Front Page Headlines
Selective schemes of summer survival
State support is restricted, tourism wins. It has been estimated that the five new schemes to the tune of €150m concern 50,000 workers. The hotels that will get help are obliged to offer attractive offers for local tourism.
- Reservations over crossings – The experts will go to the Presidential Palace, so will (GC head of Technical Committee on Health) Leonidas Phylactou.
- Terrorist: His brother ‘told on him’
Package from (Labour Minister) Zeta (Emilianidou)
Targeted measures for salaries. All those who benefit welcomed the move, those who have been excluded are winging. At € 150m cost, 35 economy sectors left out, special attention was given to hotels.
- Hide and seek with the coronavirus report in the occupied areas – Concerns over flights from Turkey.
- Ten months detention for a Syrian man due to involvement with ISIS – His brother told on him.
- Nicosia is surrounded by sources of stench – There are 22 sewerage pits in Kokkinotrimithia alone.
- Crystal Ice lab in Limassol
- New detention centre in Menoyia: Express procedures for asylum seekers
- Turkey opens a front also with France within NATO
Many exceptions in the new schemes
The new business and workers support schemes for restarting the economy announced by the government yesterday were announced with many changes. They mainly aim at supporting tourism sector businesses and some other economic activities while many other businesses are excluded…
- It is yet unclear what will happen on the crossings – Political decisions are expected.
- The second bicommunal photo contest by AKEL and GUE/NGL announced
- The government is promoting express procedures for the examination of applications and deportations of refugees and immigrants
€150m in state aid for business
Third batch of support schemes to counter virus pandemic impact.
It backs businesses and safeguards workers
New €150m support package by the government until October 12 including.
- The TCs continue to play hide and seek – Bicommunal Committee on Health: The occupied areas did not present an epidemiological report yesterday either.Αwkwardness but also concealed concern by the TC epidemiologists over the arrival of flights from Turkey.
- Nicos Nouris: 75 per cent of migrants arrive from the occupied areas
- Five suspects are believed to have been operating a drugs lab
- Tatar-Ozersay: The jet incident causes a rift between them but … being in power is sweet
- ‘No’ for release for the third time to a Syrian suspected of terrorism
Main News
TCs too worry about flights from Turkey, but have yet to submit epidemiology report
Alithia, Cyprus Mail, Haravgi, Phileleftheros, Politis
CBMs, Internal Security, Human Rights
OVERVIEW
All dailies report that the TC side has yet to submit a report on the epidemiological situation in the north and that experts in both sides are concerned about the start of flights from Turkey to the occupied areas.
Cyprus Mail, Haravgi and Alithia quote statements by the GC co-chair of the Technical Committee on Health, Leonidas Phylactou, and member of the advisory committee on coronavirus Dr Pteros Karayiannis to the Cyprus News Agency on what has been discussed at the committee’s teleconference on Wednesday.
According to the papers, experts discussed extensively the Covid-19 situation on both sides of the island but the TC side has yet to submit a report on the epidemiological data in the north. The GC side, Phylactou said, has submitted so far two such reports, the latest one prior to Wednesday’s meeting.
Karayiannis said it seems the TC side has either not collected the necessary data yet or lack the experience in analysing them hence the delay.
The experts also discussed the lists each of them has prepared with countries from which they will be accepting passenger arrivals including the case of Turkey.
Phylactou said that the impression of the GC side during the discussion was that Turkey was included because of its ties with the north and the aid they receive. He said TC experts said they would closely monitor the situation.
Karayiannis said TC experts too seem to be concerned about the issue of Turkey, but did not openly say so.
Karayiannis also said that the TC side seems to be following the instructions of the World Health Organisation and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control on the coronavirus.
The papers report that the advisory committee on coronavirus is expected to brief on Friday President Nicos Anastasiades on what has been discussed during the teleconference.
