Current Events

The Cypriot government has instructed schools in the Republic of Cyprus to withdraw a textbook from their curriculum on grounds that it holds Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in good light.

The instruction came after a misguided one from the education ministry that asked schoolteachers to tear out the page in question before giving them out to the students.

The controversy in question exists the book quoted Ataturk as the greatest hero of Turkey, which goes against the social fabric and moral ethics of the Republic of Cyprus.

The education ministry explained its decision on grounds Ataturk wasn’t someone worthy of being appreciated, and that putting his personality in any positive light undermines the spirit of freedom and leadership. Given as Ataturk was directly involved with heinous crimes like the Armenian genocide, there is no way he should be regarded as anything lesser than negative.

A political leader from the Indian state of Rajasthan is claiming that around 10 sailors from the Indian Merchant Navy are stuck on a ship in Northern Cyprus.

The politician, Charmesh Sharma, a member of the Indian National Congress Party in Bundi, Rajasthan, has stated that the sailors are part of a 13-member ship that is currently anchored off the coast of Cyprus and has not been permitted to disembark.

The cause of the incident is the fact that the original owners of the vessel sold it to another company in haste, and the latter is now pressuring the vessel’s crew to take it to Libya. The crew stopped in Cyprus to get relief but have not received any from the government or otherwise.

Mr. Sharma further stated that he got the news from the family of one of the sailors. One of the 10 sailors, Sanjeev Singh Rathod – informed his wife of the situation over a WhatsApp call.

In a bid to strengthen response against marine terrorist hijackings, the Cypriot and US special forces recently held a joint drill.

The drill, which had members of the Cypriot underwater demolition forces and the US Navy SEALs participated in various exercises, to help the former polish their skills in handling violence at sea effectively.

The existence of the drill was announced by Charalambos Petrides, the Defence Minister of Cyprus. He held the drill in high regard and went on to explain how it would help Cyprus and the United States cooperate on the same strategic level to make sure that stability and security remains ensured in what is a turbulent area.

This was supported by Judith Garber, the U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus, who stated that similar joint drills will be held in the future.

A 14-year-old girl has been reported missing.

The girl in question, Marianna Ahmet, has been missing from her home in Nicosia.

The police have released her description as a teenager of average build having short, black hair till her shoulders. She was wearing a black T-shirt with black jeans.

The Nicosia Police CID department has urged those with any information to contact them at 2-802222, to the 1460 citizens’ hotline, or to the nearest police station.

In what is being regarded as one of 2021’s landmark political events, Nicos Christodoulides, Yair Lapid and Nikos Dendias, the foreign ministers of Cyprus, Israel and Greece respectively, will meet in Jerusalem.

They will hold a trilateral meeting, where the topics of discussion will include regional developments, along with potential areas of cooperation like COVID-19, environment conservation and wildfire control.

After the meeting, the three officials will hold a press conference.

Thereafter, Dendias hold a separate meeting with Christodoulides as well as Karin Elharrar, the Energy Minister of Israel. He will also be on a separate meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

In an unexpected diplomatic move, the President of Pakistan, Arif Alvi has pledged for cohesion with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

President Alvi, who was present at the launching ceremony of MILGEM-class corvette ship (which Turkey has built for Pakistan), stated that while the two nations might be different in terms of language and culture, they are one at heart.

The TNRC & Turkey are both known to make diplomatic endeavors in order to gather international support from countries such as Pakistan and Azerbaijan.

When Turkey declared their goal of the TNRC getting official status (called the “Baku Declaration”) in Geneva, both Azerbaijan and Pakistan welcomed and endorsed Turkey.

Prior to this, the countries accepted the Baku Declaration by carrying out a ceremony within the premises of the Azerbaijani parliament – an exercise aimed at enhancing the bondage between the three nations.

The island nation of Cyprus has been a divided nation since 1974, when a coup by Greek Cypriots to capture the island led to a massive violence and bloodshed between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and ultimately Ankara interfering as the guarantor power.

People are wary of the precautions and measures against the spread of coronavirus. As a result, far less people are traveling abroad.

According to Vassilis Stamataris, a travel agency, while traffic at the airports in Cyprus has surely increased in the last months, it is still much lesser than that in 2019.

Notably, most – if not all – of the travelers are fully vaccinated.

The travel agency further revealed that of all the Cypriots who are traveling, around half of them have Greece as their destination. The remaining half is seemingly confined to visiting those European countries where Covid-19 protocols are defined and understandable.

