The road to Akrotiri is strewn with daffodils. Vineyards are also in blossom, lending this south-western corner of Cyprus a bucolic feel. Further along, towards the RAF facility at the end of the road, a handwritten board announces strawberries for sale at a roadside farm. Closer to the military enclave, past traffic signs in English and Greek, a fish and chip shop, the Swan pub and a barber come into view.



It is in this slice of Little England that preparations are under way as western nations consider a military strike on Syria, and are warned against doing so by Russia, Bashar al-Assad’s main backer.

Though the setting may seem incongruous, RAF Akrotiri is at the sharp end of the British military presence in the eastern Mediterranean. Rumour is rife on the island that the installation would be targeted if Russia were to retaliate in the event of US-led military action in Syria.

Beyond the facility’s double-wire perimeter fence, armed guards and a heavily reinforced vehicle checkpoint, defensive measures are reportedly being taken. As the prospect of punitive airstrikes mount in the wake of last week’s deadly poison gas attack in a rebel-held town on the outskirts of Damascus, the focus has fallen increasingly on the role RAF Akrotiri would play if conflict were to erupt. At the last count, Britain’s main forward mounting base for overseas operations in the Middle East had eight Typhoon and six Tornado fighter bombers ready for action.

This week it was secrecy that reigned supreme at Akrotiri. The illuminated brick plinth at the facility’s entrance, embossed with the words Royal Air Force Akrotiri beneath the RAF’s eagle and crown insignia, amounted to the most forthcoming statement the British base was willing to make. “Please address all questions to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office,” said Sean Tully, a base spokesman. “The Ministry of Defence isn’t commenting.”

Akrotiri is one of two sovereign base areas Britain retained in the former colony after it gained independence in 1960. Altogether, these territories cover 99 square miles, although much is Cypriot farmland and villages. Among the military assets is the gigantic golf ball that is the RAF’s long-range radar station on the top of Mount Olympus, the island’s highest peak. Akrotiri lies less than 112 miles (180km) from the Syrian coast.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest An aircraft takes off from RAF Akrotiri. Photograph: Petros Karadjias/AP

Cyprus’s proximity to the Middle East, as the EU’s most easterly member state, has given the installations further strategic significance with facilities to gather vital signals intelligence for Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Britain. During the cold war, US use of the base also intensified and Akrotiri has played a crucial role in strikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

An unbroken record of sorties without loss changed when the Syrian regime, equipped with Russia’s latest surface-to-air missile defence system, shot down an Israeli F16 as it attacked Iranian troops in Syria in February.

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In nearby Limassol, otherwise known as Limassolgrad because of its 40,000-strong Russian community, expatriates linked to intelligence services in Moscow have been known to train binoculars from the roofs of local buildings on jets conducting bombing missions from the base.

Cypriot authorities have watched the latest developments with barely concealed alarm. Britain’s ownership of the installations has not been without its problems over the years, with sporadic protests by Greek Cypriots denouncing them as anachronistic.

Under President Nicos Anastasiades, ties with fellow Orthodox Russia have not only improved dramatically but seen the island’s Greek-run south reap the rewards of Russian investment and soaring tourist arrivals. The Russian embassy in Nicosia, the divided capital, is Moscow’s second biggest diplomatic mission in Europe.

In the war of words over the past week, commercial flights in the vicinity of the island have been rerouted amid mounting anxiety over the impact of potential airstrikes. Fearful of the repercussions on tourism at a time when Nicosia is only just beginning to emerge from economic crisis, the foreign minister, Nikos Christodoulides, sought to allay concerns, saying Cyprus was “one of the safest places in Europe”.

The island, he insisted, was “in no way involved in what is happening, or what may happen, in Syria”. Except, of course, along the road with the daffodils that leads to RAF Akrotiri.

