Front Page Headlines
A new passport scheme possible
As calls made for replacement the actual value of the scheme questioned.
- VAROSHA: What if? – Refugees asked whether they would return under TC administration.
- Neck and neck ahead of Sunday’s vote
- The cemented love stories of 1970s Varosha
- Dangers underlined as 202 cases announced
Express moves with threats against the president as backdrop
How the situation is being shaped after the ‘elections’ in the occupied areas and how Merkel-UN will act. The passports, the links, and the secret services. How Athens made a concession for its continental shelf at 6 nautical miles. Towards what kind of talks we are headed and why Famagusta is not being promoted. How can the fact that the Turkish navy fleet is not in a battle mode be interpreted? Why is the US concerned about the Aegean?
- Opinion poll: The GCs vote for… Akinci but they are not disillusioned!
- Famagusta: What is not being said anymore about the 1974 horrors
- Qatar: Cyprus is not its final target… (opinion)
- Eastern Mediterranean: Are the British coming back?
- Savvas Iacovides: Now is the last chance to oust those who committed crimes, betrayed and plundered the country (opinion)
- Lazaros Mavros: Why don’t they go to Ankara? (opinion)
- Iosif Hadjihannas: The Cyprus problem solution (opinion)
- Yiannakis L. Omirou: Famagusta – Need to take action (opinion)
- Petros O. Pantelides: Famagusta and the town’s fenced area (opinion)
- Loria Markides: The ‘British-American-Canadian plan’ and the truth about Varosha (opinion)
- Andreas M. Vasiliou: Freedom takes virtue and boldness (opinion)
- Amdreas Morfitis: The anatomy of the Famagusta tragedy (opinion)
State governed by the Rule of Law or a state of gangsters
Why did the government rush to scrap the citizenship by investment scheme. When (former EU) Commissioner Christos Stylianides warned about passports the President of the Republic did not listen but shunned him. Nicosia is terrified. Following the revelations of AI Jazeera the EU was to announce the same day that it would start infringement proceedings against Cyprus. The hasty Cabinet decision was a trick to keep the investment scheme alive in other ways.
- Akinci or Tatar? – Critical vote in the occupied areas while Anastasiades will learn who his interlocutor will be with whom he will solve or close the Cyprus problem. Akinci’s mathematical superiority against Turkey’s machinations.
Everything is ready on the Cyprus problem
Antonio Guterres has prepared a road map and moves for three parallel processes. Messages by Cavusoglu with photos of the Oruc Reis.
- Final battle for Tatar-Akinci
- Lute’s flight ticket to Cyprus has been booked
- The form of the solution is at stake for the Turkish Cypriot
- Rosa Barba: What is an open air cinema doing in the buffer zone?
- Kyriacos Charalambides: Famagusta’s poet is writing about his town
Put in the dock by the EU Commission over passports
Ursula von der Leyen’s office is looking into taking legal measures as regards Cyprus’ investment programme
- Heiko Maas: December is the time milestone
- Occupied areas-elections: Conflict of two different worlds
- 60 years of RoC: Words and deeds of a historical turning point
At the talks without terms and preconditions
AKEL’s Central Committee maintains that only the solution of the Cyprus problem in the agreed framework can ensure the future of our country. It calls on the GC side to constantly send the message that it is ready for the resumption of the talks from where they left off at Crans-Montana. The head of the Cyprus problem office, Toumazos Tsielepis stresses that the president must go to the talks and refute Cavusoglu’s claim that the GCs do not want to share power with the Turkish Cypriots.
- The voting process in the occupied areas is crucial for the future of our homeland
Ambiguous confrontation
Today TCs go to the ballots for the election of their leader. Akinci or Tatar. The result of the vote will depend on whether we have the last chance for a federal solution or if we will be led to the consolidation of partition. The TC parties have announced they are supporting one or the other candidate while Kudret Ozersay’s party called on its followers to vote as they wish.
- Political analysis: Will Erdogan go back to Akinci if he is elected?
- Christos Panayiotides: The one and only red line is breaking away from Turkey (opinion)
- Nikos Christodoulides: We are not excluding Turkey from the energy plans in the Eastern Mediterranean
- Message to Turkey (from Greece): The arms embargo is on the table
Main News
Developments are expected on the Cyprob right after TC elections
Alithia, Phileleftheros, Politis, Simerini
Negotiations Process, EU Matters, Energy, Regional/International Relations
The dailies report that the UN initiative for the resumption of talks for a solution of the Cyprus problem will be launched right after elections in the north.
According to Phileleftheros, UN sources said UNSG special envoy Jane Holl Lute is getting ready to arrive on the island for contacts with both sides, after almost a year since her last visit.
Information from New York did not rule out a series of contacts also with the three guarantors, Greece, Turkey and the UK.
The only thing pending is who will be the leader of the TC community, the daily reported. If Mustafa Akinci wins Sunday’s elections things will be easier for Antonio Guterres since he will resume things from where they left off at the Berlin meeting. If Ersin Tatar is elected, Guterres will have to probe the new leader’s intentions as regards dialogue between the two sides.
As regards Famagusta, the daily reports, based on assessments of various sides, that Turkey will not rush to make another move on Varosha since Ankara will first seek a new excuse that allows them to justify their actions. Such an excuse may arise through a new impasse in the Cyprus issue, which Turkey itself may cause. Under the pretext of the impasse in the Cyprus issue – which Ankara will rush to blame on the GC side – it will make further actions on the issue of Famagusta, the daily reported.
