Current Events

Mustafa Akinci, Turkish Cypriot leader had allegedly threatened to resign over the Cyprus issue, rather than taking another course that would help resolve and reunite the divided island nation.

According to the daily Kibris Postasi, Mr. Akinci, who made the statement last April on a visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to the north, said that would not accept any solution that is not a federal system.

The fact was revealed by Erhan Arikli, chairman of the Rebirth party. Also present at the dinner, Mr. Arikli was the one who prompted the Turkish foreign minister to discuss a two-state solution and confederation, which in turn spurred Akinci to make his statement.

The Turkey-Cyprus-Ankara maritime relations are already very strained, and if the latest developments are anything to go by, they might not resolve as soon as expected.

According to several sources, the Turkish survey ship Barbaros was spotted off of Cyprus’ western coast, post Ankara’s issuance of navigational telex which stated the country’s intention to conduct gas exploration inside Cyprus’s special economic zone.

The vessel was spotted in a location that lies 70 nautical miles off the island nation’s western coast – somewhere between Crete and Paphos. Ironically, this happened less than a day after Washington urging Turkey to not take actions which would further exacerbate tension in the Eastern Mediterranean.

An armed robbery was completely foiled by it’s to-be victim store owner.

The Belgian store owner, in a bid to save his store, asked the thieves to return later as there was no money in the till. The gang of thieves, quite surprisingly, did return later – to be unwittingly arrested by police officers waiting for their return.

The event surprised all, including the police, as to the possibility of such things happen in this day and age.

A 29-year-old Somali woman and asylee in Cyprus reunited with her six-year-old daughter after over three years of being separated.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 29-year-old Samia was reunited with her daughter, Manar at Larnaca airport where the girl arrived to meet and live with her mother.

According to IOM Cyprus’ written statement, the woman’s journey to Cyprus was laden with difficulties. She has, however, managed to have secure a safer and brighter future for both her and her daughter.

This event is indeed landmark, being the first time ever of IOM Cyprus helping a Somali family, and the second time ever the organization facilitating a family reunification.

Ms. Samia, who had applied for – and received asylum in Cyprus, had applied for family reunification to bring her sole-daughter Manar to the island nation. Manar was previously staying with her grandparents in Mogadishu.

In the landmark attempt, both the IOM’s Somalia and Cyprus branches joined forces to assist her.

Two Russian tourists were killed due to their rental car having gone off a cliff in the Akamas.

The two, who were man and wife and aged 58 and 48 respectively, were killed due to their rental car going off a cliff and plunging straight into the Akamas area’s rocky coast in Paphos.

A boat from the marine police collected the bodies and took them to Latchi harbour and transferred them to Paphos general hospital. The hospital conformed them dead on arrival.

The couple, who were said to be holidaying after a long period, lost their lives days before their departure from the island nation, which they were touring. Their rental car was spotted by a passer-by, who soon informed the police, and directed them to a cliff in the Kakoskali area near the Baths of Aphrodite.

Andrey Turukhano, champion spearfisher and captain of the St. Petersburg team died in Cyprus while doing some underwater hunting.

According to Filleteferos, a Cypriot newspaper, Mr. Turukhano, 46, was found in the waters of Lara beach on the Akamas Peninsula.

Cyprus Police has said that Mr. Turukhano, had dived into the sea from his inflatable boat to spearfish as his wife remained on the boat. Quite notably, Mr. Turukhano did not use any oxygen bottles. At some point, he came to the surface while signaling for help and lost consciousness not much later. After his wife began to call for help, Mr. Turukhano was dragged out of the water by vacationers and transported to Paphos hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival by the doctors.

The autopsy later revealed that the Russian athlete has died due to asphyxiation from drowning

According to social networks, the individual who is no longer with us was a sports enthusiast, involved in many different areas of expertise including several world level contests in fishing as well as part of a national Russian team.

Nicos Anastasiades, the President of Cyprus, has arrived in New York to attend the UN General Assembly and meetings with Cypriot American organizations.

Anastasiades, who will stay for a week in New York, is scheduled to visit the UN keynote address and meet with the Secretary General of the UN as leaders of other nations.

Besides being involved with the General Assembly, President Anastasiades will also be participating in the upcoming Nelson Mandela Peace Summit. He will be addressing the 2nd Capital Link Forum before leaving for New York.

Accompanying President Anastasiades would be Nikos Christodoulides, Foreign Affairs Minister of Cyprus. The latter, however, won’t be with the President all of the way, and will be in separate meetings with counterparts from other countries, including (but not limited to Nikos Kotzias of Greece.

It has been found that the man in Turkish Cyprus who has been arrested on counts of espionage took 201 photos of Turkish soldiers in a time period of 16 days.

Mehmet Besimoglu, 70, was arrested and detained in Famagusta recently by the Turkish Cypriot police after they allegedly found evidence of him working as a spy for Greek Cypriots.

