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Concept
Akrotiri and Dhekelia
Summary
Akrotiri and Dhekelia (ˌækrəʊˈtɪəri_ənd_diˈkeɪliə), officially the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (SBA), is a British Overseas Territory on the island of Cyprus. The areas, which include British military bases and installations formerly part of the Crown colony of Cyprus, were retained by the British under the 1960 treaty of independence signed by the United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey and representatives from the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities. The territory serves an important role as a station for signals intelligence and provides a vital strategic part of the United Kingdom surveillance-gathering network in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
The Sovereign Base Areas were created in 1960 by the London and Zürich Agreements, when Cyprus achieved independence from the British Empire, as recorded by the United Nations in 1960 as treaty 5476. The United Kingdom desired to retain sovereignty over these areas, as this guaranteed the use of UK military bases on Cyprus, including RAF Akrotiri, and a garrison of the British Army. The importance of the bases to the British is based on the strategic location of the island, at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, close to the Suez Canal and the Middle East; the ability to use the RAF base as staging post for military aircraft; and for training.
In July and August 1961, there were a series of bomb attacks against the pipeline carrying fresh water to the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area. The pipeline was breached by explosions twelve times.
In the early 1970s the U.S. built an over-the-horizon radar named Cobra Shoe, which could observe aeroplane operations and missile tests in southern Russia. This was operated by the RAF on behalf of the USAF. This augmented an earlier British system built in the early 1960s named Project Sandra. The U.S. use of the base was hidden from the Cypriot government due to their sensitivities.
In 1974, following a military coup by the Cypriot National Guard, Turkey invaded the north of Cyprus, leading to the establishment of the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Official source
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