Front Page Headlines
(Turkey) Cannot find support, is calling for a win-win agreement
A tactical manoeuvre by Ankara to create faits accomplis in the (Cypriot) EEZ. Anastasiades: “International law is not what is written in Mr. Erdogan’s Koran.” Strong support from France. At the side of Cyprus and against Ankara’s machinations.
- Turkey has opened Pandora’s box again (on Istanbul election rerun)
Hoping for EU support
(President of the European Council Donald) Tusk’s position at the Council, a barometer for decisions against Turkey. The UN keeps equal distances.
- (DISY leader) Averof Neophytou insists on the questions
- The reliquary of Ayios Mamas is being repatriated
They divide the people with lies
The cultivation of a climate of fear by those in government prepares the ground for the final partition, AKEL spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said in a statement. He expressed the wish DISY’s pseudo-questions are for reasons of distraction and electoral expediencies; otherwise they consciously cultivate a climate of fear between the two communities, with all that entails.
- Turkey threatens and seeks role in the region – Turkey wants to be part of the energy equation in the region. The President seeks political support from the informal (European) Council. AKEL: Turkey’s actions are illegal and provocative. The US reference on the EEZ ‘claimed’ by Cyprus is problematic.
- Elderly persons ‘imprisoned’ in refugee estates!
‘Turkey will stick to East Med plan’
Nicosia gathering info on Turkish drillship crew, Anastasiades calls for support.
- DISY-AKEL war of words over TC candidate
- Erdogan backs vote rerun, faces harsh criticism
A strong GESY (National Health Scheme)
A mass embrace of the new health scheme by citizens. Thousands of registrations including pediatricians who are increasing by the day despite the polemic by PIS (medical association). Also registered: 323 general physicians for adults, 65 pediatricians and 59 health centers and companies. 124 pharmacies, 200 pharmacists and 57 clinical labs have requested to join.
- Attention turned to Sibiu – On Turkey’s illegal actions against Cyprus.The President of the Republic will seek political support tomorrow at the informal European Council. “Clearly we have to expect something,” says the EU official in Brussels.
- Erdogan: We carry on with the implementation of our programme
- Contacts: Spehar hears the positions of Akinci and Anastasiades on the Cyprob
- Occupied areas: Crisis over a plot and Denktash’s son. The four-party (coalition) is falling to pieces
- Important artefact: The reliquary of Ayios Mamas escaped the auction and is coming back to Cyprus
Main News
Cavusoglu: Arrest warrant threats a bluff
Alithia, Cyprus Mail, Haravgi, Phileleftheros, Politis
Energy, Regional/International Relations, Negotiations Process
OVERVIEW
The government continues efforts to secure international and European support against Turkish drilling in Cyprus’ EEZ while Turkey insists on carrying on with its energy programme, citing its own rights in the area and those of the TCs, the papers report. Turkey also dismissed relevant statements on arrest warrants against its drillship’s staff as a bluff.
According to Politis, President Nicos Anastasiades on Tuesday called for international support to exert pressure on Turkey during an event organised by AHEPA (American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association) held in Nicosia.
In response to statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who had wished that Allah guide those who could not realise Turkey’s rights in Cyprus were being violated, Anastasiades said that “international law is not what is written in Erdogan’s Koran but what constitutes the UN Charter.”
The president called on the UN and large EU states not to just make declarations but take action. He also called on TCs to contribute to the creation of a sovereign and independent state, away from dependencies, the daily reported.
There were several statements on Tuesday from Turkey, according to the papers.
Erdogan, addressing his party’s parliamentary group, wished for Allah to shed light on those who fail to understand that Turkey’s steps concern the violation of her rights in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean.
He also wished that Allah guides those who insist that Turkey must not join the EU despite fulfilling its obligations.
Erdogan also said the country will continue to implement its programme in the Eastern Mediterranean and is trying, as a guarantor, to safeguard the rights of TC in the south-eastern Mediterranean.
“All the people of Cyprus own what emerges from these waters, those in the south and in the north are equal owners,” he said, adding that Turkey is fighting to equally protect the rights of its fellow Turks in northern Cyprus.
