A week after Cyprus's Foreign Minister, Dr Constantinos Kombos arrived in India to hold talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, reports have emerged in Turkish local right-wing media slamming India’s decision to cooperate with Cyprus as a “insidious plan”. Cyprus and Turkey have been arch-foes ever since Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974, in violation of all international rules.
Turkish right-wing media, Yeni Akit, went ballistic about Kombos’s statement that Cyprus could purchase defense equipment from India to counter Turkey. He had also mentioned about the Indian warship arriving in southern Cyprus. “The Greeks began to seek help from India,” the report said, while parroting close ally Pakistan’s claim about crashing Indian jets. It also went on to claim that Pakistan used Turkish KORAL electronic warfare (EW) system—developed by Turkish defence powerhouse Aselsan—to blind Indian Air Force fighter radars against jets, a baseless claim.
Another conservative website TRHaber accused India of signing a pact with Cyprus, targeting Turkey. It said the Narendra Modi government strengthened its foreign policy stance against Turkey, and cited how the Prime Minister was presented with the Grand Cross of the Order, awarded by the Greek Cypriot Administration in honor of Archbishop Makarios III.
The report added that India has “taken a diplomatic step targeting Ankara, initiating strategic military, economic, and diplomatic cooperation with Cyprus.”
Interestingly, what angered Turkish media was the Cypriot minister’s statement that he was willing to procure arms from India to defend itself against Turkey. “We have been under occupation, a third of the island, for more than 50-51 years, we’re facing a Turkish, occupied force of 40,000 troops in an attack formation. So for us, it’s an existential reason of making sure that we are doing whatever we can to defend ourselves,” he said in an exclusive interview with Wion, adding that the “defence sector is an area within which we could have common benefits.”