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In May 1984, Ronald Reagan asked Congress for patience on a divided island no bigger than Connecticut. Punishing Türkiye, he argued, would accomplish nothing; peace on Cyprus had to be built by the parties on Cyprus itself.
Congress didn't fully agree. Three years later it armed a different kind of pressure: an embargo not on Türkiye, but on Greek Cyprus, meant to freeze the island's slow-motion arms race and push both communities toward a U.N. settlement. Denying weapons, the theory went, would compel diplomacy.
It did not. Instead, Nicosia simply swapped out its procurement office. Excluded from Pentagon supply chains, the Greek Cypriot administration turned to Moscow, which was more than happy to play weapons dealer on NATO’s southern doorstep.
Over the next three decades, Russian Mi-35 attack helicopters, T-80 tanks, and Tor-M1 air defense systems took up permanent residence along the island's resort-lined southern coast.
The situation is shifting gradually. As the conditions for the arms embargo re-emerge, each individual waiver exemption is being withdrawn.
Last week, the State Department signed off on the fourth consecutive annual waiver of that 1987 embargo, extending it through September 2027.
A signature play of Biden-Blinken foreign policy, the full waiver was built to serve one clear goal: squeeze Moscow’s regional influence fast at a time when Europe was scrambling for a response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Today, Brussels has given full ownership of that security posture, meaning the issue no longer tops Washington’s priority list. As a European Union member state, the Greek side has virtually zero space to turn back toward Russia or to play Washington off Moscow.
That reality gives Washington every reason to return to the underlying spirit of its statutory law. Since the war in Ukraine broke out, Nicosia simply has no room left to play the Russian card.
To keep the waivers coming, the State Department demanded two non-negotiable concessions from Nicosia: keep Russian naval vessels barred from Cypriot ports for refueling or maintenance, and maintain strict anti-money laundering controls.
The port ban was an easy call because of the EU sanctions; the cash pipeline has been trickier.
After scrapping its notorious "Cyprus Investment Programme" in 2020 under heavy fire from Brussels and Washington, Nicosia pivoted to a fast-track Golden Visa scheme. By 2023, the government had issued over 5,800 of these visas.
Oversight groups were not impressed by the rebrand. Marios Petrides, spokesperson for the Audit Office of the Greek Cypriot authority, noted in an interview that international investors were using the exact same loopholes under the new system as they did under the old passport machine.
A Greek Cypriot newspaper summed up the rebrand sharply: "Offices that used to advertise golden passports are now advertising golden visas."
European anti-money laundering watchdog Moneyval issued similar warnings about persistent backdoors. Yet Washington keeps signing the waivers anyway.
With Moscow out of the game, Nicosia’s primary security anchor has shifted squarely toward Europe, specifically Paris. During the tariff fights in early 2025, amid the prospect of tariffs on European goods, Greek Cypriot Finance Minister Makis Keravnos called for a unified EU response.
With Nicosia holding the EU presidency, Energy and Trade Minister Michael Damianos stated that the bloc was prepared to counter unilateral trade measures with "fast, proportionate, and firm retaliation," against President Trump’s warnings.
The stance reflects Nicosia's broader alignment with European partners. Around the same time Washington proposed 100% tariffs on French wine imports, the Greek Cypriot government expanded defense cooperation, effectively serving as a strategic hub for French and EU military assets in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Once a client of Russia, the eleven Mi-35 gunships in Greek inventory were sold off to Serbia, one of the few remaining buyers with no sanctions problem servicing them, and replaced with French Airbus helicopters.
The Tor-M1 air defense batteries are being phased out in favor of Israeli Barak systems, while T-80 tanks are the stubborn piece as they remain the backbone of the Greek Cypriot armored forces.
"Bringing harmony to NATO's southern flank and to the troubled island of Cyprus," Reagan wrote in a statement to Congress forty-two years ago, "is a goal worthy of our most special efforts."
Those efforts were on full display this past summer when the alliance gathered in Ankara. There, Türkiye’s role was simply to help smooth over frayed relations with Europe that had been driving President Trump up the wall.
As a dedicated follower of European policy, the Greek Cypriot side finds itself on the wrong end of this new American foreign posture, a reality the statutory playbooks are still scrambling to catch up with.
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