Current Events

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.

Following the recent series of openings and expansions on the island nation is The Radisson Hotel Group, which, according a new master development agreement with SunnySeeker Hotels, will be expanding in Cyprus from its current three to six hotels within 2025.

The Radisson Hotel Group currently runs three hotels on the island nation – the Radisson Blu Hotel in Larnaca, and the soon-to-open Radisson Blu Larnaca Beach resort and the Radisson Blu Conference & Airport Hotel. The latter two are also located in Larnaca. With the new deal in place, the current 500 rooms that are currently in operations or under construction will grow to over a thousand in the next six years.

In a statement to the press, Antonis Hadjinicolas, the general manager of SunnySeeker Hotels said that working with the Radisson Hotel Group has been nothing short of fantastic, and that they are looking forward to further developments with them.

SunnySeeker Hotels and the Radisson Hotel Group have been in partnership since 2015.

Amid the impending crisis, Nikos Christodoulides, foreign minister of Cyprus has announced that Cyprus in collaboration with EU authorities is making preparations regarding the status of British bases post-Brexit.

According to the minister, an “interim solution” would be applied to British bases on the island nation, to avoid any potential mass disruptions caused Brexit without any kind of prior agreement. Speaking to the press right after a meeting of the cabinet, Christodoulides explained how he briefed the council of ministers on all developments concerning Brexit and declared that the preparations started from October 2017 have now been intensified.

He further added that the island nation’s government is in contact with Brussels so that management by the EU, if needed, can be possible.

As of now, the British Overseas Territories on Cyprus include the British Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (S.B.A.), with over 11,000 Cypriots living within them. So long as UK remains an EU member, any movement between the SBA and Cyprus would remain unrestricted. In case the UK does depart completely from the EU without any agreement, however, the free movement will cease, making the SBAs virtually a legal no-man’s land.

Needless to say, this can cause wide-scale disruption in the lives of over 16,000 people living, which includes both Cypriot and British nationals.

As part of an increasing level of cooperation between Turkey and Turkish Cyprus, Minister Cavusoglu, foreign minister of Turkey, will be visiting the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

The meeting will have the Turkish foreign minister meeting with Mustafa Akinci, TRNC President, as well as TRNC authorities, along with political party leaders and discussing opportunities that would help in the enhancement of cooperation between Turkey and Turkish Cyprus. The meeting will also help the two states coordinate on recent happenings regarding the Cyprus issue as well as other developments in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Cyprus, an Eastern Mediterranean island has remained divided since 1974 after a coup from the Greek Cypriots was followed by violence against Turkish on the island – to the extent that Ankara had to intervene as a guarantor power.

The division later led to the creation of an “independent” state called The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, on Nov. 15, 1983. The state, however, is recognized by independent only by Turkey and no other country or organization – especially Greek Cyprus.

The British government has announced that it would pay a sum total of £1.0 million (i.e. 1.1 million euros) to the thirty-three Cypriots who had earlier claimed that they were mistreated while in detention during the anti-British rule campaign on the island nation.

In a written statement, Alan Duncan, Junior foreign minister has revealed the payments that are related to the so-named “Emergency” period of when Cyprus used to be a British colony (during 1955-1959). He announced that the government, while not admitting any kind liability (primarily due to the fact that issues as far behind as 60 years ago were impossible to be weighed with certainty), has reached mutual agreement with the claimants, and is willing to compensate for the losses.

He went on to express regret, speaking of how the British government is unhappy with the transition of Cyprus from British administration to independence having taken loss of life and violence over five years.

The Cypriots – all Greek – had previously made claims of human rights abuses and torture at the colonialists’ hands and had started their battle in 2015. Some of these were former members of the Eoka, the Greek Cypriot nationalist guerrilla organization which fought against British rule.

In addition to the series of accolades the island country has been receiving, it has now been declared as the third most sought-after family beach destinations on a new ‘Family Beach Index.’

