Dendias in Nicosia: Greece will not leave Cyprus as Turkey blocks a power cable

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Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias said Greece will remain beside Cyprus, speaking in Nicosia on Thursday at events marking 66 years of the Republic of Cyprus, as Ankara again opposed a planned Greece–Cyprus electricity cable.

“Greece is here and will remain here. Greece is and will remain close,” Dendias said. He was accompanied by Gen. Dimitrios Houpis, chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff.

President Nikos Christodoulides received him at the Presidential Palace. Dendias said Athens would support Cyprus through historic ties and as fellow EU members.

“With the new capabilities we are creating in the Greek armed forces, we will always be beside you as brothers, but also within our common European family,” he said.

Cable dispute

The visit coincided with a fresh Turkish objection to the Greece–Cyprus interconnection. Ankara demanded prior coordination and approval for survey work. Turkey’s defence ministry said it would “not permit” what it calls unauthorised activity in areas it claims as its continental shelf.

Ankara cited its 2019 maritime deal with Libya, arrangements with the Turkish Cypriot administration it set up in the occupied part of Cyprus in 1983, and coordinates it sent to the United Nations in 2020. Greece, other regional states and the EU regard the Turkey–Libya agreement as baseless and illegal. The 1983 entity is recognised only by Turkey. Athens says filing coordinates at the UN does not create title.

The project is the Great Sea Interconnector, a subsea cable meant to link Greece, Cyprus and Israel and tie eastern Mediterranean power markets to the European grid. It has faced cost and regulatory delays. Prospects improved this year after French group Meridiam became majority shareholder in the company building the Greece–Cyprus section. Talks between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and President Emmanuel Macron in September put the scheme back on an operational track.

Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis has said notifying Turkey of survey work is not recognition of any Turkish licensing power. Greece’s position, he said, rests on international law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Invasion and “Agenda 2030”

After the military parade, Dendias tied Cypriot security to Greece’s rearmament.

“Freedom, sovereignty, security and democracy require defence power. They require the capability of deterrence,” he said, pointing to the “Agenda 2030” programme. The effort, he added, is pursued with “absolute commitment” to international law and the Law of the Sea.

He recalled the 1974 Turkish invasion and the continuing occupation, calling the Republic of Cyprus an independent, democratic, sovereign EU state that has lived with the consequences for more than 50 years.

Earlier he attended a memorial and laid a wreath with Christodoulides at the Imprisoned Graves in Nicosia. He also met Archbishop Georgios of Cyprus and representatives of displaced communities from the occupied cities of Famagusta and Kyrenia.

Dendias said he would take back to Athens the “sense of unity, love and support” he had found in Cyprus.

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