Front Page Headlines
Fears schools will not open
Lockdown for children creates ‘a gap they will carry with them for decades’.
- Hasikos: bank to blame for clearing suspect passport
- Stonewalling state: A Turkish Cypriot man’s 16-year fight for a decision over his property in the Republic
- Comment: What a loose federation will mean in practice
Common ground “up in the air”
While the Security Council prepares a resolution with references to the federation… Guterres “winks” at time frames. Five-party meeting without terms a Turkish position, how they set up a trap through military contacts. What Guterres is afraid of regarding UNSC resolution and is keeping issue of (solution) basis open. How the Turks hide two states behind sovereign equality. How Ankara uses the UNSGs to promote a confederation.
- Five-party conference: The march towards partition and the sovereign people
- Cyprus Problem: Myths and realities: The long history of the “last chance”
- Theory and practice of division: Partition as a “solution” of ethnic differences
- The “trilateral” of British ambassadors: Political “prophesies” and the new patriotic realism!
- A glossary of concessions: This is how liberation was orphaned
- Politics and population: The demographic solution of the Cyprus Problem
- Savvas Iacovides (opinion): President dragged to trap of informal five-party meeting with very unfavourable prospects
- Dr. Antonis Stylianou (opinion): Towards the unofficial five-party meeting
“I was not harassed but abused”
Andri Eleftheriou speaks to “P” about “monsters in sports”. “He approached me as an authority, as a superior, how to say it, as someone above me with power… what makes you feel weak is that you need him, that you have to… otherwise he makes you disappear, that’s how it is”. “If you don’t live through it you can’t understand it. Especially at this age, when you’re young. It is difficult when you go against these people that have power, with authority, it’s difficult, it is not simple”. “I made accusations twice in programmes with Elita Michaelidou. No one reacted, no one picked up the phone to ask me what and how it happened. Nothing happened.” Yiolitis gave me strength.
- Behind the public clash between Socrates Hasikos – Harris Georgiades on passports: The mastermind and Maria Adamidou
- Legislative elections: Changes in the political scene and the risk of populism
- Interview: Stavros Malas: “We are governed by No one”
- Interview: Zenonas Tziarras – International relations expert: “All solution models are realistic”
Rehearsals for a “loose” solution
Intense British involvement to find “common ground” ahead of five-party meeting. Representation of Foreign Office came, British Foreign Minister coming in February.
- Attila’s archives do not open: Mass grave with 100 people in Kyrenia being sought
- Panagiotis Tsakonas (interview): Biden election puts boundaries for Erdogan
- Turkey blocked Cyprus from a United Nations summit
- What we should put on the table at five-party meeting
- Antonio Guterres facilitates Turkey
- Casino – Wargaming: Cabinet being audited over passports given as favour
Biden’s return to the Eastern Mediterranean
The key people in the new administration who will have their own role to play in the region and the Cyprus Problem.
- Berlin: Instead of sanctions they give presents to Ankara
- DISY: In a shaky state
- Investigative committee: Interim findings in February
- Low expectations on exploratory (talks): First (Greece-Turkey) meeting a crash test
There was a lot of money, that’s why they also ignored the Commission
- International: Nothing certain in Erdogan’s relations with US and EU
- (Interviews with SYRIZA’s Sia Anagnostopoulou and Ria Svigkou) Greece can impose peace terms on Turkey
- Hasikos: I did not mean the President’s son-in-law
New sanctions against Turkey would destroy EVERYTHING!
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warns the EU. The language used by the EU leaders in October summit was simply “threatening”, while language used in December was “better” but continued including “points with which Ankara did not agree”.
- Christos Panayiotidis (opinion): The people have a right to know, “loose” or “right”
- Andros Kyprianou (interview): Five-party meeting causes concerns but we don’t have another choice
- Political analysis: The return of Joe Biden
- COVID-19: Four dead yesterday and 129 cases
Main News
US expected to pay attention to East Med, including Cyprus
Alithia, Haravgi, Kathimerini, Phileleftheros, Simerini
Regional/International Relations
OVERVIEW
Kathimerini takes a look at the new Biden administration in the US, highlighting the persons that are expected to have key positions and play a role in US foreign policy on the Eastern Mediterranean.
According to the analysis, Cypriot government circles see Biden’s election as a positive development due to the fact that the new US President knows the Cyprus Problem well and could be a positive influence.
In this context, Greece and Cyprus are waiting to see how the US will approach the problems in the region not only when it comes to Greece, Turkey and Cyprus but also regarding energy, Russian and Chinese influence, the Middle East conflict and US relations with the wider Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region. Turkey on the other hand is reported to be concerned given the many disagreements between the two countries.
