Akrotiri and Dhekelia Akrotiri and Dhekelia ( , " Akrotiri kai Dhekeleia " ; ) , officially the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia , is a British Overseas Territory on the island of Cyprus . The Areas , which include bases and other land , were retained by the British , under the 1960 treaty of independence , agreed and signed by the United Kingdom , Greece , Turkey and representatives from the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities , which granted independence to the Crown colony of Cyprus . The territory comprises two Areas . One is Akrotiri ( , ; ) , or the " Western Sovereign Base Area " ( or WSBA ) , which includes two main bases at RAF Akrotiri and Episkopi Cantonment , plus all of Akrotiri Village ' s district ( including Limassol Salt Lake ) and parts of eleven other village districts . The other Area is Dhekelia ( Greek : Δεκέλεια , ; Turkish : Dikelya ) , or the " Eastern Sovereign Base Area " ( or ESBA ) , which includes a base at Ayios Nikolaos plus parts of twelve village districts . History . The Sovereign Base Areas were created in 1960 by the Treaty of Establishment , when Cyprus achieved independence from the British Empire . The United Kingdom desired to retain sovereignty over these areas , as this guaranteed the use of UK military bases in Cyprus , including RAF Akrotiri , and a garrison of the British Army . The importance of the bases to the British is based on the strategic location of Cyprus , at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean , close to the Suez Canal and the Middle East ; the ability to use the RAF base as staging post for military aircraft ; and for general training purposes . In 1974 , following a military coup by the Greek - Cypriot National Guard attempting to achieve " enosis " ( union with Greece ) , Turkey invaded the north of Cyprus , leading to the establishment of the internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus . This did not affect the status of the bases . Greek Cypriots fleeing from the Turks were permitted to travel through the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area , and were given humanitarian aid , with those from Achna setting up a new village ( Dasaki Achnas or Achna Forest ) which is still in the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area . The Turkish advance halted when it reached the edge of the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area to avoid military conflict with the United Kingdom . In the Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area a tented refugee camp was set up at " Happy Valley " ( part of the Episkopi Cantonment ) to house Turkish Cypriots fleeing from Limassol and the villages surrounding the Area , until in 1975 they were flown out of RAF Akrotiri via Turkey to northern Cyprus . Some Greek Cypriot refugees remain housed on land in the parts of Trachoni and Kolossi villages that fall within the Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area . Disputes . In July 2001 , violent protests were held at the bases by local Cypriots , angry at British plans to construct radio masts at the bases as part of an upgrade of British military communication posts around the world . Locals had claimed the masts would endanger local lives and cause cancer , as well as have a negative impact on wildlife in the area . The British and Cypriot governments jointly commissioned health research from the University of Bristol and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Cyprus , and that research project reported in 2005 that there was no evidence of health problems being caused by electromagnetic fields from the antennae . The Sovereign Base Areas Administration has carried out assessments and surveys into the effects on wildlife , which have fed into an " Akrotiri Peninsula Environmental Management Plan " , published in September 2012 . The United Kingdom has shown no intention of ceding the base areas in their entirety to Cypriot control , although it has offered to cede of farmland as part of the rejected Annan Plan for Cyprus . , around 3 , 000 troops of British Forces Cyprus are based at Akrotiri and Dhekelia . Ayios Nikolaos Station , in the ESBA , is a GCHQ electronic intelligence listening station of the UKUSA intelligence network . The election of left - wing Dimitris Christofias as Cypriot president in February 2008 prompted concern in the United Kingdom . Christofias has pledged to remove all foreign military forces from the island as part of a future settlement of the Cyprus dispute , calling the British presence on the island a " colonial bloodstain " . Criticisms and Speculation . During the Syrian Civil War of 2013 , on 29 August 2013 , some Cypriot and British media sources speculated that long - range ballistic missiles fired from Syria in retaliation for proposed British involvement in military intervention against the Syrian regime of Bashar Al Assad , could hit Cyprus , and could potentially deliver chemical weapons . In some Cypriot media , the proposed interdiction of the Syrian civil war , utilising Akrotiri and Dhekelia , could recklessly endanger the Cypriot populations near to those bases . The Cypriot foreign minister , Ioannis Kasoulides moved to calm Cypriot concerns on 27 August 2013 , saying that the British bases were unlikely to play a major part in any intervention . Reviews . In January 2010 , a newspaper article appeared in the mainstream British press claiming that as a result of budgetary constraints arising from the late 2000s recession , the British Ministry of Defence drew up controversial plans to withdraw the United Kingdom ' s 3 , 000 strong garrison from Cyprus and end the use of Cyprus as a staging point for ground forces . Since this time , the Labour government under whom the proposal appeared has been replaced by the Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition and their defence review did not mention the issue . On 15 Dec 2012 in a written statement to the lower house the Secretary of State for Defence of the UK government ( Phillip Hammond ) revealed the findings of a report on the SBA military bases following the completion of a review of their operations by Lord Ashcroft : " The Sovereign Base areas are in a region of geo - political importance and high priority for the United Kingdom ’ s long term national security interests . . . Our military personnel , United Kingdom civilians and locally employed personnel in the Sovereign Base Areas make a major contribution to the national security of the United Kingdom and will continue to do so in the future . " Constitution and governance . The SBAs were retained in 1960 to keep military bases in areas under British sovereignty , ( along with the rights retained to use other Sites in what became the territory of the Republic ) . That makes them different from the other remaining British Overseas Territories , except for the