Invited by journalists to comment on the US and EU’s call for Turkey to end its operations in the Eastern Mediterranean, Erdogan said: “We are currently continuing to implement our own programme. We do not comment on what commands are given by some, what they see and how they evaluate it.”
Later in the day, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that seismic research in the area has been completed and that Turkey would send to the Eastern Mediterranean its second drillship. He dismissed as a bluff statements on international arrest warrants of the staff involved.
“We do not take seriously such threats,” he said.
The Turkish energy ministry said in an announcement that the country and the TCs cannot be excluded from the energy equation in the region and called on all to benefit from Turkey’s win-win approach. The ministry argued that Turkey’s activities in the Eastern Mediterranean stem from international law and that it is not possible to accept declarations made by internal and external factors about Turkey’s activities on its own continental shelf.
According to the ministry, Turkey knows that natural resources can play an important role for peace, stability and prosperity.
“At this point, this multifaceted and positive political action, which is important both for Turkey’s own security and for Europe, must be seen as an opportunity for all sides,” it said.
Instead of instigating regional conflict through steps that increase ambiguity and tension, it said, “we call for everyone to benefit from our country’s approach for a win-win situation and contribute to it by creating a stable area guaranteeing justice on the island.”
The Cyprus Mail reported that in the meantime, Nicosia is gathering information on the crew members of the Fatih drillship and the three support vessels that are in the Cypriot EEZ, with a view to having international arrest warrants issued against them. Undersecretary to the President Vasilis Palmas clarified to the paper that the government has yet to file an application with the Nicosia district court requesting an international arrest warrant for the crew members.
“We’re in the process of identifying the individuals and collecting data on the crews, because the application must be thorough and airtight if it’s to stand up in court,” he said. The application is expected to be filed to court sometime in the next few days, the daily reported.
Phileleftheros reports that Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos said that Turkey’s attitude is a direct and blunt violation of international law and in particular of the Law of the Sea, as this was codified by the Treaty of Montego Bay in 1982.
Despite that Turkey is not a signatory of the treaty in question it is bound by it since it has been signed by a large number of states and this generates generally accepted rules of international law, which are binding for everyone, he said.
Therefore, Turkey’s attitude is directly violating international and European law since the Montego Bay Treaty is part of the European acquis and because the EEZs of EU member states are also the EEZs of the EU.
“Turkey is up against both the international community and the EU because Cyprus is an integral member of the international community and the EU, and even more so, is in the hard core of the Eurozone,” Pavlopoulos said, according to Phileleftheros.
Foreign minister Nicos Christodoulides was in Paris on Tuesday for a working visit during which he had a series of meetings focusing on Turkey’s illegal actions in the EEZ, while Anastasiades will raise the issue of Turkish provocations at the upcoming informal European Council, on Thursday in Romania.
Citing sources, Politis said that the most probable scenario is that Turkey will attempt to table this issue in the form of a package deal concerning the Cyprus problem. The GC side however, has always been clear that the natural gas has nothing to do with negotiations for a solution to the Cyprus problem, the daily said.
Politis also reports that Christodoulides has secured France’s support in safeguarding Cyprus’ sovereign rights during his visit in Paris where he met with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian and other state officials.
The daily reported that Nicosia and Athens are in full coordination to face Turkish provocation in the region, while Greek Defence Minister Evangelos Apostolakis was due on the island on Wednesday where he is to also meet with Anastasiades.
Phileleftheros reports that Nicosia has turned to the EU, expecting to garner support for measures against Turkey, especially after the clear refusal by the UN to condemn Ankara’s actions. Citing information, the daily reported that Anastasiades will brief his EU counterparts during the informal meeting of the European Council in Romania on the latest developments. Nicosia would like the statement by Council President Donald Tusk to send clear messages to Turkey.
Given that the meeting will be an informal one and there will be no conclusions, Nicosia will work to have a decision on Turkish actions included in the conclusions of the June European Council unless there is an extraordinary meeting in mid-May.
Nicosia wants to achieve sanctions against Turkey and is willing to work hard to achieve this, the daily reported, adding that despite difficulties in reaching this goal given interests at play, the basis to achieve this has already been laid down as Nicosia has been working systematically toward this end.
