Current Events

Harris Georgiades, the island country’s Finance Minister has confirmed the Cypriot government’s ahead-of-schedule partial repayment of a 2.5 billion-euro Russian loan going back to 2012. The Minister was speaking during the ninth Nicosia Financial Conference, where he made the confirmation of the same.

The Minister expressed his gratitude to Russia, explaining how Cyprus has been grateful of Russia’s help, but have since become stronger and now rely on their own strength.

The CAN says that the repayment has started, with Cyprus paying Russia two instalments annually; the outstanding is currently at 1.57 billion euros.

It has been determined that the value of outgoing Russian Deposits have shot up to a surprising €5 Billion.

Amidst the trending action of Russian depositors taking their money out of banks in the island nation, the Central Bank of Cyprus has released data that shows a steady decline in monthly deposits of Russian origin.

The decline in deposits and increasing in withdrawals have happened as a result of Cypriot banks making their effort to combat money laundering in the EU since 2013. Before this, Cyprus was more or less a safe haven as far as Russian deposits were concerned.

With Russian customers scrambling to close down their bank accounts in Cyprus in a bid to “save” their money, withdrawal deposits have averaged to around €93 million within a month. Within two months, this figure shot up to €140 million.

According to the data from the Central Bank, Russians deposits bottomed to were €11.76 billion at the end of 2013, and since then has gone down by €4.95 billion as of February 2019. From the 2015 year until the February of 2019, €5 billion in total withdrawn funds from Cypriot banks were Russian.

Dozens of new butterfly species have been spotted passing through Cyprus in large numbers, making for an amazing show for laymen, enthusiasts and nature experts alike.

The butterflies, which are migrating from Africa to further north, have had Cypriots seeing millions of the beautiful insects navigate their way from coast to coast.

Among the many species the famous Vanessa cardui – an medium-sized outgoing butterfly species that is adorned with several colors. The type is considered as one of the most beautiful to look at.

The species tend to migrate in large groups of millions and even billions and go on their journey during the beginning of springtime. Some, however, are known to migrate during summer.

Some of these butterflies are expected to stay behind in Cyprus and give birth, spawning an entire generation of caterpillars on the island nation.

An official of Cyprus’ law enforcement has announced that that a Norwegian national and U.S. national have both been fined 6,000 euros (around $6,730) each for searching for an old shipwreck off of its coast without legal basis.

The official, who spilled the details anonymously due to not being allowed to disclose case details in publicly has revealed that the arrest was made on the basis of a tip that the police received in February, which said that the men – a 44-year-old Norwegian and a 36-year-old American were illegally looking for the shipwreck. The men in question were arrested two charges – attempting to illegally search for antiquities without formal authorization, and conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor.

Cyprus is no stranger to seafaring, having wreck searches made to as long as 5^th Century BC. That being said, wreck searches today require going through proper bureaucratic channels and having the right paperwork before embarking on a search.

A resident of Nicosia who was suspected of indulging in child pornography has been arrested.

The 35-year-old man was a suspect in the case of viewing child pornography, which is a highly punishable offense and without a doubt, against the law. He has been remanded for at least four days in police custody.

An initial search of the suspect’s home (that was made on the basis on a tip received by the cybercrime unit), child pornography was indeed downloaded using a certain e-mail ID. Further search revealed the existence of a hard drive as well as two computers – all of which had pornographic content on it.

With the second discovery in picture, the police took no time in arresting the man to be brought before court. Keeping in view the sensitive nature of the offense, the in-court session was taken place behind closed doors.

Famed Hollywood actor and Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage has announced that his next movie will be exclusively filmed in Cyprus in a bid to highlight the value of the island on the global scene.

According to The Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency (also known as Invest Cyprus), the martial arts and science fiction-themed movie will be directed by Dimitri Logothetis and produced by Logothetis and Martin J. Barab on a budget of €24.6m. The cast includes JuJu Chan, Rick Yune, Marie Avgeropoulos, Frank Grillo, and Alain Moussi thus far.

In a statement to the press, Invest Cyprus applauded the development, stressing on how decisively importance it was to the island nation’s audiovisual sector and the economy and will have multiple benefits to help portray itself better on an international scale.

