Technical details are still being worked out between the two governments. The issue was part of discussions held on Sunday between French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and President Tassos Papadopoulos when she visited the island with a message from French President Jacques Chirac.

Quote: The military cooperation agreement is set to include use of military facilities, technical support, and education and training of national guardsmen in France.

Quote: France is keen to have the use of the Paphos air base, although Paris already cooperates with the British bases on the island and works with their naval and special task forces. This cooperation is not however likely to end due to an agreement between France and Cyprus.

Quote: However the deal could be marred by Turkey if Ankara decides to raise objections. Turkey has repeatedly blocked or tried to block any military involvement by Cyprus in international organisations but France is unlikely to bow to Turkish pressure on the issue.

“If Cyprus and France deepen military cooperation someone our there is bound to be unhappy,” said the source.

Ankara’s premise is the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, in which Turkey, Britain and Greece are guarantors of the island’s independence.

Full article here

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=27048&cat_id=1

turkkan · Joined: 21 Oct 2005 Posts: 198

You might as well have posted the full article instead of those extracts.

brother · Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 8920 Location: London/Cyprus

turkkan wrote: You might as well have posted the full article instead of those extracts.

I would like to but the forum rules are pretty clear on that we must post extracts and a link to the full article. :wink:

Khan · Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Posts: 1092 Location: London

Looks like they want a piece of the Middle East action.

DIGENIS-ACRITAS · Joined: 27 Jul 2006 Posts: 55 Location: London

Excellent news!

100%cypriot · Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 2165

DIGENIS-ACRITAS wrote: Excellent news! :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

repulsewarrior · Joined: 06 Jan 2006 Posts: 1767 Location: Canada

'NATO' will become our saviour and we will have WMD's from all over the nuclear club buried deep into our island, that great 'aircraft carrier" that rules the sea.

100%cypriot · Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 2165

repulsewarrior wrote: 'NATO' will become our saviour and we will have WMD's from all over the nuclear club buried deep into our island, that great 'aircraft carrier" that rules the sea.

How true your word's are but don't the english have Nuke's on their bases allready?

cannedmoose · Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 3:57 pm Post subject:

100%cypriot wrote: repulsewarrior wrote: 'NATO' will become our saviour and we will have WMD's from all over the nuclear club buried deep into our island, that great 'aircraft carrier" that rules the sea.

How true your word's are but don't the english have Nuke's on their bases allready?

No, the SBAs used to be bases for UK nuclear forces back in the 1960s before the British nuclear deterrent became sea-based. Now that all UK nuclear missiles are based on submarines, none are located in Cyprus.

As for this link between France and Cyprus, this isn't some new defence guarantee, this is solely a logistical and training move, allowing French forces to use the airbase in Pafos as a logistics hub for operations in the region and as a jumping-off point for supply flights to Comoros, Djibouti etc. So don't expect Mirage 2000's to be patrolling the skies of Cyprus anytime soon. The French have no interest in involving themselves in the Cyprus problem. In my experience, most French people don't even know where Cyprus is, let alone wanting to defend it.

100%cypriot · Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 2165

cannedmoose wrote: 100%cypriot wrote: repulsewarrior wrote: 'NATO' will become our saviour and we will have WMD's from all over the nuclear club buried deep into our island, that great 'aircraft carrier" that rules the sea.

How true your word's are but don't the english have Nuke's on their bases allready?

No, the SBAs used to be bases for UK nuclear forces back in the 1960s before the British nuclear deterrent became sea-based. Now that all UK nuclear missiles are based on submarines, none are located in Cyprus.