A result of these actions is the immediate reaction by Federica Mogherini to Turkish actions that sets fertile ground for discussion on sanctions in future summits. Nicosia, however, is not happy by the stance of the UN that chose to keep equal distances, the daily reported.
On the same issue, Politis, citing UN sources, reports that the organisation maintains a mild stance since Turkey did not proceed to drilling yet, something that would indeed be illegal under international law. The same sources say that Turkey has been threatening for about a year on this development during which time the UN was waiting for the parties to agree on terms of reference to return to the negotiations table. Since this was not achieved before Turkey’s move, this provocation does not help at all the procedure but the UN expects parties to show political will away from provocations, Politis reported.
Haravgi reports that Anastasiades will brief the EU27 during the meeting in Sibiu in Romania and cites an EU official saying that developments are in order on the latest in the Cypriot EEZ.
In another article, Haravgi comments on the US State Department announcement on Turkish aggression in the Cypriot EEZ with the daily pointing out that the US did not say Cyprus’ EEZ but rather “an area claimed by the Republic of Cyprus as its EEZ.”
Although the US State Department does not recognise the area as being within the Cypriot EEZ, at the same time it describes Turkish moves as provocative and dangerous, the daily said.
Meanwhile, as Turkish aggression off Cyprus climaxed on Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a visit to Ankara that Turkey is a valuable ally of NATO and that the alliance supports the country, the paper reported.
Phileleftheros reports that DISY has announced it aims to table to the House a resolution condemning Turkish actions.
KEY ACTORS
Anastasiades
>> International law is what constitutes the UN Charter and not what is written in Erdogan’s Koran.
>> Calls on UN and large EU states not to just make declarations but take action.
>> Calls on TCs to contribute to creation of a sovereign & independent state, away from dependencies.
Erdogan (Turkey)
>> Wishes for Allah to shed light on those who fail to understand Turkey’s steps concerning the violation of her rights in the East Med & Aegean.
>> Wishes that Allah guides those who insist that Turkey must not join the EU despite fulfilling its obligations.
>> Turkey will continue to implement its programme in the East Med and is trying, as a guarantor, to safeguard the rights of TCs. It refuses to take into consideration commands given by other countries.
>> All the people of Cyprus in north & south equally own natural resources found in the island’s sea.
Cavusoglu (Turkey)
>> Seismic research in East Med area has been completed. Turkey will send 2nd drillship in the area.
>> Turkey does not take seriously threats on international arrest warrants which are a bluff.
Energy ministry (Turkey)
>> Turkey & TCs cannot be excluded from energy equation in the region.
>> Turkey’s activities in the East Med stem from international law. Declarations by internal and external factors about activities on its own continental shelf are not accepted.
>> Natural resources can play an important role for peace, stability and prosperity. Instead of instigating regional conflict through steps that increase ambiguity and tension, ministry calls on everyone to benefit from this approach for a win-win situation and contribute to it by creating a stable region that guarantees justice on the island.
>> This multifaceted and positive political action, which is important both for Turkey’s own security and for Europe, must be seen as an opportunity for all sides.
Pavlopoulos (Greece)
>> Turkey’s attitude is a direct and blunt violation of international law and Law of the Sea, which is part of European acquis, making EEZs of EU member states also the EEZ of the EU.
>> Turkey bound by treaty, even if not signatory, since it has been signed by a large number of states, generating generally accepted rules of international law that are binding for everyone.
>> Turkey is up against the international community and the EU because Cyprus is an integral member of those two entities and in the hard core of the Eurozone.
Spehar meets leaders to talk UNFICYP and CBMs
Alithia, Cyprus Mail, Haravgi, Phileleftheros, Politis
Negotiations Process, CBMs
OVERVIEW
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Cyprus Elizabeth Spehar has asked to hold meetings with the two leaders to listen to their views on the current situation as regards the Cyprus problem, the dailies report.
The papers, citing statements by UN spokesperson in Cyprus Aleem Siddique to the Cyprus News Agency,report that Spehar has requested to meet Anastasiades and Akinci in light of the recent UN Security Council meeting and the forthcoming report of the UNSG on the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).
Spehar “usually sees both leaders before and after every report on Cyprus,” he said, adding that the meetings are not related with the UN Special Envoy Jane Holl Lute’s mission but to issues regarding UNFICYP and confidence-building measures.