Kathimerini recalls that Joe Biden had played a central role during the imposition of the US arms embargo on Turkey in 1975 when he was a young senator, and that he was always particularly interested in US foreign policy in south east Europe, the Palestinian issue, the Lebanon crisis and the situation in Iran.
He was also part of the first group of US politicians that made contact with the Turkish military regime in 1980 and played a role in Turkey conceding to Greece’s return to NATO. As Vice President, Biden was also involved in highlighting the energy potential of the Eastern Mediterranean region.
Sources from the Cypriot government particularly underline the good personal relationship between President Anastasiades and the new US President, as well as then VP Biden’s role in the effort to return Varosha before the start of new negotiations.
Regarding Biden’s nominee for Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, the Cypriot government notes that he is a diplomat who knows the region and is not a supporter of Turkey. The newspaper also notes that Victoria Nuland, who had been intensely involved on the Cyprus Problem under Obama, could become a deputy Secretary of State, according to Politico.
On the same issue, Phileleftheros reports that the Biden administration’s approach on US foreign policy reflects the “deep State Department’s” approach on these issues. The newspaper notes that Biden’s foreign policy team will be the same as the one that had worked with the Obama administration and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Phileleftheros also reports on the intense background processes in progress ahead of the 5+1 (two communities, three guarantors plus the UN) informal conference on Cyprus that is expected to take place during the second half of February in New York.
According to the newspaper, the UK has focused on the concept of a loose federation which will allow the two communities to administer their own areas while leaving a small number of powers to the central government.
According to the report, the deputy political secretary of the UK Foreign Office Ajay Sharma met with both Republic of Cyprus (RoC) officials and TC leader Ersin Tatar in Nicosia last week, after having visited Athens last week. British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Dominic Raab is also expected to visit Cyprus in early February.
Phileleftheros interprets these contacts as part of an effort by the UK to convince Nicosia to accept political equality as defined by the Turkish side, in a move that would signal the G/C side’s good intentions.
According to information reported by the newspaper, during his contacts in Brussels, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu is said to have shown readiness to discuss all solution models and not just a two-state solution.
The newspaper also cites information that Turkey has asked for the 5+1 conference to take place in March and not in February, interpreting this as an effort to push the conference for after March’s European Council in order to avoid possible sanctions.
Kathimerini reports that during his visit to Brussels, Mevlut Cavusoglu told his contacts that if the EU was to impose any sanctions then Turkey would have no other option than to defend its interests, which would mean a new period of tension in the region.
Haravgi reports that Turkish President Tayip Erdogan has more challenges ahead in his relations with both the EU and the US especially. According to an analyst in Al Monitor, the real problem faced by Turkey is not just the new Biden administration, but that today there is a consensus between Republicans and Democrats that Turkey is a problematic ally.
In an interview with Politis, international relations expert and PRIO researcher Zenonas Tziarras said that the US intends to once again project its influence on the international stage.
Responding to a question on whether a two-state solution is a realistic prospect, he said that all solutions are realistic if all sides want them, and that today Cyprus has sadly reached a stage where a discussion on a two-state solution is a dominant part of the discussion.
Turkey unwilling to share information on Kyrenia mass grave
Phileleftheros
Human Rights, CBMs
OVERVIEW
Phileleftheros reports that testimony regarding a mass grave, where about 100 are believed to have been buried near Kyrenia during the Turkish invasion, has not been followed up due to Turkey’s refusal to give access to its military archives to the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP).
The newspaper reports that the testimony came from the then deputy mayor of Kyrenia, Xanthos Charalambides. Charalambides had informed the RoC authorities of the issue a few months after the invasion, after having remained enclaved in Kyrenia’s Dome hotel.
The dead bodies – whose identity remains unclear – are reported to have been gathered up from the streets of the city one week after the beginning of the invasion in July 1974.
After investigating for more information, the CMP determined a possible location for the mass grave. It is believed that the bodies are of G/Cs who were killed during the invasion and it is assumed that most if not all of them are included in the lists of missing persons.
According to information cited by Phileleftheros, in his testimony Charalambides had said that after the invasion, he was tasked by the Turkish authorities (the report mentions a “Turkish district governor”) as well as the UN to take charge – as deputy mayor – of clearing the city of bodies together with a G/C municipal councillor.
Charalambides said that the clean-up process lasted a week and that many dead were found, but that due to the short time available it was not possible to identify any of the bodies. He also said that he could not be sure of the ethnicity of the dead.
When asked by the CMP where the bodies were buried, Charalambides said that he did not know as he was not present during the burial. He said though that according to information he later received, the bodies were buried in a mass grave near the city’s carob warehouses.
RoC commissioner for human rights Photis Photiou told Phileleftheros that to this day Turkey has refused to give information regarding this event, or access to its military archives in general.