Please leave it to Israel Hayom to drag the East Mediterranean into yet another fever dream. In its latest geopolitical fiction, masquerading as strategic analysis, we are told that Northern Cyprus is not just a Turkish‑Cypriot dispute or a European headache, but now … an “Israeli national security threat.” Cue the dramatic music, please. And pass the popcorn.
Yes, according to this breathless article, Türkiye has turned Northern Cyprus into a futuristic Bond villain base, complete with drones, ballistic missiles and covert Hamas operatives lurking in hotel lobbies between shots of raki and casino chips. It reads less like sober analysis and more like rejected Netflix script notes.
Let’s be clear: this “threat” is entirely fabricated. It’s constructed on vague intelligence leaks, fear‑mongering language and geopolitical paranoia designed to paint Türkiye and by extension, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), as the new Iran with better beaches.
The author proposes an Israeli‑Greek “contingency plan” called “Poseidon’s Wrath,” a name so dramatic it sounds like a PlayStation 5 title. The plan? To “liberate” the north of Cyprus from “Turkish occupation.” What’s next? Operation Zeus’s Lightning Bolt? Athena’s Retaliation? This isn’t a defense strategy, it’s mythological cosplay.
Weaponizing insecurity, paranoia
Let’s examine the scare tactics. Türkiye is accused of stationing drones in Northern Cyprus (true), possessing ATMACA anti‑ship missiles (also true) and developing the Typhoon ballistic missile (currently underway). The argument leaps from “Türkiye has these weapons” to “Türkiye will strike Israel with them from Kyrenia (Girne).” No proof. No sourcing. No context. Just a convenient cocktail of “what if” dressed as inevitability.
This isn’t journalism. It’s narrative warfare. And it’s designed to justify future intervention, military, economic, or intelligence‑based, against a legally unrecognized yet de facto sovereign region that dares to exist outside the Western narrative.
Israel Hayom mourns the “invasion” of Cyprus in 1974, ignoring (as usual) the brutal anti‑Turkish pogroms and the military coup by Greek nationalists that triggered Türkiye’s intervention under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee. Ah, but selective memory is a favorite tool of state‑affiliated media.
Not a word about the fact that the so‑called “Republic of Cyprus” does not represent the Turkish Cypriot people. Not to mention the decades of embargo, isolation and diplomatic strangulation imposed on Turkish Cyprus by a hypocritical international system that punishes victims for surviving.
And now they dare call it a “terror finance hub”? Please. If Israel is looking for laundromats for dirty money, perhaps it should start closer to home, with unchecked settler groups, Silicon Valley crypto escapades and its own black budget slush funds in the West Bank.
Let’s address the elephant in the room: this article reeks of projection. Israel accuses Turkish Cyprus of enabling Iran and Hamas, while simultaneously expanding illegal settlements in Palestinian land, bombing civilians in Gaza and lobbying globally against any recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Türkiye’s growing regional power, economic revival and independent foreign policy have rattled certain quarters in Tel Aviv and Athens. The problem is not Turkish Cyprus, it’s that Ankara refuses to bow to a fading Western‑imposed regional order.
And what’s most amusing? While Israeli think tanks hyperventilate about “Greater Türkiye,” they themselves are busy executing the de facto blueprint of “Greater Israel” through demographic engineering, militarized annexation and strategic manipulation. Turkish Cyprus is a distraction, a stage to demonize Turkish ambition while Israel quietly pursues its own.
Settlers, spies, strategic partners
This isn’t just ideological. It’s operational. Israeli military, intelligence and settler activity in Cyprus tells the same story:
Israel Hayom conveniently omits that Israeli investment and settler interest in Cyprus has been quietly growing, not as disasters, but as part of a creeping expansion. Analysts warn of a “Greater Israel” vision that seeks footholds in Cyprus through property acquisition and informal influence, echoing colonial patterns seen elsewhere on the Mediterranean. Indeed, the Daily Sabah essay “Zionism’s grip on Northern Cyprus grows stronger each day” documents those fears and highlights new TRNC property restrictions placed on Israeli buyers in 2023 to curtail precisely this trend.
It is no secret that Cyprus serves as a critical Mossad hub. French and regional intelligence sources indicate that at least one Mossad base in Cyprus, staffed with dozens of operatives, serves as a strategic observation post for intelligence operations in the Eastern Mediterranean. But it doesn’t end there: in a move that would make any sovereignty-respecting nation blush, the southern Cypriot authorities themselves have officially confirmed that Mossad operatives are present and active at Cypriot airports, allegedly for counterterrorism cooperation, of course, but conveniently allowing Israeli intelligence access to EU territory and infrastructure.
And not just any infrastructure: we are talking about a NATO-adjacent staging ground, in direct geographic proximity to Türkiye itself, Israel’s chief regional competitor and the protector of Turkish Cyprus. What better place to monitor Ankara, challenge Turkish energy and logistical routes and destabilize the strategic triangle of Türkiye, Turkish Cyprus and the wider Turkic world?
Military exercises, arms deals
Meanwhile, the “Republic of Cyprus” and Israel have forged increasingly deep military ties: joint exercises such as Onisilos‑Gideon, Agapinor, Iason, Nikolidis-David and the recent Blue Sun-Jason – frequent and expanding in scale, pitting Israeli F‑35s and F‑15s in Cypriot airspace and involving naval maneuvering in Cypriot waters. Cyprus also now operates Israeli Barak MX air-defense batteries, capable of intercepting targets up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) away, a significant upgrade from its obsolete Soviet-era systems.
All this reveals something Israel Hayom does not dare admit: Cyprus is not a neutral buffer ground but integral to a long-term Israeli military‑strategic project, whether to confront Türkiye, anchor energy corridors, or position itself in Eastern Mediterranean power plays.
And let’s not kid ourselves: Israel’s obsession with Cyprus is neither sudden nor purely strategic. Historically, Zionist leaders considered Cyprus as a potential Jewish homeland, even before Palestine. At the 1903 Zionist Congress, Cyprus was seriously debated as a refuge for the Jewish people, due to its proximity, climate and relative political accessibility within the crumbling Ottoman sphere. Herzl and the British even exchanged memoranda on the topic. That idea was only shelved when British Uganda and, eventually, Palestine became more viable in the colonial chess game.
So forgive us if we find the sudden Israeli reverence for “sovereign Cypriot territory” a bit … performative. The same state that was founded on a colonial partition plan, military conquest and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians now dares to lecture Türkiye over its 1974 intervention – triggered by a Greek-backed fascist coup?
A final word
To Israel Hayom and its keyboard generals: if you’re going to write fanfiction, at least add a plot twist. Maybe Atlantis rises from the sea and joins NATO. Perhaps Turkish President Erdoğan collaborates with Poseidon to deploy drone dolphins in Haifa. Anything would be more realistic than your current script.
Turkish Cyprus is not your problem. It is the home of Turkish Cypriots who have endured decades of isolation, demonization and colonial gaslighting. They will not be “liberated” by your drones, your fantasies or your editorials.
The real threat isn’t coming from Girne (Kyrenia), it’s coming from your refusal to accept that you no longer control the narrative.
That’s the real story.
