Current Events

In what can be considered a start of a better foreign affairs system a double taxation avoidance was signed in a recent session of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Council of Europe.

The treaty was signed jointly by Foreign Ministers Nicos Christodoulides Maria Ubach Font on behalf of Cyprus and Andorra respectively.

The treaty will serve to facilitate better communication and trade and will help develop the existing economic relationship between the two nations. The treaty will also serve to improve co-operation in issues of tax between the Cyprus and Andorra, with the latter being one of the few European countries Cyprus doesn’t have a convention with.

Based upon the OECD Model Convention for the Avoidance of Double Taxation on Income and Capital, the convention passes all minimum standards of the Base Erosion Profit Shifting (BEPS) project, as issued by the OECD/G20. It also includes financial and other informational exchange according to the relevant Article of the Model Convention.

Are you an expat thinking of finding a new destination overseas. If so, then Cyprus may not be your first choice. According to the results of a work-life balance survey for expats, the island nation ranks among the lowest, making it rather unsuitable for expats in that regard.

According to the survey conducted by Expat Insider, Cyprus was ranked 51st out of 65 countries in terms of a bad work-life balance.

The top scoring countries offering the best work-life balance prospects were Malta, Oman, Bahrain, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic.

The worst, on the other hand included Japan (being the 60th and offering the least work-life balance), as well as Italy, Greece, Kuwait, Israel, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Hong Kong, South Korea, and India.

Globally speaking, full time-working expats in Cyprus work for an average of 44.3 hours per week, with only 60 percent being satisfied with their current work-life balance and 61 per cent being satisfied about their work hours.

According to Expat Insider, work hours were not the only precursor to the level of satisfaction with work-life balance. Other factors such as education, gender, and benefits (among others) also played a vital role.

Data for the survey was collected from over 13,000 expats from 188 different countries and territories. Expat networking platform InterNations compiled the ranking of the destinations according to the level of work-life balance they had to offer.

In what can be considered a vital precursor for a major business decision in Cyprus, a Famagusta-based business group has requested the foreign minister to not open the new proposed crossing than connects the Greek south to the Turkish-occupied Dherynia in the north on grounds that it would hamper business operations in the former.

Said request was made by a spokesperson of the Famagusta tourist, commercial, and industrial society to Cyprus’ foreign minister Nicos Christodoulides.

According to Petros Petrou, the chairman of the group, the opening of the Dherynia crossing bar any kind of checks on tourists and products will “surely” hamper the country in general, and businesses in particular. He added that several items such as fuel, alcoholic beverages, and medicine, among others were sub-par in standard and will create a situation in Famagusta that will be tragically similar to that in the Turkish north.

Petrou also expressed his concern over the south losing tourists through the crossing as Dherynia is closer to Ayia Napa and Protaras – some of the most popular holiday locations.

According to Petrou, the only way to make things better is to liberate Varosha.

Interestingly enough, a demand along similar lines was made by Yiannis Karousos, Mayor of Ayia Napa in March, who expressed his concern over the opening of the Dherynia crossing without any solution to the Cyprus problem in sight.

A 50-year-old man was arrested and remanded for 4 days by the Limassol district court after the police found a connection between him and an attempted murder that was committed in 2001.

The victim in question, Andreas Pafitis, aka ‘Yena,’ was shot outside his warehouse on October 16, 2001 in Limassol. Though he survived, he was critically injured. There were multiple perpetrators at the scene, all of whom had fled in a stolen car with fake registration plates, which was found burnt in a hospital’s parking lot. The police could recover the license plates and filed them as evidence since they bore DNA evidence.

According to the police investigator, the 50-year-old man was arrested by the police during a periodic crackdown on organized crime. An illegal hunting gun was found in the man’s residence. Once his fingerprints were taken during questioning for the possession of the hunting gun, and were found to have matched the ones on the license plates of the stolen car used to commit the attempted murder, the man was remanded by the district court in Limassol.

The investigator further added in his statement to the court that the suspect was uncooperative, and his defense lawyers alleged that the police illegally took their client’s’ fingerprints illegally and are trying to “frame him” to the attempted murder.

Interestingly, the suspect had been questioned in 2001, but was released after no evidence could be gathered against him.

The Cyprus problem has caused grief to generations, and judging the current circumstances, the people are now keen to see it end. Unite Cyprus Now, a advocacy group seeking an end to the Cyprus issue, called to courage on the political level as marked its first year anniversary.

The group, which calls itself multi communal and works for the people, celebrated the occasion by gathering at the Ledra/Lokmaci crossing, and actively calling for a solution for the Cyprus problem. They gave particularly during the botched round of talks in Crans Montana.

