Written by Dr Yiorghos Leventis* | 01 December 2011

One thing is for sure: the Eastern Mediterranean is going through interesting times. Historically, I guess, we have always been living in such times. The Mediterranean, as the etymology of the geographical name denotes, constitutes the middle of the earth, the place where multiple trade routes meet and intersect. The battle for the control of such trade routes is perennial, from ancient to modern times. In modern times Cyprus' political legacy stems to a large extent from its acquisition by the British Empire. Benjamin Disraeli got hold of our island in an effort to thwart the advancing Russian Empire from entering into the Mediterranean sea. That was the reasoning behind the British decision at the Congress of Berlin, 1878, of propping up the Ottomans, the collapsing empire of the time, described at the time as 'Europe's sick man'.

Disraeli's decision in 1878 was to be vindicated time and again. As oil started to be pumped out of the Middle East, Cyprus served as London's outpost securing the uninterrupted flow of the vital energy resource for the formidable industrial machine of the British Isles. It is no coincidence that Sir Anthony Eden exclaimed in strong and unyielding words, the British government's position in Cyprus clear and flat. Without bothering to clothe it in the familiar language of imperialistic idealism, Sir Anthony defined Britain's stake in one word: oil.

Written by Dr William Mallinson | 11 November 2011

With the desperate bombing of Libya eventually petering out, I think it unlikely that the exporters and imposers of western freedom will try and attack Syria, for the following reasons.

First, Turkey will not countenance the idea, since its Kurdish population would immediately latch on to any action by the Kurds of Syria. Second, Turkey's current policy is to support Syria and lambast (quite rightly) Israel for its massive abuses of the Palestinians. Third, the Syrian army would be a major problem, since it is better equipped and controlled than Libya's army. Fourth, Syria is near the epicentre of the Middle East tinder-box, and a NATO attack could create more problems than it solves for the Jewish State. Fifth, Iran would undoubtedly exploit the situation to its advantage. Sixth, Syria (according to CIA figures for 2009), accounts for less than half a per cent of world oil production. Thus, the slavering majority shareholders would not benefit much, if at all. Libyan oil production is over four times as much as that of Syria. Seventh, Russia, having seen how the US, its keen-to-please Canadian proxy, Britain and France have abused the terms of the UNSC resolutions, will simply not allow an attack on Syria. The so-called opportunist rebels in Libya, having been illegally armed by the so-called West, are themselves killing plenty of civilians. As I have written in an earlier article, 'Russia is watching carefully, and will act when necessary..', I appear to have been proven correct so far, as we are currently witnessing some skillful Russian diplomacy, and not the empty braggadocio of possible war criminals like Sarkozy, Cameron and Obama.

Written by Dr Yiorghos Leventis* | 15 October 2011

On either side of the Aegean Sea a Greek tragedy, in its full sense and extent, is being performed before our eyes. As the whole world witnesses the unfolding multiple Greek tragedy - huge foreign debt leading to economic, institutional and above all moral crisis - Greece's eastern neighbour, Turkey, shows clear signs that in taking advantage of the Greek predicament, is bent on performing a central part of the Greek tragedy: hubris.

No doubt the incumbent Turkish ruling elite seeking to resurrect (or enliven) the former 'Ottoman space' - eloquently described by Prof. Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign policy boss, as 'strategic depth' - remembers too well the story of the modern Greek hubris, enacted at the dawn of the last century. The Hellenic Army's Asia Minor expedition (1919-22), part and parcel of the Great Idea of the resurrection of the Byzantine Empire through the capture of the nascent Turkish capital of Ankara (the Greek vision of the creation of the Great Hellas of the two Continents and the Five Seas), ended up in the routing of the Greek Armed Forces and the concomitant disorderly expulsion of a million and a half Greeks from their millennia-old ancestral homeland. Naturally the whole sad affair did register in the Greek collective memory as Mikrasiatiki (Asia Minor) Catastrophe while on the other hand the Turkish official historiography registered the same event as 'the Great War of Independence against imperialist aggression'.

Written by Mr Chris Summers* | 01 October 2011

More British soldiers were killed during the "Cyprus emergency" in the 1950s than have died in Iraq or Afghanistan. So why has it been forgotten and what hope is there of reuniting the island?

On Remembrance Sunday, about 500 relatives and veterans watched as a new memorial was unveiled in Kyrenia, in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, to recognise the 371 British servicemen who lost their lives on the island between 1956 and 1959. The unveiling, and the laying of a wreath by the British High Commissioner, Peter Millett, sparked a diplomatic row, with President Demetris Christofias raising the matter when he met UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown a few days later. One of the names on the memorial is Corporal Mervyn Whurr, 22, killed by a bomb on Kyrenia's Six Mile Beach in September 1956. His sister, Barbara Hocking, from Millbrook in Cornwall, said: "My mum had a telegram saying he'd been injured, then she got another one saying he had an arm and a leg amputated. A few days later another telegram came saying he'd died."  He loved his football, he was full of fun, playing jokes and was very popular with his mates.

Unlike those of troops killed in Afghanistan, his body, like those of most of the Cyprus casualties, was not flown home and lies in a cemetery at Wayne's Keep on the island.