Turks oppose Crete missile deployment

Turkey's Foreign Minister, Mr Ismail Cem, has described as "unacceptable" the Greek Cypriot decision to store or deploy Russian S-300 missiles on the Greek island of Crete rather than on Cyprus.

Ankara's unexpected negative reaction has been seen in Nicosia and in Athens as an attempt to dictate not only Greek Cypriot but also Greek defence policy.

The compromise proposal to store the missiles on Crete is "unacceptable," Mr Cem said.

"If anyone reckons that Turkey is now going to give in to blackmail over this plan to deploy these weapons outside Cyprus, they are very much mistaken," he warned.

"Deploying these missiles on the Greek island of Crete would be a big mistake," Mr Cem said.

"This would exacerbate the tension between two neighbouring countries," he said, referring to Greece.

In Athens, the Greek press and opposition parties condemned the decision by the President of Cyprus, Mr Glafcos Clerides, not to deploy the missiles on Cypriot soil.

Greek Cypriot politicians have accused Ankara of "blackmailing" Cyprus into cancelling the missile deployment by threatening to "take out" the batteries as soon as delivered (as early as today) at the Republic's sole military airfield near Paphos.

Turkish military action would have compelled Greece to intervene on the side of Cyprus, precipitating all-out Greek-Turkish war extending to the disputed Aegean, wrecking the eastern flank of NATO and, perhaps, drawing in Balkan neighbours.

Newspapers of every political hue, including pro-government publications, said the long-running missiles affair was a farce, which lacked political direction. The independent left-wing newspaper, Eleftherotypia, said the missiles might now be stockpiled instead of deployed, and said Greece and Cyprus had made a "humiliating climb-down" in the face of pressure from the US.

However, Kathemerini and the pro-government Ta Nea supported the Crete option and quoted government sources as saying the warheads would be based in the Lassithi region in the east of the island by February.

President Clerides took the decision not to deploy the two batteries of S-300s late on Tuesday, just 48 hours ahead of arrival, after consultations with the Greek Prime Minister, Mr Costas Simitis, who opposed deployment, and Greek Cypriot party leaders who were divided on the issue.

Mr Simitis's "no" decided the matter.

Since January 1997, when Mr Clerides, at the instigation of Athens, placed the order for the $400 million missiles - the Russian equivalent of the US Patriot antimissile system initially deployed during the 1991 Gulf war - Turkish politicians and top-ranking military officers have issued a stream of threats against Cyprus.

They argued that the missiles, which could target Turkish military aircraft taking off from bases on the mainland, compromised the security of both Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.

As Turkey maintains a 35,000-strong force on the island along with 200 mainline tanks and 400 armoured personnel carriers, backed up by the might of mainland armed forces, the Greek Cypriots, who have a conscript army of 10,000 men, Greece and the international community have taken these threats seriously and acted in such a way as to eliminate the casus belli.

While the US, Britain and the EU have praised Mr Clerides's decision not to deploy, it is not yet clear how they will react to Turkish opposition to the installation of the missiles on Crete.

Cypriot commentators believe Turkey has adopted this new hard line in order to block potential political concessions to the Greek Cypriots from the US, Europe and the UN in exchange for the decision not to deploy the S-300s.

Meanwhile, the Russians, determined to extract full payment for the missiles as well as additional sums for complications, insist that the missile contract is a purely "commercial deal".

They argue that if the missiles are to be delivered to Crete, a new trilateral contract must be negotiated.

Beyond the first day of the new year, Russia will claim $1 million a month in storage and maintenance costs.