Current Events

The Cyprus government has revealed that it will revoke the passports of 45 citizens who obtained the same under the now-defunct passport scene.

Around 7,000 persons were awarded citizenship under the scheme, in exchange for sizable investments in the country.

It was only after a major expose by Al Jazeera revealed the corruption behind the scheme, the government was forced to cancel the program. However, those who had already obtained citizenship remained in the country.

According to a statement by Marios Pelekanos, spokesman for the government, the cabinet has suspended the citizenship passports of 45 persons, and is currently investigating an additional 47.

The Cyprus Police has fined 4 businesses and 8 people for COVD rule violations within a span of 24 hours.

The Police fined 2 people out of 1,273 checks in Nicosia, 1 person out of 179 checks in Limassol, 3 persons out of 182 checks in Paphos, and 2 people out of 141 checks in Famagusta.

The Police also fined 4 small business owners in Paphos.

No violations were found in Larnaca, Morphou and in the checks made by the Marine and Traffic departments.

Cyprus’ YKAN anti-narcotics squad has apprehended a vehicle driven by a man, 34. Upon searching, they found 2kgs of cannabis and immediately arrested the man.

They then searched his home, where they found more cannabis as well as some relevant tools.

The YKAN squad also separately stopped another car that they perceived to have been moving suspiciously. The passenger in the car tried to run but was caught and arrested. The police recovered 3 Kgs of cannabis along with some relevant tools.

The police also arrested a 4th man, who was found to have been storing 310 grams of the narcotic in his home along with some other evidence of usage.

All the four have been charged and detained, pending further investigations.

As Russia is facing some of toughest measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, many Russian national are fleeing to seaside destinations to escape the perceived life of drudgery at home.

The best example of this can be seen on Russian travel company Orange Sun Tour, whose slogan is “Don’t quarantine, but holiday on the beach!”  Among other destinations, the travel agency has Cyprus on its list.

According to Polina Bondarenko, a travel agent, people are flocking to go to Cyprus, even as the prices have shot up. More interestingly, over 70% of these are fully vaccinated – which is much more than the 33% currently vaccinated in Russia.

The Police in Cyprus has issued an alert asking people to be vigilant about a new scam doing the rounds that intends to get people’s bank account details.

The police say that people are complaining about receiving false messages and alerts of people “hacking” their bank account and being asked to verify their details via phishing websites.

The police clarified questions by stating the no bank ever asks for passwords – no matter what the situation is.

They urged people to stay alert and not reveal any sensitive data to anyone, even if they claim to represent the bank. And if they are entering passwords, they must do so after checking whether the bank website is indeed authentic.

The Cyprus Health Ministry has announced that 2 samples of the Covid-19 Delta+ variant have been detected.

The 2 samples were found out of the 297 that were tested – all of which was done within the sequencing of all new variants of SARS-CoV-2 in samples of positive COVID-19 cases from September to October.

185 of these 279 samples were sent to a special ECDC lab, whereas 94 were sent to a private lab that works as a government contractor.

\While the Delta variant itself was traced in all 279 samples, only 2 showed the Delta+ variant.

While the Delta+ is arguably more infectious, it has not made any significant effects to effect hospitalisation and epidemiological and indices.

The ministry aims to monitor the situation closely and locate newer variants before they spread in the public.

As the world is returning to a sense of normal in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, citizens are now beginning to go back to getting loans and mortgaging their properties.

Within this context, a study by the Land and Survey Department has revealed that Limassol and Nicosia have the largest numbers of mortgages in the island nation.

The study says that as of September 2021, Nicosia had 581 mortgages (worth 84.73 million), in comparison to 2020’s 535 mortgages (worth 112.48 million.

Meanwhile, Limassol showed higher numbers in terms of worth, with 373 mortgages (worth 99.78 million), compared to last year’s 484 mortgages (worth 113.01 million).

Other districts had varying numbers – Larnaca had 238 mortgages (worth 30 million) in comparison to 278 mortgages (worth 36.73 million) in 2020. Paphos had 133 mortgages (worth 18.09 million) compared to last year’s (23.35 million), while Famagusta has the lowest number of mortgages – 72 (worth 16.34 million) this year in comparison to last year’s 77 mortgages (worth 9.94 million).