In the gathering, spokespersons for the group touched upon their one-year anniversary and their cause in ending what they believe to be a “shameful division” of the island nations. They added that all Cypriots, regardless of their age, backgrounds, and political preferences wanted one thing – for Cyprus to be reunited.

The also said that the entire atmosphere lacked some political courage and the only way that could be accomplished is for people to push for a united Cyprus and make their best effort to leave for the future generations a country which remains united, peaceful stable and secure.

In what is being considered a shocking piece of news for the European sporting community, former Barcelona captain and current midfielder Andres Iniesta announced that he was making a move to Japan. It is heavily speculated that Iniesta will sign up for J-League side Vissel Kobe, given that Iniesta made the announcement on social media by posting a picture of himself along with the Hiroshi Mikitani – the chairman of the club.

The midfielder made his decision public by breaking the news on Instagram – “Heading to my new home, with my friend @hiroshi.mikitani”
Hiroshi Mikitani owns Vissel Kobe, and also serves as the chief executive of Rakuten, one of the main sponsors of Barcelona.

In what can be considered as a great news for the art and culture of Cyprus, the island country has managed to get back a rare 6th century Christian mosaic that was stolen decades ago.

The mosaic, which depicts the St. Andrew was taken from a looted church in four decades ago and will be returned to the Church now that it has been found again.

According to Archbishop Chrysostomos II, the mosaic depicted a rare kind of artistry, which made the work one of Cyprus’ biggest pieces of “stolen heritage.” It is in fact only one of the few mosaics to have survived the 8th and 9th centuries – a time when most icons of Orthodox Christianity were destroyed.

The mosaic itself depicts a bearded St. Andrew (one of the first apostles of Christ), and was among the many that were stolen from the Church of Panayia Kanakaria soon after Cyprus’ Greek-Turkish split in 1974.

Over 2 decades later, Aydin Dikmen, a Turkish art dealer, was arrested for selling said piece among others – both from Kanakaria Church and from other churches.

The only Kanakaria Church mosaic that is yet to be repatriated is the one of St. Luke.

The citizens of Cyprus are very concerned about the quality of their surroundings, and the enthusiasm shown by them for the annual cleanup only affirms this fact.

For this year’s ‘Let’s do it Cyprus’ clean-up campaign, the number of volunteers has already crossed 40K volunteers – much before the actual event. The event itself is an annual one held every year in April which aims to clean the island of as much rubbish as possible within a one-day period. The date for this year is April 29th.

The registration turnup, which is currently at 43,000, has far surpassed the target of 40K volunteers (i.e. around 1/20th of the population). More are expected to register before the actual event.

The ‘Let’s do it Cyprus’ campaign is in fact a function of the larger and international ‘Let’s Do It World’, campaign, one of the largest volunteer programmes of the world which sims to utilize the power of the common people to get rid of rubbish. The campaign is in fact the largest civilian movement to have been organized on a global scale.

The campaign started in Estonia in 2008, with over 50,000 volunteers gathering to clean up 10,000 tons of rubbish. They managed to clean up the entire country in a mere five hours.

Nine years later, over 16 million volunteers across 113 countries has been participating in Let’s do it campaigns.

The Let’s do it campaign has been taking place in Cyprus since 2012 and has had over 120 tons of rubbish collected and cleaned.

The app taxi services have taken the entire world by storm, and Cyprus is certainly no exception. The island country will soon get its own get its own app cabs service in the form of a new application called Taxify.

Not only does the app allow seamless ordering of taxis regardless of the time, it will give the user other facilities as well. With the help of the app, the user can set their own location and then see and order the partner taxi that is closest to them. They can also tracked the taxi’s location and get estimates of how long the taxi will take to arrive.

Furthermore, users can track their routes whilst being inside the cab, which will prevent drivers from taking longer or unknown routes and also from overcharging for trips. Customers will have the option to pay either by cash or through their mobiles.

Taxify has already garnered a good reputation in Europe and after a successful run in the Cypriot capital, will expand its services to the whole island.

The Estonia-made app has already proved to be a massive success in Europe, Africa and Central America, having over 5 million users across 30 countries and transactions worth more than $1 billion.

The app will be available on Windows, iOS and Android phones.

Despite all the troubles and tribulations, the average Cypriot goes through, chances of them being healthy are much higher than that of other countries.

According to a new European survey, over 80% of Cypriot respondents reported that they believed they were in good health. This ranks the island country as tenth among all EU countries in this context.

The statistic, among several others were published in a special Eurobarometer report which showed the degree of inequality, fairness and inter-generational mobility within the European Union.