Many airlines, such as Blue Air, Sky Express, Aegean Airlines, Gulf Air etc., are offering flights to Greece.

However, since Cyprus is still a ‘red’ country in terms of its safety status, the requirements from Cypriots are more elaborate compared to the citizens of other EU countries.

All of these reasons combined are leading to more Cypriots opting for Stay-cations than going abroad.

The Australian High Commission will has made a large donation to ‘300K Trees in Nicosia,’ an NGO Group to help them in their goal of planting 300,000 trees in the Nicosia district.

Their project coordinator, Eleftheria Louca spoke with Cyprus Mail, stating that the NGO is indebted to the Australian High Commission for helping them execute their idea to create their plant nursery. She went on to thank volunteers, who donated the area of Flasou for this purpose.

‘300K Trees in Nicosia’ was a very simple initiative taken by citizens, which became bigger with time and finally got registered as a NGO. It has shown a great aptitude in being involved with climate related issues.

The organization is known to be active and regularly liaises with many schools, universities, the government and private organizations.

Using pine, harrop and many other local species of trees, they have so far planted 7,215 trees.

A 9-year-old girl is undergoing treatment in Makarios General Hospital after being bitten by a viper.

This is the second of such incidents, after a 6-year-old boy underwent a similar treatment after also being bitten by a viper.

The girl’s family, who reported the incident, said that the viper was on the window of the room where are girl was playing. It was spotted by the family cat, who confronted it, after biting it, tried to throw it away. However, the injured viper fell on the 9-year-old and bit her.

The girl was rushed to Paphos hospital, where she was administered with the anti-venom serum. The girl was then transferred to Makarios hospital for further treatment.

Snake bites are fairly common in Cyprus, with hospitals dealing with up to 4 cases every year.

In what is being considered good news for public health, the Cypriot Health Ministry has stated that nearly 78% of all adults and over 30% of teenagers (i.e. those between 16 to 17 years of age) have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

As of August 23, the data says that around 77.6% adults have been inoculated with the first dose of the anti-covid vaccine, while 72.3% have seemingly completed the vaccination process. In the meantime, after about two months of the extension of the National Vaccination Scheme to those under-18, around 34.4% of those between 16 to 17 years of age were vaccinated with at least the first dose of the vaccine, with the percentage of fully vaccinated standing at 25.6.

As per the data, 70% of those aged 30 to 39, 59% of those aged 20 to 2, and 47% of those aged 18 to 19 have received the first dose of the vaccine.

District-wise, Paphos with 88.5 % of its population vaccinated continues to retain the first place in the chart, whereas the district of Larnaca seems to be the last with around 71.6% of its population being vaccinated so far.

Cyprus is preparing to vaccinate all of its elderly population by the end of September 2021.

88 Syrian migrants, who tried to reach Cyprus in two boats, have been sent back to Lebanon.

According to the Interior Minister Nicos Nouris, 5 men had jumped overboard. The Cyprus Police rescued 4 men. However, a fifth, who was wearing a mask, a life preserver and flippers managed to flee. Rescue crews are still looking for this individual.

Others among those rescued include a sick man and a pregnant woman. They were airlifted and later hospitalized.

The boats were originally detected by the coastal radar, and first intercepted by the marine police vessels with 48 men, 15 women and 25 minors on board – roughly 15 kilometers away from the coastline.

All of them were transferred to Lebanon under police escort on a chartered boat, under the agreement signed between Cyprus and Lebanon, which says that any person trying to reach Cyprus via boat shall be deported back to Lebanon.

Cyprus is situated at a distance of around a 230 kilometers west of Lebanon and around 170 kilometers west of Syria.

The Cyprus Police has revealed that they have handled a total of 36 sexual harassment cases thus far, 22 of which have been filed in court.

According to Eleni Constantinou, a spokesperson for the Cyprus Police, there are a total of 36 cases under investigation by the special unit dealing with sexual harassment issues. 22 of these have already been filed in court, while 9 others are still being investigated.

Ms. Constantinou stated that the police are continuing to collect statements, evidence and clues concerning the cases under investigation. She further added that legal service, has decided not to press charges in 2 out of 3 cases it is currently studying.

She has urged people with information to remain quiet in public, but be as detailed as possible when interacting with the police.

The Cyprus police has seen a considerable increase in complaints – chiefly after the incident of the Greek athlete Sophia Bekatorou, who spoke about her rape publicly.

The Cyprus police’s cybercrime unit has reported that two men – aged 32 & 45 have been identified in connection with the ongoing fake news post scandal.