As for this link between France and Cyprus, this isn't some new defence guarantee, this is solely a logistical and training move, allowing French forces to use the airbase in Pafos as a logistics hub for operations in the region and as a jumping-off point for supply flights to Comoros, Djibouti etc. So don't expect Mirage 2000's to be patrolling the skies of Cyprus anytime soon. The French have no interest in involving themselves in the Cyprus problem. In my experience, most French people don't even know where Cyprus is, let alone wanting to defend it. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Kifeas · Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2006 8:40 pm Post subject:

cannedmoose wrote: 100%cypriot wrote: repulsewarrior wrote: 'NATO' will become our saviour and we will have WMD's from all over the nuclear club buried deep into our island, that great 'aircraft carrier" that rules the sea.

How true your word's are but don't the english have Nuke's on their bases allready?

No, the SBAs used to be bases for UK nuclear forces back in the 1960s before the British nuclear deterrent became sea-based. Now that all UK nuclear missiles are based on submarines, none are located in Cyprus.

As for this link between France and Cyprus, this isn't some new defence guarantee, this is solely a logistical and training move, allowing French forces to use the airbase in Pafos as a logistics hub for operations in the region and as a jumping-off point for supply flights to Comoros, Djibouti etc. So don't expect Mirage 2000's to be patrolling the skies of Cyprus anytime soon. The French have no interest in involving themselves in the Cyprus problem. In my experience, most French people don't even know where Cyprus is, let alone wanting to defend it.

No, we are not expecting from France to defend Cyprus. It is enough for us that France is one of the 5 permanent UN SC members, especially in view of the recent US and UK attempts to backstab the Republic of Cyprus in the SC and obtain resolutions aiming to change the legal status quo visa vie the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," or the previous attempts by them to have the UN SC adopt the Annan plan as the solution of the Cyprus problem. In this we indeed count on France, as well as on Russia and China.

Of course, we wouldn't mind the supply of a few more dozens of Exocet missiles on better prices, and a few more hundreds of Mistral and Milan missiles, again on better prices. We wouldn't also mind the Crotale /Shahine AA system in some good terms so that it complements the existing systems of Buk-M1's, Aspide's and the Tor-M1's. After all, they will be providing protection to their own aircrafts that will be using the Cyprus facilities.

brother · Joined: 15 Aug 2005 Posts: 8920 Location: London/Cyprus

Kifeas wrote: cannedmoose wrote: 100%cypriot wrote: repulsewarrior wrote: 'NATO' will become our saviour and we will have WMD's from all over the nuclear club buried deep into our island, that great 'aircraft carrier" that rules the sea.

How true your word's are but don't the english have Nuke's on their bases allready?

No, the SBAs used to be bases for UK nuclear forces back in the 1960s before the British nuclear deterrent became sea-based. Now that all UK nuclear missiles are based on submarines, none are located in Cyprus.

As for this link between France and Cyprus, this isn't some new defence guarantee, this is solely a logistical and training move, allowing French forces to use the airbase in Pafos as a logistics hub for operations in the region and as a jumping-off point for supply flights to Comoros, Djibouti etc. So don't expect Mirage 2000's to be patrolling the skies of Cyprus anytime soon. The French have no interest in involving themselves in the Cyprus problem. In my experience, most French people don't even know where Cyprus is, let alone wanting to defend it.

No, we are not expecting from France to defend Cyprus. It is enough for us that France is one of the 5 permanent UN SC members, especially in view of the recent US and UK attempts to backstab the Republic of Cyprus in the SC and obtain resolutions aiming to change the legal status quo visa vie the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," or the previous attempts by them to have the UN SC adopt the Annan plan as the solution of the Cyprus problem. In this we indeed count on France, as well as on Russia and China.

Of course, we wouldn't mind the supply of a few more dozens of Exocet missiles on better prices, and a few more hundreds of Mistral and Milan missiles, again on better prices. We wouldn't also mind the Crotale /Shahine AA system in some good terms so that it complements the existing systems of Buk-M1's, Aspide's and the Tor-M1's. After all, they will be providing protection to their own aircrafts that will be using the Cyprus facilities.

