I’ve referenced Cypus several times recently – speculating that if Greece falls into anarchy, Turkey likely will view that as an opportunity to take control of the entire island of Cyprus.
Cyprus has a long history of being caught in the cross fire between Turkey and Greece. The country is currently partitioned between the Turkey controlled north and the Greek controlled South.
If Turkey really is intent on militarily dominating the Eastern Mediterranean and challenging Israel, having control of Cyprus as a base of operations would be very useful to that goal.
Courtesy of Google Earth (you should really get a copy if you don’t have it already):
and now a closeup look at Cyprus itself:
The red line is the “border”. Most of the airports and things useful for running the country are in the Southern Greek controlled part.
Today’s news has this story that Turkey has sent a ship out to prospect for oil and gas around Cyprus. The sinister part of the story is the ship turned off its transponder making it harder for people to know where the ship is.
In somewhat related news, Turkey and Iran have made an agreement to permit each other to operate across each other’s borders in order to fight those pesky Kurds who keep agitating for a homeland.
Interesting that Turkey thinks Palestinean Arabs need a homeland, when there is no such history of a country or a people (there is no language called Palestinean), but the Kurds want a homeland and have their own language, ethnic identity and a long well documented history as a people.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/25/ap/europe/main20111387.shtml
You may recall when Turkey broke off its ties with Israel, the initial reaction from Israel was that it would retaliation by supporting Kurdish rebels and Armenians… At least at the moment, the United States is supportive of Turkey’s military moves against the PKK rebels.
Turkish hegemony in the Med, particularly with Cyprus as a lynchpin, would be about as odious a development as it can be for Jews in Israel. Cyprus was the staging area and holding point for for vast numbers of post-World-War-II Jews leaving Europe, destined for the newly “permitted” nation of Israel. The idea attributed to Edmund Burke that, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing,” would seem as applicable here as anywhere else.
I read this blog post yesterday:
http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/whats-cyprus-war
…the writer sees this dispute being even wider than the age old Greek-Turk dispute, he believes the US, Israel, and Russia are all amping up.