World Bulletin / News Desk
Telecommunications in Turkey and the entire Middle-East are being monitored from listening stations based on the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, a senior Turkish Cypriot lawyer has claimed.
Former Union of Bars head for Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) capital Lefkosa (Nicosia) and writer, Baris Mamali, warned that the island of Cyprus could be dragged into the wars in the Middle-East due to it being a listening post for a number of Western intelligence agencies including the CIA, the NSA, Mossad and MI6.
In his column published on Thursday by OdaTV, Mamali claimed that the British military air base in Akrotiri was not only hosting four fleets of war planes but also a large electronic intelligence facility in addition to specially designated areas for the storage of nuclear weapons. Mamali further claimed that a second British base in Dhekelia contains two intelligence stations in which intercepted information is deciphered and analyzed by a team of experts.
Mamali said that Britain controls at total of 31 fields for intelligence operations outside of the two official bases on the island, which were granted to Britain within the agreements of the 1960 convention, ending of 82 years of British colonial rule on in Cyprus. He added that Britain additionally maintains a dome-shaped facility on the Troodos mountains in the Greek Cypriot-controlled south for the gathering of military intelligence.
According to Mamali, this facility was establish as part of the 1960 agreements and Britain has complete control over it. Mamali added that no foreign officials can enter the facility without the permission of the British authorities.
From this facility, Britain is able to monitor all radio, satellite and microwaves in a circumference that includes the entire Middle-East. Britain can thus intercept telecommunications within a region that stretches as far as Libya and the Caucasus, Mamali said.
A British radar based in Agios Nikolaos also serves within the framework of the U.S.-run Global Surveillance Network system known as “Echelon,” which not only monitors the Middle-East, but is also able to intercept all communications in Central Asia and Europe. When necessary, the radar also serves Israeli intelligence, added the senior Turkish Cypriot lawyer.
Mamali went on to say that these intelligence facilities track the nuclear programs of Russia and Iran as well as all nuclear missile tests in the region. They are also equipped with the ability to sound an early alarm in the event of a nuclear attack.
He also warned that the presence of the British bases in Cyprus, which were originally established as a precaution against the spread of Communism to the island, will always leave Cyprus vulnerable to suffer a potential attack.
'Let us not forget, due to the use of the island as a warship by the US-British-Israeli triangle for their interests in the Middle-East, as well as its use as a base for various surveillance operations and military activities, Cyprus will always project the image of a possible target for attacks and retaliations by external military forces,' Mamali concluded.