The index, which ranks 50 family beach destinations across eight European countries, has researchers looking at a variety of factors, from attractions, flight durations from the United Kingdom, sea and air temperatures, and hotel costs, among others.

The destination to come first on the ranking was Crete, with 10 different amusement and water parks (the highest) 10, and an average temperature of around 24C during the May to October period. Costa Blanca came second on the list.

Cyprus, third on the list, has more water parks than Costa Blanca, scores higher on average sea temperatures but has an inherent disadvantage of being the furthest away from the UK.

Following Cyprus on the rankings are Costa Brava and Costa Dorada, at number four and five respectively, Majorca at number six, Malta at number seven, Corfu at number eight, Sardinia nine, and Costa De La Luz in Spain at number ten.

The index was compiled by On the Beach – a travel firm. A spokesperson for the firm said how despite the long flight duration, Cyprus’ picturesque beaches, temperatures and family-friendly attractions made it a worthwhile destination.

In the landmark decision on the level of cooperation between southern European countries, a special summit will be held in Nicosia that will address and discuss issues that have both a direct and indirect bearing on their economy and polity.

7 southern European countries (who are also members of the European Union) will be holding the summit- namely Italy, France, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Malta, and of course Cyprus. The countries will be discussing several issues, from region-specific issues, to Europe-specific issues (like the uncertainty of Brexit) to human interest issues such as climatic changes, energy, security, and immigration, among others.

The summit will have the heads of government or state of all the seven countries attending. They will discuss important issues such as the EU-Arab League meeting and the multi-annual financial framework for 2021-2027.

Nicos Christodoulides, Foreign Minister of Cyprus has expressed his interest in the success of the summit, emphasizing how important it is in the backdrop the current state of affairs in the EU, and Brexit, the discussion of the same at the May 19 Romania meeting. He further added that a declaration on the same will be issued once the summit is over.

According to Christodoulides, Cyprus will make sure that the immigration crisis remains an issue properly discussed. The island nation had previously warned the EU of unprecedented migrant arrival (with over 4000 immigrants having arrived in the last year on Cyprus alone – the island nation currently has a population of 1.2 million, with an increase of 1000 per month). The minister added that this problem is also being faced by other countries attending the summit, and they must come to a solution that is fair to both them and the migrants. He aims to have a very concrete answer on the declaration in this regard.

Cypriot police have announced that they are on the hunt for the two men who were trying to adopt a baby girl they originally purchased from Philippines through a domestic worker. Both the two men and the baby girl are currently missing.

The two men – who are believed to be a couple, consist of a foreign national and Greek Cypriot, and are facing several serious charges, including (but not limited to) forgery, conspiracy and human trafficking.

According to Cyprus Police, the men had a the female domestic worker buy the baby from the Philippines and bring it back to Cyprus under the pretense that it was hers. As it turns out, the woman herself is a former employee of father of the Greek Cypriot man. She was found and arrested and is presently under police custody.

The baby and the couple, however, have thus far managed to evade arrest, so much so that they are now categorized as ‘missing.’

The municipality of Strovolos has been declared as the “green capital” of Cyprus after receiving the Green Moufflon Award during the 2018 edition of the Environmental Awards.

The high-profile event saw a twenty-eight different awards being given by the government to communities, municipalities and organizations, in addition to a special distinction that was won by Cyta – an organization which earned the highest environmental score.

President Nicos Anastasiades, who was present at the award ceremony, spoke highly of the awards format and had great appreciation for both the government and the winners at the event. He showed immense pride in heading a government that genuinely cares about green policies and actively invests in them to promote sustainable development and generate and maintain jobs that would contribute to the environment.

He also showed his deep appreciation for communities, businesses and organizations, stating how important a role they have played promoting a cyclical economy by promoting eco-friendly elements such as carbon-neutrality, saving of energy and water, and preservation of cultural monuments and biodiversity, among others.