Greece and Cyprus as Geopolitical Fodder

Abstract

Both Greece and Cyprus have been, and are, political footballs in a dangerous game between outside powers and outside players; this is a fact of life of the Eastern Mediterranean geopolitical chess game. Fear of Russia abounds (see the Ukrainian debacle) in the minds and actions of the British and the Americans as they always did. e upshot of this obsession for Cyprus is that the US is pushing hard for a ‘solution’ to its political problem, worried at the prospect that as long as unoccupied Cyprus has its own foreign policy, which it has, there will always be a danger that it will move closer to Moscow. Importantly, in the minds of the Americans Turkish-Israeli strategic co-operation in the Middle East, particularly on Syria, is an even greater priority to the US than a re-unified Cyprus. Greece and Cyprus form part of this dangerous interplay of developments owing to the irrational and atavistic fear of Russia on the part of Britain and its successor empire, the US.