Simerini reports that the message has been sent, mainly by Germany, that developments on the Cyprus problem will be rapid right after the elections in the north.
The daily, linking the Cyprus problem with tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, reports that there is pressure from the EU for developments in the Cyprus issue.
It reports that Germany will push Lute to proceed initially with an informal five-party meeting for the final touches of the solution.
Germany seems to have secured Turkey’s agreement on the informal meeting under the terms that whoever is elected as the new occupation leader, Ankara will put whatever she wishes on the agenda to avoid escalations in the Aegean. Progress on the Cyprus problem will spare EU leaders from the tough spot of having to approve sanctions on Turkey, the daily reported.
Since German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants results before the end of Germany’s EU presidency, the sanctions timeframe expires in December. Therefore, it is expected that the informal five-party meeting will take place before December or beginning of next year. In both scenarios, Turkey will escape sanctions unless talks fail before December.
The daily reports that this information has been confirmed by Brussels, Athens and Nicosia and that Greece and Cyprus have given the green light.
The paper also reports that President Nicos Anastasiades is under pressure internally from main opposition AKEL but also the leadership of ruling DISY that maintain this is the last chance for a solution, despite that the same thing is being said every time, before substantive talks start.
Simerini reports that Anastasiades is being accused internally of leading things to the island’s partition and that the new initiative will be his last chance. The opposition, however, has failed to present an alternative policy.
The daily reports that if Tatar is elected things will be more difficult but argues that neither he nor Akinci accept the full withdrawal of Turkish troops while they agree with Turkey on the issue of guarantees.
According to the daily, Al Jazeera’s revelations on the ‘golden passports’ is part of efforts by the secret services of foreign states such as the UK, Qatar and Turkey to harm Cyprus internationally and within the EU. The paper reports that this information was leaked by the Presidential Palace. The aim is for Turkey to prove that the Republic of Cyprus is not a proper state but one of thieves. If the rumours from the Presidential Palace and elsewhere are true, Al Jazeera and others will further try to humiliate Cyprus while some videos, if they are not made public, may be used as blackmail ahead of the talks.
The president ought to clarify things promptly, the daily said.
In another analysis piece, Phileleftheros, citing information, reported that Ankara had asked during the exploratory contacts with Greek officials (before officially launching a Greek-Turkish dialogue to resolve maritime disputes between them), for Athens’ intervention so that the GCs agree to discuss with the TCs the sharing and joint exploitation of natural gas resources.
Alithia, in an analysis on whether Turkey would cooperate with Akinci in the case he wins Sunday’s elections, citing diplomatic sources, reports that the UN is concerned over this given that the TC leader has openly defied Ankara on several occasions.
Diplomatic sources said the question was asked to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, which replied that Turkey is a serious state and does not formulate a policy based on personal or other relations, the daily reported.
All eyes on Sunday’s elections in north
Alithia, Haravgi, Kathimerini, Phileleftheros, Politis, Simerini, Sunday Mail
Governance & Power Sharing, Negotiations Process
OVERVIEW
All dailies report on the elections in the north and who will be the new TC leader, incumbent Mustafa Akinci or Ersin Tatar.
Simerini announced the results of an opinion poll carried out on its behalf by Insights Market Research (IMR)/University of Nicosia according to which the majority of respondents said that if Tatar is elected, it would be a huge blow to efforts for the solution of the Cyprus problem.
Almost all respondents, 98%, said they would like Akinci to win the elections while 50% said that the election result would greatly define the course of the Cyprus problem. Another 35% said they believe the result would define the Cyprus problem process but not that much.
As regards the prospects of mobility on the negotiations after the elections, 50% said this would happen only if Akinci is re-elected. Three in 10 said they believe there will be mobility regardless who wins while 19% said there will be no mobility regardless who wins.
The daily points out that despite the GC respondents’ clear preference for Akinci, the majority is not disillusioned as regards his ability to take a different approach from Ankara’s policies on the Cyprus problem since only three in 10 said they believed he can do so to a great extent.
The survey was carried out between October 14 and 15. In total 500 people over 18 from all districts were randomly screened.
Alithia and Haravgi report that AKEL’s central committee discussed the Cyprus problem and the fact that a new effort will be launched after elections in the north.
The process will start regardless of the results of Sunday’s elections in the north the party said, adding that, for the new UN initiative to end well, both leaders must be focused on a solution within the agreed framework.
The party stressed that Turkey has been taking advantage of the impasse and the absence of talks to create new illegal and negative faits accomplis both in the Cypriot exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and in Famagusta.
It is obvious the status quo in Cyprus is not a viable one but rather leads to the final partition of the island, the party said.
It added that the prospect of resuming negotiations and the prospect of a solution is undermined on a daily basis by Turkey’s illegal and provocative actions but Cypriots should not be discouraged but rather strengthen their resolve for a solution.
AKEL stressed that the GC side must constantly and consistently send the message that it is ready for the resumption of talks from the point where they left off in Crans-Montana and on the basis of the agreed framework. It also called on Anastasiades to take initiative to prepare society for the content of the desired solution for the benefits that will result from the reunification of the country and of GCs and TCs.