The Turkish Cyprus government had already been on shaky grounds, which have now shattered as said government collapsed as a result of a political deadlock.

The coalition government finally stepped down after months’ worth of deadlock in the parliament that occurred right after 2020’s presidential elections.

According to a written statement by Ersan Saner, the Turkish Cypriot Premier, the coalition partnership between the Democrat Party (DP), Rebirth Party (YDP) and National Unity Party (UBP) now ceases to exist.

He has quoted the parliament’s inability to agree and the absence of decorum as the reasons for the resignation.

A 58-year-old Russian national behaved improperly and stirred up trouble in a flight from Moscow headed for Cyprus.

The passenger was accounted for his behaviour and was arrested after the plane arrived in Larnaca.

He has been charged with triggering unrest and attacking an officer of the law. The police are currently investigating the case.

The man will be presented before the District Court of Larnaca, where the warrant for his imprisonment is set to be issued.

The Cyprus Police has found a body floating in the sea off of the Lady’s Mile area.

The Cypriot Sovereign Base Areas (SBA) police has stated that the body belonged to a 65-year-old man. The man was a Cypriot citizen and resided in Limassol.

The cause of his death will be determined once the autopsy is complete.

The Cyprus Police has arrested 3 persons at the Paphos and Larnaca airports over using fake IDs to travel to Europe.

One of the 3 persons was carrying an identity card that was in fact reported as stolen since 2017. Meanwhile the other two were using documents that were forged.

All of these three have been placed in prison holding and will be brought before court for their hearing and sentencing.

These arrests include ones in a long line of individuals being detained while travelling via Cyprus with stolen and/or fake documents.

Cyprus is all set to open its primary schools and will welcome more than fifty thousand students.

This will make it the the second school term that will begin during the pandemic, and the third school term affected by it overall.

According to Marios Stylianides, the primary education director of the education ministry, despite the ongoing situation with the pandemic, it is important to be hopeful, while maintaining hygiene and practicing social distancing. He further added that the experiences gained in the last 2 years will help educators understand and navigate the present better.

He went on to say that the health of the children will of course be the primary and most important priority.

Prodromos Prodromou, the Cypriot Education Minister added that there will be some adjustments to the system. This includes (but is not limited to) setting 9:30am as the arrival time and the parents being able to accompany first graders till the first day.

A total of 330 primary schools, along with 119 special units, and 9 special schools are included in this reopening.

The Cyprus Police has arrested 11 businesses and 40 persons within 24 hours for breaking the rules set to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

According to a spokesperson for the police, the arrests came from over 3,652 checks carried out within the 24-hour-period.

Most of the rule-breakers were fined because they were not wearing a mask while moving in public areas.

1,373 of these checks were conducted in Nicosia, 386 checks in Limassol, 572 in Larnaca, 280 in Paphos, 84 and Morphou and 734 in Famagusta.

In the latest incident, three people were injured and one died after a vehicular collision in Kato Moni.

According to a statement by the Cyprus Police, Nicosia resident Doros Fterousios was driving on Arediou-Ayios Ioannis Malountas-Kato Moni at around 2am in the night, when he was hit by a car. The latter of the vehicles has a 61-year-old man at the wheel, and a 14-year-old boy in the passenger seat. Fterousios then slammed his car into a pick-up truck that had a 60-year-old on the wheel.

Fterousios had to be extracted from his car. He was then taken to Nicosia general hospital, where the doctors declared him dead-on-arrival.

The Cyprus Police has entered the final stages of its investigation into the administering of fake COVID-19 vaccines by a Larnaca-based doctor.

The Larnaca CID, which is the lead handling authority of the investigation has requested 7 citizens – all of whom were “vaccinated” by the doctor to testify against him in court.

While the seven claim that they were administered the AstraZeneca vaccine, and were even recorded as such by the doctor, specialized tests held at the Institute of Neurology and Genetics showed that they had almost no antibodies.

The police is also intent on calling the doctor in question to explain why two of the patients that were administered the vaccine under his supervision tested positive for Covid-19, had no antibodies, and did not have any other family or relatives who were vaccinated. Both patients eventually died of the disease.

Once these testimonies are done, the investigation file will be handed over to the Legal Service.

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.