British Indian Ocean Territory which was similarly carved out of a former colony as a site for a military base , although in that case the base was to be used by the United States and the inhabitants ( Chagossians ) were all removed . The basic philosophy of their administration was declared by Her Majesty ' s Government in ' Appendix O ' to the 1960 treaty with Cyprus , which provided that the British government intended : According to the Ministry of Defence , Because the SBAs are primarily required as military bases and not ordinary dependent territories , the Administration reports to the Ministry of Defence in London . It has no formal connection with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office or the British High Commission in Nicosia , although there are close informal links with both offices on policy matters . The territory is administered by an Administrator , who is also the Commander of British Forces Cyprus ( from November 2012 Major General Richard J . Cripwell ) . The Administrator is officially appointed by the British monarch , on the advice of the Ministry of Defence . The Administrator has all the executive and legislative authority of a Governor of an overseas territory . A Chief Officer is appointed , and is responsible to the Administrator for the day - to - day running of the civil government , with subordinate Area Officers responsible for the civil administration of the two areas . No elections are held in the territory , although British citizens are normally entitled to vote in United Kingdom elections ( as British Forces or overseas electors ) . The Areas have their own legal system , distinct from the United Kingdom and Cyprus . This consists of the laws of the Colony of Cyprus as at August 1960 , amended as necessary . The laws of Akrotiri and Dhekelia are kept , as far as possible , the same as the laws of Cyprus . The Court of the Sovereign Base Areas is concerned with non - military offences committed by any person within Akrotiri and Dhekelia , and law and order is maintained by the Sovereign Base Areas Police , while military law is upheld by the Cyprus Joint Police Unit . Fire and Rescue services are provided by the Defence Fire and Risk Management Organisation through stations at Episkopi , Akrotiri , Dhekelia and Ayios Nikolayos . The Defence Medical Services provide emergency ambulance cover based from medical centres in the main bases . All emergency services are accessible from any telephone using the Europe - wide emergency number 112 . Geography . Akrotiri and Dhekelia cover 3 % of the land area of Cyprus , a total of ( split ( 47 . 5 ) at Akrotiri and ( 50 . 5 ) at Dhekelia ) . Sixty percent of the land is privately owned as freeholds by Cypriot citizens . The other 40 % is controlled by the Ministry of Defence as Crown land . In addition to Akrotiri and Dhekelia , the Treaty of Establishment also provided for the continued use by the British Ministry of Defence and the British Armed Forces of certain facilities within Cyprus , known as " Retained Sites " . Akrotiri is located in the south of the island , near the city of Limassol ( or Lemesos ) . Dhekelia is in the southeast , near Larnaca . Both of these areas include military bases , as well as farmland and some residential land . Akrotiri is surrounded by territory controlled by the Republic of Cyprus , but Dhekelia also borders on the United Nations ( UN ) buffer zone and the area controlled by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus . Ayia Napa lies to the East of Dhekelia . The villages of Xylotymbou and Ormidhia , also in the Republic of Cyprus , are enclaves surrounded by Dhekelia . The Dhekelia Power Station , divided by a British road into two parts , also belongs to Cyprus . The northern part is an enclave , like the two villages , whereas the southern part is located by the sea , and therefore not an enclave , though it has no territorial waters of its own . Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in right of the British Crown , and the Crown of the United Kingdom in right of the Sovereign Base Areas Administration , claims territorial waters of up to three nautical miles , and also officially reserves the right according to the laws of the United Nations to extend the claim of up to twelve nautical miles . Demographics . When the Areas were being established , the boundaries were deliberately drawn up to avoid centres of population . Approximately 14 , 000 people live in the Areas . About 7 , 000 native Cypriots work in the Areas themselves , or on farmland within the boundaries of the Areas . The British military and their families make up the rest of the population . Persons may in theory be eligible to claim the British Overseas Territories citizenship or the BOTC status through a personal connection to the Areas ; but unlike most other British Overseas Territories , there is no provision in the British Nationality Acts by which British citizenship ( with the right of abode in the United Kingdom ) can either be claimed through automatic entitlement or be applied for by means of registration , from or through a sole personal connection to the Base Areas . Under the terms of the 1960 agreement with Cyprus establishing the Sovereign Base Areas , the United Kingdom is committed not to use the Areas for civilian purposes . This was stated in 2002 as the primary reason for the exclusion of the Areas from the scope of the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 . Economy . There are no economic statistics gathered for Akrotiri and Dhekelia . The main economic activities are the provision of services to the military , as well as limited agriculture . On 1 January 2008 Akrotiri and Dhekelia adopted the Euro along with the rest of Cyprus under the effective control and administration of the Republic and the Government of Cyprus . The Sovereign Base Areas are the only areas under British sovereignty to officially use as the official tender the Euro . Media . BFBS Radio 1 and 2 are broadcast on FM and can be widely received in Cyprus , but the BFBS Television signal has been confined to the SBAs or encrypted since 1997 , for copyright reasons . Limassol BBC Relay is situated here . Amateur radio . The bases are issued different amateur radio call signs from the Republic of Cyprus . Amateurs on the bases use the International Telecommunication Union prefix of " ZC4 " which is assigned to Great Britain . There are about 52 amateurs licensed in this manner . The ITU prefix for the Republic of Cyprus is mainly " 5B " . The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus uses the unallocated call sign prefix of " 1B " , but this is only recognized internationally by Turkey . Under ITU regulations it is illegal for an amateur radio operator to communicate via radio with a call sign issued by a state not recognised as a member of the ITU , with the exception of a true emergency .