What kind of "special" kid are you? Where did they find you?
*sigh* Here,read and educate yourself:
Turkish reaction
On 11 January 1997, Cypriot and US media sources reported that Turkey had overtly threatened either a pre-emptive strike to prevent the arrival of the missiles or an actual war in Cyprus as a response to the arrival of the missiles. Also, it threatened a blockade of Cyprus from Turkey.
[1]
Turkey also said that it might occupy an abandoned tourist resort in Cyprus if the Cypriot government did not back down.
[8] Turkish Cypriot leader
Rauf Denktaş, threatened to take over
Varosha, a disputed area that has been sealed off since Turkey's 1974 invasion of Cyprus. Most property in Varosha is owned by Greek Cypriots.
[1]
The
Turkish Armed Forces, when the purchase of S-300 was announced, obtained from
Israel surface-to-surface missiles, which could be used in a military operation to destroy the S-300 if they were installed on the island.
[9] Also, according to Turkish media and other countries'
intelligence agency of other countries, Turkish pilots with their
F-16s were sent to Israel's
Negev region to be trained on how to destroy the S-300s.
[9] According to Israeli radio reports, Turkish pilots were trained only on how to evade the S-300s, not on how to destroy them.
[10] The Israel embassy at Athens denied all reports.
[9]
In November 1997, Turkish armed forces carried out a
military exercise in
Northern Cyprus, where they destroyed S-300 dummy missiles to prepare for operations against the real missiles on Cyprus.
[11]
Cypriot, Greek and Russian counterreactions
The Cypriot government protested against the Turkish threats at the
United Nations and asserted its right for self-defence and the need for effective deterrence.
[12] In addition,
Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides said that the missiles would be deployed on the island but used only defensively.
[13] Also, the
Cypriot Armed Forces were placed on their highest state of alert and mobilisation since the
1974 invasion of the island by Turkey.
Between January and June 1997, Greece reportedly increased the readiness of the
Hellenic Air Force and the
Hellenic Navy assets positioned closest to Cyprus and moved to support the Cypriot position tacitly that the missiles were designed only for defence. The situation was then escalated, this time by the Greek decision to send a small contingent of
F-16 fighter jets to Cyprus as well as additional troops to reinforce the Greek
ELDYK contingent on the island.
Russia initially avoided direct confrontation with Turkey but insisted repeatedly that the sale of S-300s to Cyprus would proceed without interference. Turkey consequently looked to its strategic
NATO partners, including the
United States for reassurances that it would not be prevented from acting against the perceived threat if the need arose.
Western reactions
Turkish threats led to a campaign by Western countries to prevent the system's deployment on Cyprus for fear of triggering a war in Cyprus that could draw in the Greeks.
[14] In addition, the
European Union warned that a military buildup could harm Cyprus's application for membership.
[14]
The
United States strongly opposed Cyprus's plans to install the anti-aircraft weapons
[15] however also warned Turkey not to attack.[
citation needed] The
U.S. State Department spokesman stated: "This is no time for the Turkish government to be making wild and dramatic statements, it would be completely out of bounds for Turkey to take this action."
[16]
Further escalation
In the months leading up to June 1997, the two sides traded political rhetoric and aggressive propaganda as both attempted to justify their positions before the international community.
In September 1997, the
Turkish Navy and the
Turkish Coast Guard began to board and search vessels heading to Cyprus, including Russian-flagged vessels in international waters. The situation alarmed not only the Greek Cypriots but also their strategic military and economic partners in
Athens and
Moscow, as was evidenced by official statements in October 1997 indicating that Greece and Russia would engage in war with Turkey if Cyprus was attacked or blockaded.
By December, reports began to surface in Greek and Cypriot media forums that Russia was in the process of mobilising a large naval force with an
aircraft carrier with long-range warplanes, a guided-missile cruiser and attack submarines. The presumption was that the force would have two purposes: to transport S-300 missiles and other military articles via Greek waters to Cyprus, and to attack the Turkish Navy if it tried to intervene.
Defusion
Greek Cyprus raised the possibility of cancelling the missile deployment in exchange for a flight moratorium over Cyprus, but Turkey rejected the idea.
[17]
Rather than face the political prospect of humiliation by conceding to Turkish demands for the sale to be cancelled outright, Clerides finally decided in December 1998 that the S-300 missile systems would be sent to
Crete. Ostensibly, the decision was made to ensure that the deal with Russia would proceed to the latter's economic benefit and that Greece would be compensated for the situation by receiving the defensive capability of the S-300s for Crete. The Turkish government decried the move as a "cynical attempt" to redirect the S-300 missile capability against its southwestern shores and airspace and to give much-desired air defence for Greek ships and aircraft heading from Crete to Cyprus.
[18]
The crisis also led to the collapse of the ruling coalition government in Cyprus.
[2]
Cypriot agreement with Greece
The Cypriot government never again seriously entertained the return of the S-300 air-defence missile systems to Cyprus for fear of unnecessarily damaging its reputation and position in European political circles. Consequently, in 2007, the missiles were finally and irrevocably sold to Greece in exchange for alternative military articles, reputed to consist of a significant quantity of short-range
TOR-M1 missile systems and an undisclosed type of medium-range air-defence missile systems. Greece also supplied Cyprus with twelve self-propelled 155 mm artillery howitzers as partial rental payment for the use of the S-300s between 1999 and 2006.
[19]