This came after Mr. Besimoglu admission in his police testimony explaining how the took photos of Turkish soldiers as well as the military base and delivered them to a Greek Cypriot.

The same was confirmed by other sources of the judiciary, who added that the photos were taken in a span of 16 days.

Besimoglu has been called out for providing images to a potential Greek Cyprus agent, and with which, according to phone records, he was said to be constantly communicating.

This incident is an added burden to the Cyprus situation. The island country has remained divided since 1974, after a Greek Cypriot coup and subsequent violence against the Turkish citizens along with the intervention of Ankara as a guarantor power.

The incident led to the declaration of an “independent” Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on Nov. 15, 1983, which is only recognized by Turkey as independent.

Attempts to reunite the two sides have only resulted in failure – the latest being the failure of a two-year negotiation that disintegrated in July 2017.

According to Cyprus’ government spokesman, the island country has raised over 1.5 billion euros ($1.75 billion) from at an astonishing 2.4% percent interest rate.

The spokesman, Mr. Prodromos Prodromou said the 10-year-old bond issue has been oversubscribed to over four times and shows the amount of trust placed in Cyprus’s economy by the international financial community.

Notably, the groundbreaking cash-raising act was done only four days after Standard & Poor’s – an esteemed international credit rating agency, declared Cyprus as worthy of being in investment grade after six years of considering the country’s bonds as “junk.”

After the financial crisis in 2013, Cyprus required a multibillion-euro rescue deal from creditors in order to prevent bankruptcy.

An astonishing 120,000 number of primary, middle and high school students in the island nation have had to stay at home, courtesy school teachers going on a two-day strike to protest the government’s move “save money” – without having made any prior consultations with them.

According to the leaders of the teachers’ union, the teachers were virtually forced to do something as drastic as go on strike, thanks to the government’s ill-informed and rash decisions which have been and are continuing to affect the quality of education.

According to Kostas Champiaouris, the Education Minister, the measures, which include lower wages and longer hours for teachers — are vital to curtail what is seen as the some of the costliest systems for education in the European Union.

Private schools, however, remain unaffected by the strike and will operate as usual.

Shocking as it may seem for a rapidly progressing nation, a Eurostat report has recently revealed that Cyprus only 9% of its energy consumption comes from RES, which is quite the bleak situation considering its EU-mandated goal to at least 20 per cent RES share by the year 2020.

Cyprus ranks as one of four countries in the EU where less than 10 per cent of electricity consumed comes from renewable energy sources. The island country is fourth on the list, with Malta at the bottom at 6 per cent, and Hungary and Luxembourg thereafter at 7 per cent each.

The report also revealed the states which were using more than half their electricity consumption from renewable sources. This list included Latvia at 51%, Denmark and Portugal at 54% each, Sweden at 65 per cent, and Austria (73 per cent).

Notably, Norway stands as the sole European country to produces more than its consumption at 104.7 per cent. Hydropower makes of 99 per cent of this.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with President Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus at United Nations Headquarters.

The press service of the Armenian government has revealed that the meeting was pleasant, with PM Pashinyan attaching importance to the development of friendly relations between Armenia and Cyprus. He also expressed his happiness with the current situation of the same.

PM Nikol Pashinyan and President Nicos Anastasiades discussed several issues along with the possibility of making trade relations better. They also discussed NK issue and Cyprus problem, and agreed on how situations as grave as these can be settled with peaceful negotiations.

Their meeting ended with President Anastasiades inviting PM Nikol Pashinyan to visit Cyprus.

Banking on the success of the 1st Capital Link Invest in Cyprus Forum, the 2nd edition of the same is all set to take place at the Metropolitan Club in New York City.

The 2nd Capital Link Invest in Cyprus Forum is a conference which aims to increase public awareness on how Cyprus can work as an international investment and/or business destination to investors from all over the world.

The forum will feature a wide range of people and topics. Topics include Cyprus economy’s developments and reforms in recent years and the government’s program for economy and investments. People include leading political and business figures from both public as well as private sectors – including (but not limited to) senior US executives, international businesspeople and investors, and of course, CEOs of major Cypriot organizations.

Notable speakers from Cyprus at the Forum will include President Nicos Anastasiades, Harris Georgiades (Minister of Finance of Cyprus), George Lakkotrypis (Minister of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism) and Natasa Pilides (Deputy Minister of Shipping)

Organized by Capital Link with cooperation from the Cyprus Union of Ship-owners as well as the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency, the Lead Sponsor if the event is the Hellenic Bank, with Deloitte and EY as Grand Sponsors.

According to Halkin Sesi, a Turkish Cypriot daily, the number of visitors to northern Cyprus have continued to dwindle at an alarming rate, despite the authorities’ best efforts.

According to Fikri Ataoglu, Turkish Cypriot ‘minister of tourism’, the main reason for this is the reluctance of foreign tourist to have to travel via Turkey.