Politis citing government sources, reports that there are concerns over the new wave of cases in various countries and that there will be meetings and briefings on Thursday and Friday on this issue.
The advisory committee, along with Phylactou will brief Anastasiades on Friday morning about the consultations with the TC side while it is expected that the experts’ advice will be sought on a series of options being considered, the daily reports.
There might be another meeting of the technical committee, the paper reports.
It adds that the TC side is also having second thoughts as regards the timeframes they have set following the scandal on the arrival of the private jet from Turkey but also the cases outbreak in that country.
Phileleftheros reports that the inclusion of Turkey in the first category of countries deemed safe by the occupying regime, causes concern to the authorities of the Republic of Cyprus, which is why the TC team has been asked for clarification regarding the data taken into consideration for the compilation of the lists.
The paper reports that it has been informed that the TC side admitted that the criteria for this decision were not only based on the epidemiological picture, but that other reasons led to this decision such as close ties between Turkey and the occupied territories.
There was an effort, however, by the TCs to allay the GCs’ concerns by stating that coronavirus tests will be given to all those who arrive in the north, regardless of the categorisation of their country of origin. They noted that everything is being monitored and things can change at any time.
Citing information, the daily reports that there are disagreements even within the TC scientific which was seen during Wednesday’s teleconference.
Alithia reports that the TCs continue to play hide and seek as they have yet to submit their report.
FMs of Cyprus, Russia discuss regional developments & Cyprus issue
Haravgi, Phileleftheros
Regional/International Relations, External Security, EU Matters
OVERVIEW
The dailies report that Foreign Minister Nikos
Christodoulides discussed with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, the
Cyprus problem and developments in the Eastern Mediterranean and Libya, during
a telephone call on Wednesday.
The foreign ministry tweeted after the call that Christodoulides discussed
bilateral issues, the Cyprus question, as well as regional affairs with a focus
on the latest developments in the Eastern Mediterranean and the situation in
Libya.
Phileleftheros also reports that the two ministers discussed the forthcoming discussion by the UN Security Council on the renewal of UNFICYP’s mandate. Citing information, the daily reported that Lavrov assured Christodoulides that his country’s stance on the issue of the peacekeeping force has not changed and that he supports the position of the host country, namely the Republic of Cyprus.
The daily also reports that Lavrov had a telephone conversation with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell. They discussed EU-Russian relations and a number of current international issues, such as the crisis in Libya, the Middle East and Iran’s nuclear programme, the daily reported.
Russia’s foreign minister has confirmed that he has invited the European official to visit Russia as soon as possible and said the issue of EU sanctions against Russia was not discussed during their telephone conversation. Russia, Lavrov said, plans to attend an EU video conference on humanitarian aid in Syria on June 30, but expressed regret that the Damascus government had not been invited to join, the daily reported.
Government wants to speed up processing time of asylum applications
Alithia, Cyprus Mail, Haravgi, Phileleftheros
Internal Security, Human Rights, Migration & Citizenship
OVERVIEW
The dailies report that Interior Minister Nicos Nouris told MPs on Wednesday that the government aimed at significantly shortening the time it takes to review asylum applications.
During discussion at the House legal affairs committee where Nouris discussed four new draft bills with MPs the minister said there is a dramatic increase and surge in the number of asylum applicants. He said asylum applicants comprise 3.8 per cent of the island’s total population.
He also said Cyprus had become a frequent destination for refugees from the region driven out by war or persecuted for various reasons in their countries of origin but that there was also a high number of economic migrants.
Nouris said they needed to address this problem by making mechanisms more effective pointing out that not all asylum seekers could be handled the same way since a head of a family fleeing his country to save his family is very different from someone who is sent off at the airport, enters a plane and reaches Cyprus in order to secure a better future.
The minister also referred to the island’s division as a factor and the systematic channelling of migrant flows through the buffer zone, which according to him, accounts for almost 75 per cent of total flows to the government-controlled areas.