Spehar already met with Akinci on Tuesday and will in due course hold a meeting with Anastasiades but no date has been confirmed yet for this meeting.
Spat between government/DISY and AKEL escalates
Haravgi, Cyprus Mail, Phileleftheros
Negotiations Process, EU Matters
OVERVIEW
The feud between ruling DISY and main
opposition AKEL heightened with the focus being on Turkish provocations in the
Cypriot EEZ and Euro-elections, the dailies report.
Phileleftheros reports that spat
between the government and AKEL on the presence of the Turkish drillship off
Cyprus is turning into a feud since accusations are getting heavier.
President Nicos Anastasiades said on Tuesday night that it is unthinkable to hear Turkey’s actions being excused by some because the GC side did not agree to its unacceptable demands. AKEL hit back, arguing that it was Anastasiades’ policy that facilitated Turkish provocation by absolving Turkey of all responsibility and at the same time making the GC side co-responsible with the TC side for the shipwreck at Crans Montana and the continuing, protracted stalemate.
Government Spokesman Prodromos Prodromou said in response that AKEL is the only political power in Greece and Cyprus that refuses to recognise Turkey’s responsibility.
As regards the Euro-elections, four days into the spat between DISY and AKEL and leader of the ruling party Averof Neophytou insists on the questions he had posed to AKEL earlier, the daily reported. Despite that DISY does not mention any names, it is clear that this concerns AKEL MEP candidate Niyazi Kizilyurek, the paper said.
Cyprus Mail and Phileleftheros report that Neophytou and Kizilyurek crossed swords on CyBC radio on Tuesday with the party leader insisting on the questions he posed last week. Neophytou said the TC academic held separate election gatherings in the north and wondered why AKEL did not hold bicommunal meetings. He also suggested Kizilyurek promised TCs that if elected, his first speech would be in Turkish, which is not an official EU language.
The TC candidate, rejecting DISY’s claims, likening its demand to place conditions as “the master imposing conditions on their lackey” ignoring the fact that TCs are equally Cypriot, equally Europeans.
Haravgi, in its main article quoted AKEL spokesman Stefanos Stefanou saying the government and the ruling party are cultivating a climate of fear that paves the way for the final partition of the island.
Stefanou expressed the wish of his party that the “pseudo-questions” put forth by DISY are for election expediencies “and not the conscious cultivation of fear and self-destructive suspicion,” between the two communities. “If the latter is true this means paving the way for a final partition to make it look like an unavoidable solution to the Cyprus problem,” he said.
Stefanou also called on DISY and the government to clarify when they are telling the truth. On the one hand, he said, they congratulate Kizilyurek on his positions and action in favour of a just solution to the Cyprus problem and on the other hand, they rush in panic to garner as many of their supporters around them by demonising his candidacy.
AKEL spoke of the use of propaganda from another era, which it likened to the propaganda by the far right Turkish Cypriot TMT that sees Kizilyurek as an agent of the Greeks, Haravgi reported.
KEY ACTORS
Anastasiades
>> It is unthinkable that some excuse Turkey’s actions because the GC side did not agree to its unacceptable demands.
Prodromou
>> AKEL is the only political power in Greece and Cyprus that refuses to recognise Turkey’s responsibility.
AKEL
>> Anastasiades’ policy facilitated Turkish provocation by absolving Turkey of all responsibility and making the GCs & TCs co-responsible for Crans Montana’s failure & the continuing stalemate.
Neophytou (DISY)
>> Insists on answer from AKEL as to why they hold separate election gatherings in the north.
>> Kizilyurek promised TCs that if elected, his first speech would be in Turkish.
Kizilyurek (AKEL)
>> DISY’s demand to place conditions is like the master imposing conditions on their lackey.
>> DISY ignores the fact that TCs are equally Cypriot, equally Europeans.
Stefanou (AKEL)
>> Hopes DISY’s probing is part of election expediencies and not a conscious attempt to sow fear & self-destructive suspicion among the two communities which would pave way for final partition, dressed as an unavoidable solution to the Cyprob.
>> Calls on DISY & government to clarify if they mean it when congratulating Kizilyurek on his positions & when they demonise his candidacy in panic.
