The recent alert in Cyprus following threats of Iranian drone and retaliatory missile strikes once again exposes a dangerous reality that governments in Athens and Nicosia persistently attempt to obscure: the presence of U.S., NATO and British military bases turns both Greece and Cyprus into potential targets in an expanding imperialist war.
For days now, the wider region has been moving ever closer to the possibility of a generalized confrontation in the Middle East. The escalation triggered by the aggressive policies of the United States and Israel against Iran has already created a climate of extreme tension across the entire Eastern Mediterranean.
These bases themselves are a glaring historical anomaly: colonial enclaves carved out of Cypriot territory as a remnant of British rule over the island, preserved after independence and maintained to this day as instruments of imperial military power. What this situation demonstrates with brutal clarity is that the continued operation of such foreign military installations on the island places Cyprus, and by extension the wider region, directly in the crosshairs of conflicts in which the peoples of the area have no stake.
This development should raise serious concerns for every worker, every young person and every family in Cyprus and Greece. For decades governments have attempted to present the presence of foreign military bases as a supposed guarantee of security and stability. In reality, the opposite is true. These installations function as strategic nodes within a vast military network serving the interests of powerful states, imperialist alliances and the economic interests that stand behind them. Instead of offering protection, they entangle entire societies in dangerous geopolitical rivalries and imperialist confrontations, turning entire countries into forward outposts of wars decided elsewhere.
The British bases at Akrotiri and Dhekelia in Cyprus provide a striking example of this reality. Over the years they have repeatedly been used as launching points for military operations in Iraq, Syria and other countries of the Middle East. Aircraft operating from RAF Akrotiri, for example, took part in bombing campaigns in the region, while the base has long served as a key logistical and intelligence hub for British and allied forces across the wider area. Their strategic importance for Western military planning is precisely what transforms them into potential targets in the event of retaliation by forces opposed to those operations. At the same time, their continued existence as “sovereign” British territories on Cypriot soil remains an unacceptable colonial relic, a stark reminder that imperialist powers still treat the island as a convenient military platform rather than a sovereign state whose people have the right to live free from foreign military domination.
A similar process has unfolded in Greece. Over the past years the country has increasingly been transformed into a key military hub for NATO and U.S. operations. From the naval and air facilities at Souda Bay in Crete—one of the most important logistical nodes for the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean—to Alexandroupoli, Larissa and numerous other sites across the country, a dense network of military infrastructure has been expanded and upgraded in order to facilitate troop movements, military logistics and surveillance operations. These installations serve as launching pads for deployments aimed at securing geopolitical interests in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Balkans and beyond.
None of this infrastructure exists to defend the peoples of Greece or Cyprus. Its primary function is to support broader strategic objectives tied to the competition of powerful capitalist states and alliances for control of energy routes, natural resources and strategic corridors of influence. By integrating both countries so deeply into the military architecture of NATO, their governments have effectively placed them on the front lines of confrontations that are driven by interests far removed from the everyday concerns of their populations.
The recent warnings regarding the possibility of Iranian retaliation make this danger unmistakably clear. If a strike were directed against British bases in Cyprus or against U.S.–NATO facilities operating from Greek territory, the consequences would not be confined to isolated military targets. The surrounding communities, the cities that host these infrastructures, and the broader civilian population would inevitably be exposed to enormous risks.
This is the reality that the official narrative attempts to conceal. Governments claim that alignment with NATO and the United States strengthens national security. In practice, however, such alignment increases the vulnerability of entire societies. By allowing their territories to be used as operational platforms for foreign military interventions, Greece and Cyprus effectively transform ports, airfields and urban areas into strategic nodes of warfare. In a context of escalating conflict, these same nodes become obvious targets for retaliation.
In other words, the peoples of Greece and Cyprus are being placed in harm’s way as a result of decisions that serve geopolitical calculations and the strategic priorities of imperialist alliances rather than the interests of their citizens. They are being turned into unwilling participants in conflicts whose origins lie in the relentless competition between powerful states seeking dominance in strategically vital regions.
The wars that continue to unfold across the Middle East are not wars fought for democracy, peace or stability. They are wars driven by imperialist rivalries—wars fought over energy resources, pipelines, trade routes and spheres of influence. The tragic record of the past decades leaves little room for doubt. From Iraq and Libya to Syria and Afghanistan, military interventions carried out in the name of security have brought devastation, instability and immense human suffering.
The same powers that claim to act as guarantors of order have repeatedly demonstrated that their interventions produce the very chaos they claim to prevent. Yet despite this experience, the governments of Greece and Cyprus continue to deepen their military cooperation with those powers, offering their territories as logistical platforms for further operations in a region already burdened by endless conflict. In doing so, they willingly transform their countries into pawns of dangerous imperialist designs while attempting to convince their peoples that such alignment somehow serves their national interest.
Under such conditions, the conclusion becomes unavoidable. As long as U.S., NATO and British military bases remain active in Greece and Cyprus, the peoples of both countries will continue to face the dangers associated with imperialist wars. The struggle to close these bases is therefore not a theoretical or abstract political demand. It is a question that concerns the most fundamental issues of peace, sovereignty and the protection of human life.
The peoples of Greece and Cyprus — Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots — have nothing to gain from serving as logistical platforms for foreign military interventions, nor from being transformed into potential targets in confrontations between rival powers. Their true interest lies in disengagement from military alliances and strategies that expose them to grave dangers while offering no tangible benefit in return.
What is required today is the strengthening of a broad and determined movement against the militarization of the region. Workers, youth and democratic forces in Greece and Cyprus have already demonstrated many times that opposition to foreign military bases is not an abstract slogan but a deeply rooted political demand. That struggle acquires renewed urgency today. The same holds true for the peoples of the wider region—from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Middle East—who repeatedly find themselves paying the price for confrontations dictated by the strategic calculations of powerful states and imperialist alliances.
In the face of growing tensions and the ever-present danger of wider war, the responsibility to resist the transformation of entire countries into military outposts becomes more pressing than ever. The defense of peace in the region cannot be entrusted to the powers that fuel military escalation. It depends on the determination of the peoples themselves to oppose imperialist war plans and to demand the removal of the military infrastructures that sustain them.
Closing foreign military bases and disengaging from imperialist alliances is therefore not merely a political objective but a necessary step toward ensuring that the peoples of Greece, Cyprus, Turkey and the wider region are not drawn ever deeper into conflicts that serve interests entirely foreign to their own.
* Nikos Mottas is the Editor-in-Chief of In Defense of Communism.