According to said report, north, central and west EU countries were the ones to report that they believed they were in good health. Specifically, Ireland and Luxemburg aced the list, with 92 and 87 per cent respectively.

The lowest end of the list had Latvia and Romania at 55 and 57 per cent respectively.

Nothing, both good and bad, remains permanent. And Cyprus, which is on its road to recovery (after suffering a crippling financial nearly 5 years ago) is no exception to the rule. Cyprus’ tourism sector, in particular, has received a massive boost after seeing a record increase in the number of tourists visiting the island country.

That being said, every area of Cyprus isn’t reaping the rewards of increased tourist numbers equally.

While the shores are getting a lot of attention, the other parts of Cyprus, such as its rich heritage and its mountainous areas.

The Cypriot government is now all set to launch an initiative which will attempt to revive tourism in these areas, and encourage tourism beyond the shores. The initiative will involve several plans and adverts that will be launched in due course, along with restoration projects which will be undertaken in these areas.

A resident of Paphos aged 39 was called to trial after a case of his two dogs attacking two women and injuring them gravely.

The dogs – specifically, two Rottweilers attacked and injured a 79-year-old woman and her 45-year-old daughter as they were taking a walk in Paphos’ Pharos area. Both women are currently in hospital.

The dogs, who had initially set upon the elderly woman, escaped the owner, who was in fact a relative of the two women. The daughter, who rushed to her mother’s aid when she saw her mother was attacked, was attacked as well.

Both were rushed to Paphos hospital by car and had sustained multiple injuries. The mother had sustained a head injury, while both of them had sustained multiple bites and scratches.

According to Panicos Stavrianou, the pathologist who had examined the women on Monday, reported that they will remain in hospital for some time in order to recover from the treatment done by surgeons and orthopedic doctors.

They will also be examined by Sofoclis Sofocleous the State-pathologist on behalf of the authorities.

In the meantime, the owner of the dogs went to trial at the Paphos district court for their negligence and offences. A hearing date of May 9 has been set while the man has been charged and then released. The dogs were also examined by professional vet services but have not been deemed as “dangerous” and will not be put to sleep.

The island country of Cyprus may have its own problems, but that does not stop its people from taking part in the global community and care for the deprived. Demonstrating a rare act of kindness, Pastor Isaac Samuels II, the General overseer of the Jesus Inspiration Christian Commission (JICC), donated several materials to the Christian Association of the Blind in Liberia.

Held under the theme of “We Stand for Miracle”, the donation programme was held on the Christian Association of the Blind’s compound, which stands along the Robertsfield High Way.

The donated items were an assortment of different essential materials, including (but not limited to clothes, toys, soaps and tissue, vegetable oil and five bags of rice.

Speaking in an interview, Pastor Samuels explained the reason behind the initiative. According to the Pastor, the spirit of God inspired him to go all the way to Liberia and help the those who need them. Which in this case were the blind children.

The Pastor also explained how the deplorable condition of the children moved him to tears, seeing the effect of what happens when there is no one to take care of the young ones.

The General Overseer of JICC has said that the donation programme won’t be all – they have plans to build an orphanage so that they can provide a home to as many disadvantage young people as they possibly can.

An international church based in Nicosia, JICC is dedicated make lives better through “the word of God.” It is also involved with charity and helping the deprived all over the world.

The Police may have come out empty thus far, but that hasn’t stopped them from continuing their search for the reason behind Limassol’s mysterious death case.

The Police are currently to investigate the circumstances behind the death of an unidentified woman whose body was found floating near port in the old Limassol area.

According to the Police, the body of the woman, who is believed to be of 45-50 years of age, did not sustain any external injuries.

Local fishermen who had found the body floating on the water had initially brought it ashore on a Port Authority-owned boat. The woman’s purse was found on a nearby jetty. Also found was a mobile phone, which is currently being examined by forensic scientists.

In a rather rare turn of events, a car that recently reported as stolen along with its owner has been found in northern Cyprus.

The car, whose theft was reported by its owner, 65-year-old Solomos Apostolidis, was missing for over three days before being finally located in Karavas on Saturday.

Kibris, a Turkish Cypriot newspaper, has reported that the car was located in Karavas close to a military area. The car contained Mr. Apostolidis’ passport and card, along with some cash.

Apostolidis, who apparently had crossed over to north Cyprus via the Astromeritis crossing, was last seen spending time at a casino in Kyrenia

Kibris also took a statement from Apostolidis’ brother, who expressed his concern regarding the missing status of his brother. He went on to express his family’s concern for his life.

A missing person bulletin for Apostolidis has been lodged by the Police.