Mr. Ataoglu revealed that hotel occupancy in Turkish Cyprus from 72 per cent (for June, July and August) in 2017 to 63 per cent in 2018. He expressed their further attempt to help bridge this this gap, which includes a tour of Scandinavian countries, emphasizing on the fact that they could help raise the occupancy rate to over 80 per cent.

Other plans include creating the underwater museum in northern Famagusta and turning Vokolida village into an amusement center, along with introducing ferry services to tourists are discouraged to visit the north due to transport problems. Said ferry services will run between Famagusta and Vokolida will make some remote area hotels more accessible.

A boat carrying eighteen different migrants has been brought to land at Ayia Thekla, Sotira.

The boat, which was in dire straits, carried a few women and children, and eleven men were brought to shore by the port authority police.

Cypriot authorities have stated that the after being given medical checks, most of the migrants were transferred to the center in Kokkinotrimithia. Remaining migrants were taken in by members of the family.

According to the police, no trafficker was found on board, implying that the migrants must have got their hands on the boat in Syria and decided board the same to Cyprus.

Cyprus’ Makarion Stadium was ravaged by hooligans, who brutally vandalized the property and destroyed property extensively.

According to Kleanthis Georgiades, Chairman, Cyprus Sports Organization, the vandals littered the pitch with nails, screws, and broken glass, and painted all the goal posts.

This will – at least temporarily disrupt the upcoming game scheduled at the stadium between Doxa and Anothosis as referee Giorgos Nicolaou will first be inspecting the pitch to determine if all hazardous items have been removed and the field is indeed safe of playing.

Common consensus is that the actions were undertaken in retaliation for introducing sports cards – something that has been very badly received by most fans.

The hooligans are yet to be identified.

The American Hellenic Institute (AHI) has openly criticized the ongoing ban on arms sales from the US to Cyprus. The statement was made by the AHI in a new briefing on the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

The ITAR, which was originally signed in 1985, prevents Washington from supplying any kind of weapons as well as military technology to some countries, such as the island nation of Cyprus.

According to Nick Larigakis, President of the AHI, the embargo is unlawful and not justified at all. He went to urge the U.S. State Department to change said policy in the best interests of both US and of the Republic of Cyprus.

According to Egypt’s chief prosecutor, Cyprus has extradited the hijacker of an EgyptAir plane which was diverted to the island country in 2016.

Egypt’s chief prosecutor Nabil Sadek revealed the fact that that Egyptian police have found and taken custody of Seif Eddin Mustafa – the hijacker of the Egyptian plane – in Nicosia, the capital city of Cyprus.

The 60-year-old man had been on their most wanted list for hijacking a domestic EgyptAir flight in March 2016. He used a fake suicide belt to divert said plane to Cyprus.

According to Mustafa, his actions were in protest to Egypt’s government and its policies. Prosecutors in Cyprus, however, claims that Mustafa told the authorities that the only motivation of his actions was to reunite with his estranged family in Cyprus, whom he had not met for 24 years.

Cypriot authorities arrested him after the incident and have until recently been detaining him in Cyprus. The Supreme Court in Cyprus even went on to rejecting Mustafa’s appeal against his extradition.

In a surprising news for professionals and workers alike, a UK-based company’s survey has revealed that Cyprus stands at the top of EU countries as regards celebrating the number of bank holidays.

According to an interactive map produced by mapping software developing company Esri UK, the island nation and Slovakia have 15 bank holidays each – the largest among all EU member states. Additionally, the map revealed that the average working week in Cyprus is 41.6 hours long.

Besides, religious holidays like Christmas and Easter, and political holidays like Labor Day and Independence day, Cyprus observes several other bank holidays such as the Ochi Day, the start of the War of Greek Independence in 1821, and the anniversary of the launch of the Eoka struggle against British rule.

Following Cyprus and Slovakia are Lithuania, Malta, and Greece, which have 14 bank holidays.

While England and Wales are on the lower end of the number of bank holidays with only eight, they have the largest amount of work hours, averaging to 42.1 hours a week. Cyprus comes second to this with Austria, Greece and Portugal coming third and fourth with 41.3 hours and 41 hours respectively.

If Fitch Ratings’ recent announcement is anything to go by, the pace of ratings for Western European countries seems to be going on the up and up.

Fitch Ratings recently announced that all three of Cyprus, Greece and Andorra had upgrades in their ratings and that there have been no downgrades since April 2018.

The announcement was documented in the rating house’s Western Europe Sovereign Credit Overview (3Q18 report), which stated how Cyprus, like Finland and Austria are looking towards positivity whereas San Marino and the UK are going towards negative.

The UK downgrading has much to do with the downside risks of disruptively exiting from the EU.

Cyprus has indeed benefited tremendously by being upgraded by a total of five notches since mid-2015 thanks to European Stability Mechanism (ESM) programs. This growth is marked by an improvement in public finances, and an overall decline in general government debts and deficits.