NEWSFLASH: CYPRUS TO CANCEL MILITARY EXERCISES???!!

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/afp/defense/021023153127.jvgb3vqy.html

ATHENS, Oct 23 (AFP) – 15:31 GMT – Greece will cancel joint military exercises with Cyprus if Turkey scraps its own manoeuvres planned with the Turkish northern part of the ethnically divided Mediterranean island, a Greek foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
“We will re-examine the exercises with a view to creating a climate of reduced tension in our relations with Turkey and of course in Cyprus,” said spokesman Panos Beglitis.

There is a “political will to examine the issue in a positive spirit, providing the same will is there on Turkey’s part,” he added.

Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides agreed with this position, Beglitis said.

Codenamed “Archer-Peacemaker”, the Greece-Cyprus joint manoeuvres are due to take place at the end of the month after they were postponed from October last year because of the then-imminent US-led anti-terror campaign in Afghanistan.

Turkey’s “Bull” exercise is scheduled to go ahead shortly afterwards.

Military manoeuvres are a repeated source of tension between Greece and Turkey, at odds over Cyprus and a number of sovereignty disputes in the Aegean Sea.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered military coup in Nicosia, seeking to unite the Mediterrenean island with Greece.

The Greek Cypriot government in the south enjoys recognition and is set for EU membership in 2004, while the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is under an international embargo.

Turkey remains bitterly opposed to the defence cooperation treaty signed between Athens and Nicosia in 1993.

IMHO it looks like Greece & Cyprus are sending out a clear msg to Turkey that they are very serious about minimising tension and bringing peace to the island…a little part of me thinks that we are again having to back down and make the first move in pleasing Turkey because they have shown in the past i.e S300 fiasco, they seem to get what they bargain for by means of sabre rattling and diplomatic pressure on both Cyprus & Greece.