It is to the organization’s credit that it managed to attract such mainstream attention not much long after it assigned the task of having to promote Cyprus as a suitable and viable international location for filming. The organization itself was made by the Cabinet to help develop the film sector. The Cabinet also appointed a chair of the evaluation committee the Cyprus Film Scheme, which would help the film sector gain several good incentives.

In October 2018, Invest Cyprus along with the Cyprus Tourism Organization and the Press and Information Office organized the first ever Cyprus Film Summit 2018 that was held in Nicosia. The summit had some of Hollywood, Bollywood and Pinewood’s leading figured attending it, along with participants from all over Europe. Dubai, Russia, Egypt, Egypt and Australia, among others.

It was at this event that that then Senior Officer for Invest Cyprus, Lefteris S. Eleftheriou presented announced the christening of the Cyprus’ film industry as Olivewood.

In a bid to renew its branding and give it some much needed freshness, the Deputy Ministry of Tourism has decided to lose its Love Cyprus’ logo and in about a year’s time will be coming up with a brand-new image that will represent the wonders of traveling on the popular holiday Mediterranean island.

Deputy Minister Savvas Perdios has revealed that besides a new logo Cyprus will debut with new color schemes and photos at the 2020 tourism exhibition in Berlin.

He added that while they are making this change highlight the unique selling points of the island nation, the most important factor here is to find the funding that will finance the tender call worth €2 million. While the amount will come from of national funds, The House of Representatives will have to approve the relevant amounts that will be included in annual budgets. For this to happen, the Deputy Ministry of

The contractor in question will be responsible for preparing and creating any and all creative materials to bring the new branding to action, along with designing and producing said material for commercial and advertising purposes.

Demetris Samuel, spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Cyprus has revealed that the island nation has intensified its preparations for the possible eventuality of a hard Brexit.

Mr. Samuel expressed the opinions of the government through a public statement, which said that while the island nation does respect the House of Commons’ sovereign decision, they are disappointed by the direction of voting in London, which portrays a less-than- orderly Brexit. He continued to add how Cyprus, like its sister European nations as well as the European Commission itself were assured of an orderly Brexit. However, what are seeing now seems chaotic at best.

All said and done, it is being hoped that despite any and all disagreements, there will be positive developments that would help Cyprus and other EU countries deal with their losses better and in a smoother manner. In the meantime, Cyprus will continue to intensify preparation should they face the harsh and difficult eventuality of a no-deal Brexit.

Harris Georgiades, the finance minister has revealed that he will be resigning from his current and aforementioned post by the end of the year. The minister is set to vacate the position he has occupied since 2013 on account of the controversy created by the findings of an inquiry that has at least partially blamed him for the demise of one of Cyprus’ biggest banks.

According to the Finance Minister Georgiades himself, he felt it the right time to move on having spent almost seven years in the same post and having to fiercely defend himself findings that are inaccurate and unjust.

He proceeded to add how the Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades gave him his full backing – even amidst the opposition party constantly calls for his dismissal, going on to explain how the economy of the island nation has rebounded positively under his administration and guidance.

According to Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, there were no actual grounds that the inquiry had to level blame to Georgiades for what clearly appears to be billions in ill loans that that bank itself has accumulated over decades before Georgiades ever came to power. As a matter of fact, The whole point of Georgiades being appointed was to make the then volatile Cypriot economy stable in the face of the Euro rescue deal worth billions that Cyprus had to accept after a massive banking crisis that almost got the island nation bankrupt.

The inquiry, however, painted things in a much different light, blaming senior executives for making ill-informed judgments, not taking adequate action and taking virtually no stance whereas dealing with the bank’s bad loan portfolio was concerned. It proceeded to mention how Georgiades was responsible for not firing the executives in question when the time was right.

According to the recently-published U.N. World Happiness Report, Cyprus is the world’s 49^th happiest country. The island nation rose by 11 places – from being in the 61^st position in 2018, and 15 places from being in the 65^th position in 2017.

Produced by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network along with famed economists Jeffrey Sachs, John F. Helliwell and Richard Layard, the report uses raw data obtained from the Gallup World Poll and provides valuable insights in which countries and happy and the reasons behind the same.

The title of the happiest country went to Finland, which has retained the title since 2018, and leads the five Nordic countries that are among the top ten. Following Finland is Denmark, Norway, Iceland and the Netherlands at second, third, fourth and fifth places respectively.

The UK went up 4 places to be ranked at placed 15th, while the US reached its lowest ever at 19th.