>> DISY’s propaganda from another era, resembling that of TMT that sees Kizilyurek as Greek agent.
ECHR to look into three more cases claiming IPC ineffectiveness
Cyprus Mail, Haravgi
Property, Human Rights
OVERVIEW
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has notified the governments of Turkey and Cyprus of the submission of three more applications concerning the ineffectiveness of the immovable property commission (IPC) that operates in the north, the dailies reported.
The applications follow an ECHR decision in December 2017 which upheld GC Adriani Joannou’s claim that IPC procedures were protracted and ineffective after she had applied for compensation for her property in the north in 2008.
The new cases concern an applicant who went to the IPC in 2011, demanding compensation for his property. He settled on an offer for UK £428,360 but the money was never paid. The man applied to the ECHR citing the lengthy delay and also claims he was discriminated against because of his GC descent.
A company also applied to the ECHR over a complex it owns inside the closed-off town of Varosha in Famagusta. It had filed an application with the IPC in July 2010 asking for compensation for loss of use and restitution of the property but examination of the case was interrupted numerous times and in October 2012 it was said that it had been taken over by the Islamic religious organisation Evkaf. A month later, the IPC decided that Evkaf must be included in the process as a litigant. The company then applied to a court, which decided in 2015 that Evkaf cannot be included in the process. The decision was overturned by the supreme court in the breakaway state in 2016. The process has stagnated since.
In the third case, two GC refugees applied to the IPC in 2012 over a property they had inherited from their mother. They asked for compensation and restoration of the property but their application went nowhere forcing them to seek recourse at the ECHR. The applicants claimed the IPC was not an effective domestic remedy and accused it of discrimination. The deadline to settle the three cases expires in June.
Important religious artefact to be returned to rightful owner
Alithia, Phileleftheros
Human Rights
OVERVIEW
An important religious artefact, a wooden casket made in 1835 that contains the relics of saints and which belongs to Ayios Mamas church in Morphou will be returned to its rightful owner, the Metropolis of Morphou, on May 14 after being rescued before being auctioned off in Germany, the papers report.
The official handover of the reliquary to
the representative of Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, the Archimandrite
Fotios Ioakeim, will take place in Düsseldorf, in the presence of the Byzantine
art expert Maria Paphiti, and representatives of the embassy of Cyprus in
Germany and the department of antiquities in Cyprus.
Following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 the reliquary, supposedly
containing the relics of Ayios Mamas and other saints, had been scheduled to be
auctioned off on April 12 in Düsseldorf, by Hargesheimer auction house but due
to the intervention of Paphiti, it was withdrawn just before it was about to be
auctioned, in fact during the process of the auction. The owners of the auction
house decided to donate it to the Metropolis of Morphou.
Elderly refugees stuck in apartments due to no lifts in housing estates
Haravgi, Phileleftheros, Politis
Human Rights
OVERVIEW
The House committee on refugees said on Tuesday that elderly refugees are forced to stay in their apartments like prisoners because they are unable to go down the stairs in the housing estates they live in.
During visits to refugee housing estates in Limassol to witness problems faced, the Committee stressed once more the importance of the installation by the government of lifts in apartment buildings to facilitate residents to move with ease.
The papers report on one elderly woman, a refugee from Famagusta who lives in the refugee estate of Kapsalos, who said that she was not able to leave her apartment during the last two years because she cannot go down the stairs.
Candidate MEPs accuse CyBC of discrimination
Phileleftheros
EU Matters
OVERVIEW
The Cyprus Socialist Party, that runs in the European elections with two candidates, Mehmet Birinci and Kazim Halit, complained on Tuesday because state broadcaster CyBC did not cover the submission of their candidacy applications last week like it did with the rest of the parties.
Birinci said in a statement that CyBC, as the public broadcaster of the country, dedicated news time and presented all combinations and all candidates, even the independent ones, except for the two candidates of the Cyprus Socialist Party, which, he said, was a scandalous omission.
“This proves once again that democracy as recognised by some is selective,” he said, adding that no promotion of the party hinders the effort to compete with other parties on an equal basis, particularly when CyBC has the institutional obligation to offer adequate coverage to all candidates.
Birinci said his party would like to know the reasons behind this omission.