With the election of Mr. Trump to the US presidency, the policy of the deep state and hawks is continuing, as we are once again on the brink of a generalized devastating war which has begun within the framework of a Cold War policy being pursued. This war, it appears, will not be confined to Syria alone. The US President, assisted by NATO's most extreme reactionary and bellicose NATO countries, is issuing threats to carry out missile attacks in Syria, based on unproven information about the use of chemical weapons in Syria, which is enough for the NATO imperialist circles to launch a new war.

The Cyprus Peace Council CPC denounces the use of chemical weapons by anyone. We are calling for an immediate visit to be paid by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to the region where according to the Western forces such weapons were used in order to conduct investigations on the ground. The carrying out of an investigation from afar, also taking into account those that were carried out in Iraq, is not convincing. The suspicion alone that Iraq back then supposedly had chemical weapons represented the pretext for the destruction of an entire country, the killing of over 200,000 citizens, women, children and elders.

The information that is becoming public about the use of the British bases in Cyprus in this imperialist war highlights the long-standing position of the Cyprus Peace Council for the dissolution of these bases and for the demilitarization of our island in general.

The danger of Cyprus turning into a launching pad base for the waging of a new war against Syria and the Syrian people is real. That is precisely why we demand from the Cypriot government that it takes all the measures so that the British bases, as well as the airports and ports, are not used. Any use of these facilities by third NATO countries will violate the Treaty of Establishment of the Republic of Cyprus, which also sets out the terms of operation of the military bases and other facilities.

The CPC expresses its solidarity with the Syrian people. We are calling for the termination of the foreign interventions in Syria. We call on the Cypriot people, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, to unite their voices with the voice of the Cyprus peace movement against the imperialist wars that bring only disaster and misery. We call on them to join us in the struggle to abolish the NATO bases throughout the Mediterranean and more specifically in the struggle to abolish the British bases in Cyprus.

Only through peace and mutual understanding are international problems solved.

Wednesday, 11 April 2018
The Secretariat of the CPC