The bottom-most spot on the index was taken up by South Sudan. Others in the bottom ten include Zimbabwe, Yemen, Botswana, Central African Republic, Tanzania, Syria, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Haiti and Malawi.

Turkey’s bid to enter the European Union has been quite the controversial one, having garnered opinions that differ severely. Amidst the controversy, however, both Greece and Greek Cyprus have showed their unanimous support for the nation’s impending entrance into the EU.

According to George Katrougalos, Greece’s foreign minister, Turkey entering the EU would work in the best interest of not just Greece, but of Cyprus and even the EU as a whole, adding that they should do their best to keep the bid on track.

The statement came after Katrougalos had a meeting with Nikos Christodoulides, Greek Cyprus’ foreign minister, during which Katrougalos also said that while having a nation that is hostile in nature wouldn’t look the best, it would ultimately work in favor in the long run.

Meanwhile, Christodoulides supported Greece and said that Greek Cyprus to would support Turkey’s bid to enter the EU, which, among other things, would help reunite the divided groups of Mediterranean island nation.

A rare moment of peace is being celebrated as two new border crossings have been opened on the island nation.

The first of the two crossing was opened in Dherynia, where scores of people were seen moving on to both sections of the divide within moments of it being opened at around noon. Notably, one the first who crossed the divide – a Turkish Cypriot was carrying a small branch of an Olive. In a statement to the press, the man expressed his happiness on being able to see even a glimmer of a possibility that they could be united again. He added that he hopes that border keep on opening till a day when there are no borders and division on the island nation.

The second crossing was opened in Aplici at around the same time as the one in Dherniya.

According to commentators, these new crossings and their opening will help ease the friction between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, especially after the fallout of peace talks in July 2018.

The UN appears to be optimistic on the matter, though, and believes that Greek-Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci will be resuming talks soon. Elizabeth Spehar, special representative of the UN in Nicosia has said that the crossing points will help in increasing the scale of face-to-face contacts, which in turn will help build more trust and confidence within the two major communities in Cyprus.

The Cyprus issue has been on the most long-standing and troublesome issues faced in the history of the United Nations. Despite 44-years of division and some very bitter arguments, however, the U.N. firmly believes that it is possible to arrive at an agreement provided there is enough political will.

In what is being considered an interesting turn in what was being touted as one of the most serious alleged sexual abuse cases, the father the five-month-old girl who has allegedly abused her was released on Monday without any charges.

The man was initially brought before the Nicosia district court, where a closed-door hearing was conducted. The result of the hearing was that he was to be remanded for five days pending police investigations.

After the legal services’ examination of the case, however, the remand order was not renewed. The infant and her family, however, continued to remain under close monitoring although Social welfare services were instructed to continue to monitor the infant and her family.

The father of the infant had been arrested after her mother took her to the Makarios children’s hospital in Nicosia upon noticing inflammation in her genital area. She told the police it that she was at work and had left the baby girl alone at home with her father. She noticed the inflammation after coming back home.

After being examined by 3 doctors, a gynecologist, and a pediatrician, along with state pathologist Eleni Antoniou, the medical professionals came to the conclusion that the infant had been sexually abused.

Around 3,500 have been caught speeding during a week-long campaign carried out by the police.

According to the Cyprus Police, 3,453 people were caught for driving above speed limit, with 5 being booked within hours before the end of the campaign.

Notable defaulters include two drivers, aged 21 and 23, who were stopped by the police at around 8.15pm for driving at 139km/h on a road in Limassol where the speed limit itself is 50km/h. The two kept speeding away even after the police signaled them to stop but were finally apprehended 5 minutes later.

After a thorough checking of their papers, it was found that neither of the drivers had valid MOT. Their road tax too was expired.

Another driver was apprehended in a similar manner evading traffic officers while driving at 103km/h on 65km/h permitted road on the Cape Greco – Ayia Napa road in Famagusta. The 35-year-old man also did not have valid MOT and insurance or MOT.

Others include an 18 and a 20-year-old, who were booked in the early morning hours. While the first was driving at 174km/h on 80km/h road, the second was driving at 112km/h on a 50km/h road.

A court in Cyprus has ordered that a 42-year-old man be detained in police custody for three days for the purpose of facilitating an investigation into a complaint that goalkeeper Francis Odinaka Uzoho was unfit and ineligible to play for Anorthosis Famagusta.