The US-led airstrikes on Russia has had repercussions all over the world, the Cyprus is no exception. In this case, though, it is the British who are wary of staying in the country as they fear a retaliation from Russia.

Such a reaction is only obvious since the tornado jets that had fired on Syrian chemical weapons centers flew from none other than RAF Akrotiri.

Cyprus has a noticeable British, with over 25,000 of them living on the island and more than 10,000 visiting on holiday annually.

According to a defense source, it is highly unlikely for the Russians to attack. A contingency plan to let people get out has been kept out regardless.

The Britons themselves aren’t all that confident, however, and are saying that they have very little trust in the defense’s statements. Their conviction is not entirely dumbfounded, given Russia’s not so subtle outrage on the matter. Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s US envoy recently warned that the Allied bombing raids “will not be left without consequences”.

In the meantime, chiefs of the Air traffic control system have warned possible “missile activity” in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Airlines too are exercising caution over the matter, with both Air France and EasyJet re-routing their flights.

In a shocking piece of news that shows the unfortunate rise of youth-perpetrated crime, a 17-year-old teenager has been arrested in connection to the sexual assault of a senior citizen.

The teenager, who has not been named for security reasons, has been arrested on grounds of allegedly raping and injuring an 81-year-old woman, and will be in custody for a minimum of five days.

Said incident, which took place in Nicosia in the evening, was reported by the victim’s husband, also 81. He gave the details of the assault, wherein that an unknown perpetrator broke into their house while he was away, and went on to rape and injure his wife. The woman sustained pelvic fractures and was transferred to Nicosia general hospital for treatment.

The arrested 17-year-old is currently being investigated, and if found guilty will be charged with break and entry, rape, sexual assault, as well as causing grievous bodily harm.

In what is being considered a big step by the FinTech community of Cyprus, the island country’s upcoming iCoin summit will be hosting the world’s first ever ICO battle. The event will entail a live investment, over thirty famous speakers, and 16 different blockchain start-ups, not to mention a grand prize worth $250,000.

The one-of-a-kind event will be sponsored by 7Marketz one of the biggest ICO companies and will be held on 8th and 9th May at Atlantica Oasis.

The event is the result of a rapidly developing ICO sector, which has called for a bigger demand for blockchain calls. A unique blend of learning and networking opportunity, the event will be held in Limassol, one of the biggest trading hubs of the world.

The iCoin Summit has garnered attention from a lot of places already, including (but not limited to) well-known blockchain publishers such as Webrazzi, CoinMarketCap, ICOwatchlist, and CoinTelegraph.

Participants of speeches and panel discussion include industry stalwarts such as Benjamin Biliski of NAGA Group (who was listed in Forbes 30 under 30) and Yagub Rahimov.

For more information and registration, and to book your seat as an attendee, visit www.icoinsummit.com.

The Cyprus issue has truly come to a head, and the latest move by the UN only proves that the international community at large wishes nothing less than unification. In order to speed-up the unification process, the United Nations peacekeeping mission will hold an unofficial meeting between the two factions of the divided island country on the 16th of April. According to a statement issued by the United Nations, the meeting will have leader of Greek and Turkish Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci respectively, who will be presided over by Elizabeth Spehar, UN Chief of Mission to Cyprus. The meeting itself will be held at Spehar’s residence in Cyprus.

Intended to be an icebreaker of sorts between the two divided factions, the upcoming meeting will be first time of the two rival leaders interacting since the botched high-level peace talks in Switzerland in July last year.

UN officials hope that the meeting will help both leaders re-engage after what appears to be several months of no interaction.

While both sides have agreed that the meeting is one that goes in a positive direction, it does not mean that it will actually make a tangible contribution in resolving the issue – or even resuming negotiations in the first place.

While the victims of Nicosia’s double murder incident have been laid to rest, the police are continuing their investigation into finding the murderer.

Giorgos Hadjigeorgiou, 60, English School maths teacher and his 59-year-old wife, Dina Sergiou, an employee of the Central bank were laid to rest in Strovolos, a little away from their home where they were found murdered.

According to the post-mortem, Hadjigeorgiou had been stabbed at least 25 times while his wife received at least 10 blows. Both were found with a defensive wound on their right arm.

The couple is survived by their 15-year-old adopted son, who was also the sole witness. He says that two hooded people had forcefully entered the house and told him that they would not hurt him. He panicked and fled and finally took shelter in a neighboring house.

The Police, on the other hand, have not found any sign of forced entry and/or robbery and have not found the murder weapon either.

Andreas Angelides, police spokesman has assured the Police’s intentions to stay put on the case, saying that the investigation procedure will not stop until the murderer is found and arrested.