Arrests on suspicion of involvement in lab making drugs
Alithia, Haravgi, Phileleftheros
Internal Security
OVERVIEW
The dailies report that five people, among them a TC man, were remanded by Limassol district court for two days on Wednesday, in connection with a case concerning investigations for a drug laboratory.
Police arrested three men: a 31-year-old from Syria, a 27-year-old TC and a 26-year-old Jordanian and two women, one from Hungary, 35, the other from Ukraine, 23. The arrests followed a tipoff that the three men were growing cannabis and running a laboratory creating illegal drugs.
Police had placed the Syrian man under surveillance and was spotted visiting two homes in Limassol, and then heading towards Larnaca. There he met another individual in the village of Pyla, with a car with TC licence plates.
Police saw the 31-year-old receiving a package, and then leave for Limassol. Officers attempted to stop him for checks near Zygi but attempted to flee and hit into a police car.
During a search in his car, police found and seized the package he received in Pyla as evidence. Police said the package contained pieces of paper, and a paper cylinder with brown dust and a plastic container that contained five more plastic bags with an unknown substance.
Police also monitored the homes the Syrian went to in Limassol while led to the arrests of the other people as suspects after drugs and money were found on them.
During a police search methamphetamines were found on the 26-year-old, a large knife in the vehicle, a crowbar, and two vials with unknown substances.
Police said initial examination of the items suggest they were used in making drugs.
The court heard the TC man is the roommate of the 26-year-old. Police stopped him as well and found €2,565 on him, which he could not explain to authorities. Police also searched his home outside Limassol, and found large planters with potting soil, which he also could not explain.
Phileleftheros reports that police believe they came across a ring making drugs and more specifically, Crystal Ice.
Appeal of suspected member of terrorist group rejected
Alithia, Phileleftheros, Politis
Internal Security, Migration & Citizenship
OVERVIEW
According to the papers, Supreme Court rejected for the third time an appeal by a Syrian national who objects to his detention at Menoyia detention centre after his brother told authorities he was involved with ISIS.
The Syrian man, who is an asylum seeker, has been held at Menoyia since May 2019 after caught for entering illegally the government-controlled areas through the north. He had arrived from Turkey.
Politis reports that the asylum service deemed that the man was not eligible to be granted the refugee status while despite entitled to subsidiary protection he was turned down after emerging that he had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The applicant’s brother, who has been legally residing in Cyprus since 2014, had given a testimony back in 2014 saying his brother was a member of a terrorist organisation.
The applicant was in Cyprus between 2007 and 2014 and when he departed that year for Syria, his brother had said he had become a Daesh member while there.
The brother had also said that the applicant had posted on Facebook a photo of ISIS fighters.
The applicant, according to the paper, denies any involvement with Daesh, but said he was involved with Ahrar al-Sham, another group, which though it has not been branded as a terrorist organisation by the EU, US or the UN, it cooperates with terrorist organisations while some of its actions were deemed as war crimes.
He also made other claims as regards his departure to Syria and said that the photo he had posted on social media was not of ISIS fighters but of armed men opposing the regime in Syria.
The court rejected the appeal arguing that the evidence justify the man’s detention since he is a serious threat to national security, Politis reported.
AKEL launches second bicommunal photo competition
Haravgi
EU Matters, Human Rights
OVERVIEW
The daily reports that AKEL and the European United Left (GUE/NGL) are launching the second bicommunal photography competition that will run between June 17 and October 14.
This year’s theme is “The barbed wire that separates us, the common future that unites us”.
Eligible to take part are Cypriots but also residents of the island who are not Cypriots. They are called upon to capture the reality of the tragic separation of Cyprus, while at the same time give hope for the building of a peaceful future that will reunite Cyprus and its people.
The top three winners will participate in a trip to Brussels where the exhibition of the 40 best participations will take place. The 12 best photos will be included in a calendar for 2021.