Ahhhhh...the war monger dreams of weapons etc. that he can procure based on this deal. :roll: :roll:

turkkan · Joined: 21 Oct 2005 Posts: 198

Quote: No, we are not expecting from France to defend Cyprus. It is enough for us that France is one of the 5 permanent UN SC members, especially in view of the recent US and UK attempts to backstab the Republic of Cyprus in the SC and obtain resolutions aiming to change the legal status quo visa vie the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," or the previous attempts by them to have the UN SC adopt the Annan plan as the solution of the Cyprus problem. In this we indeed count on France, as well as on Russia and China.

Of course, we wouldn't mind the supply of a few more dozens of Exocet missiles on better prices, and a few more hundreds of Mistral and Milan missiles, again on better prices. We wouldn't also mind the Crotale /Shahine AA system in some good terms so that it complements the existing systems of Buk-M1's, Aspide's and the Tor-M1's. After all, they will be providing protection to their own aircrafts that will be using the Cyprus facilities.

France has invested a lot economically into turkey, and to name a few major turkish deals in the past couple of years would be the acquisition of several boeing aircraft, french companies to build turkeys nuclear power plants, the french banking sector in turkey etc etc. If you add the money from those deals they would add up to be greater than the Republic of Cyprus's GDP. You are probably confusing the current anti-turkey rhetoric for some sort of support for you. Frances aim right now is to stall turkeys EU accesion talks, which you will do for them, once you do that, our relationship will go back to normal as their is a lot there. DO not forget it was also chirac who was the main proponent of turkey entering the EU, but he has had to back down now due to the public being against turkeys accession (they were against the recent EU expansion also). You will get nothing from them once you veto turkey.

Quote: In this we indeed count on France, as well as on Russia and China

Russias attitude will probably change at one point, we are quickly becoming one of their biggest trade partners, and the figure is set to double or even triple in the coming years. You have a long good realtionship with them which is why they will hold on to it for a while, but at one point their relationship with turkey will take over. As for china :lol:

Quote: Of course, we wouldn't mind the supply of a few more dozens of Exocet missiles on better prices, and a few more hundreds of Mistral and Milan missiles, again on better prices. We wouldn't also mind the Crotale /Shahine AA system in some good terms so that it complements the existing systems of Buk-M1's, Aspide's and the Tor-M1's. After all, they will be providing protection to their own aircrafts that will be using the Cyprus facilities.

And how much cheaper do you think they will be? All the above systems with the new generation of turkish arms development, and the ones arriving with full technology transfer over the next couple of years we will be able to counter. Btw check out the toros missiles we developed with china, we now have the ability to have artillery support on the coast of turkey facing cyprus, completely out of the range of anti-artillery batteries or youre artillery at that, supporting troop movement or the destruction of bases.

Kifeas · Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 5:13 pm Post subject:

Your (of very disputed at their 100km maximum range) “Toros” missiles cannot reach the free areas of Cyprus from anywhere in Turkey -not even Nicosia -set aside the air and naval bases on the south and SW coasts of Cyprus. And even in such a case, they would have been a piece of cake for the TOR-M1’s –the best worldwide existing AAAM system with 99% effectiveness- to intercept them in the sky, as well as any other kind and type of known smart bombs currently available. Thanks to Russia we acquired a good stock and number of batteries, enough to defend all the major airfields, installations, harbors and major towns. The biggest threat you may pose is that of your air force, but we are confident we are able to keep it at a distance of 40 kms away (and your navy at 70 kms away) from our coastal airspace limits (and waters,) in which case they will only content themselves with shooting missiles from that far, with highly disputed accuracy ratings and effectiveness. And never forget that you are neither Israel, nor we are the Hezbollah’s.

Bananiot · Joined: 13 Aug 2005 Posts: 1214 Location: Nicosia

It sounds to me like an arms race with Turkey. It was the arm race with the USA that saw the end of the Soviet empire, but to even contemplate of such a development is absurd. We can only face Turkey politically but even this option has been eroded thanks to Papadopoulos and Christofias.