In a statement to The Associated Press, Stelios Stylianou, spokesman for the Cyprus Police said that the suspect, who will not be named for legal reasons, will be subject to facing serious charges that include circulation of a forged document as well as forgery, among others.

This development happened after Apollon Limassol’s complaint that Uzoho was ineligible to play courtesy its 1-0 defeat to in the previous week in the Cypriot league’s top tier.

According to Apollon, Uzoho’s health certificate was probably obtained with the help of forged medical documentation – which of course is strictly against the rules.

In the meantime, The Cyprus Sports Organization – the issuer of Uzoho’s health certificate has announced that it is conducting its own investigation into the matter and will take the appropriate action needed.

Most Muslim and Christian in Cyprus have actively begun are urging to have the 15th century partially collapsed church speedily repaired.

The Church, which is housed inside a United Nations-controlled buffer zone, cuts across the capital city of Nicosia.

Religious leaders, which include Mufti Talip Atalay, Orthodox Archbishop Chrysostomos II, as well as the leaders of the Latin, Maronite, and Armenian churches have made and repeated their joint plea to have the St. James Church and the adjoining 17th century church of St. George repaired as swiftly as possible.

In their plea, they have said that they “stand together as brothers” to make sure that any and every place of worship is and remains well-protected.

Repair work is stalled on the churches, as they are located in what is a disputed area within the buffer zone. Work crew access with in the area is therefore restricted.

Two men of Syrian origin have been in Paphos in connection of an ATM machine that was attempted to be robbed by someone crashing into it with a truck (which itself was stolen).

On 19th February, a pickup truck was crashed into an ATM on the main Kissonerga -Paphos road, with the intention to rob it. The attempt was unsuccessful however as all the drivers could do was damage the truck itself. In the light of their apparent failure, they swiftly drove away from the scene.

Cyprus Police later found the truck in a nearby rural area, whereupon they found out that it was actually a stolen vehicle that has been reported in Chloraka.

The two men, aged 53 and 23, both are from Syria and were residing in Paphos where they were arrested.

The country’s foreign ministry has accused the Turkish forces of creating fresh troubles for Greek Cypriots who have been residing in a village that abuts a British military base.

According to the foreign ministry, the new fence that has been erected a rural road in Strovilia, prevents farmers from making it to their own fields. They added that the U.N. peacekeeping mission itself has noted the “outrageous” actions as a serious breach of the military status quo of the area.

Turkey has been stationing 35,000 troops within the Turkish Cypriot north since the 1974 division of the island, when they invaded it after a coup. They had proceeded to advance into Strovilia in 2000.

Greek-Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades has left for Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt in order to attend the first ever edition of the EU-Arab League Summit. The leaders expects to have bilateral meetings with various heads of states in the region within the event and hopes to adequately to promote Cyprus’ bid to play a more coordinating role in introducing strategies and policies and strategies by neighboring countries to help combat the issue of climate change.

The summit, officially called the EU-League of Arab States (LAS) summit, is landmark, in the sense that it will be bringing in heads of states of both Arab and EU leaders on the same platform. The meeting will be co-chaired by European Council President Donald Tusk and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Also representing the EU will be Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

President Anastasiades is set to meet Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (President of Egypt), Saad Hariri (the Premier of Lebanon), and Kind Abdullah of Jordan. Said meetings will act as a moment of opportunity for the island nation to promote its bilateral and trilateral policies and highlight its role as a dependable European nation that can help boost security in the region.

Accompanying Anastasiades will be government spokesman Prodromos Prodromou.

According to the results a study conducted by Eurostat, Cyprus has 3,286 hectares (ha) of land covered with fruit trees.

Most of said fruit vegetation consist of orange trees, which take up 1109 ha of space, followed by 377 ha of apple trees, of 933 ha mandarin trees, 312 ha of lemon trees, 299 ha of peach trees, 186 ha of apricot trees and 71 ha of pear trees.

According to the study, which has data collected over a period of 5 years, over 1.3 million hectares of land in the entire EU region was covered with fruit trees. Most of this contained apple orchards (which covered a third of the area), followed by orange groves (covering one fifth). The remainder areas consisted of peach trees, citrus fruit trees, pears, apricots and lemon groves.

Overall, it was found that the planted with fruit trees accounted for 1% of all utilized agricultural areas.