The scandal in question is one that arose from a post that claimed that a 12-year-old child in Limassol less than a day after being administered the Covid-19 vaccine. It was later confirmed, however, as fake news after being denied by the health authorities.

The police, who identified the suspects via testimonies, brought both suspects in for questioning. They even obtained a search warrant and searched the 45-year-old suspect, where they seized a mobile phone.

Both of the accused eventually confessed about their connection to the crime. As of now, the elder of the two is being charged in writing, and is due to appear in court soon.

The office of the Ombudsman of Cyprus has not been upgraded to A status accreditation awarded by the sub-committee on accreditation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Earlier this year, it was given a time frame of eighteen months to fulfill and submit a new reassessment application in order to get the promotion to A status.

Several vulnerabilities were identified to be the reason for this development. This includes (but is not limited to) the office’s funding and financial autonomy, the level of pluralism and of course the process of selection of the ombudsman by the President of the republic.

The Sub-Committee on Accreditation has compiled and published a detailed report on this, which was released in June 2021.

The Office of the Cyprus Ombudsman was established in 1991. Based in Nicosia, it currently holds B status accreditation

The use of safe pass has forced people and doctors to adopt illegal methods to fulfil the mandatory norms – primarily by presenting fake certificates. 

Simultaneously, it has been noticed that the doctors are certifying that their patients do not require any vaccination while prioritizing other norms such as mandatory use of masks.

This is indeed a serious and threatening phenomenon and quite a few of such complains and cases have been formally submitted for investigative measures.  

Michael Anastasiades, the President of the Doctor’s Association Ethics Committee has voiced his concern on the matter. He further added that a decision should be taken to appoint an investigator, and once appointed, should have a non-partisan membership.

Paschal Donohoe, President of the Eurogroup, shall make a visit to Cyprus and Greece for bilateral meetings. 

Minister Donohoe will be meeting the President as well as the finance minister of Cyprus and shall frame the priorities he has as the President of the Eurogroup.

He will discuss the prospects of recovery of the Euro Area in meetings with the business frame of Cyprus. 

All the meetings are focused on the economic recovery caused by the pandemic.

The Cyprus police have arrested two men, 21 and 22, for at least 8 days on suspicion of stabbing a 23-year-old man in Nicosia.

The incident in question happened around 12 noon in a central Nicosia parking lot, where it is being ascertained that the 22-year-old injured the 23-year-old in the neck and face while scuffling with him.

Once the latter was injured, both the 21 and the 22-year-old fled the scene to avoid being found and arrested. Various eyewitness account that put them on the scene, along with a statement from the 23-year-old got the two men arrested.

The 23-year-old is currently recovering in the hospital. All of the three men are from Syria.

At least three persons were held for crimes related to illegal entry, stay and identity theft.

Firstly, a Congolese woman was arrested at Paphos international airport early on Monday. The airport authorities became suspicious during the required passport check when she presented a French passport. On further interrogation, she confessed to the police that the identity card was given to her by a man of African descent not known to her in Larnaca. 

Incidentally on the same flight, a person of African descent displayed a Belgian ID during the passport check, which turned out to be a fake one. The man then revealed to the police that the Belgian ID he displayed did not belong to him. He found it on lying on the ground somewhere in Larnaca. 

Finally, a female of African descent was arrested at the same airport, for displaying a Belgian identity card. Although the identity card was alright, it has been stated lost as per records.

On Tuesday, the District Court of Paphos remanded them for three days.

A woman, 29, allegedly wanted on an international arrest warrant for crimes related to fraud and money laundering, was held on her arrival in Cyprus Paphos’ airport, as per police statement on Friday.  

On her arrival on a flight from Moscow, the airport authorities found that an international arrest warrant pending against her.

The warrant was issued by the United States for crimes related to fraud and money laundering that the woman committed in 2017.

The Cypriot authorities are currently preparing to deport the woman back to the US, where she will stand trial for her crimes.

The Cyprus Police have declared that they will be destroying all confiscated fireworks at the Sha quarries. The destruction has been scheduled between 5 and 11 pm.

To that end, they have issued an advance warning to the public on the explosions that might be heard as a result of this activity. They explained that while they would rather not have these interruptions, it is important to dispose off the hazardous materials as fast as possible.

They have assured the public that they have taken the necessary precautions, and that they would have no cause for concern.

The fireworks in question are those the police have seized on multiple occasions. Almost all of these were found to be illegally possessed.