Front Page Headlines
Third dose with mRNA vaccines in time for winter
We’re not waiting for the EMA, the Cabinet will decide tomorrow.
- President: And yet, he’s preparing a proposal
- He took a stroll down the runway: Holes in airport security
Third dose via the Attorney General
Follow-up vaccination but first an opinion on responsibilities, if it is administered without the EMA’s recommendation. It will be administered to all over 65 years, starting from nursing homes.
- ECHR: The RoC failed in investigating missing person
- Menendez: Cyprus’ strong card in the US
- Action plans ready for the oil spill
- Medical Association investigating three categories of cases
Turkish Cypriot plots in Larnaca being handed out to DISY members
Advantageous plot in Finikoudes to the family of a DISY MP.
- Cyprus problem: Not even the President’s associates understood his proposal
- They hid reports on missing persons and now we’re paying compensation
- Vaccinations: Hadjipantelas going to the Cabinet tomorrow with a proposal for a third dose
State failed wife over soldier death
ECHR says govt caused distress to family over fate of soldier killed in 1974.
- Oil slick is heading back towards Syria after threatening Karpasia
Everything is legal: And the lockdown, and mandatory masks and the safe pass
Justice: The rejection of suits by the public has begun. Yesterday the court turned down the interim claim by 67 citizens against the safe pass for entry into schools, while in a second case a citizen who violated the decree and took part in a church service was sentenced.
- On the Afghanistan issue: The Europeans adopted all of Nouris’ suggestions
- Headache leaving: Oil spill going back to Syria
- We say yes to a third vaccine, but what will the Attorney General say?
Main News
Anastasiades struggles to form solid proposal for 1960 return
Haravgi, Politis
Negotiations Process
OVERVIEW
President Nicos Anastasiades on Tuesday chaired a meeting of the negotiating team in a bid to formulate a more solid proposal based on his controversial suggestion to reinstate the 1960 regime, the dailies report.
Politis reports that Anastasiades is attempting to make his idea, which received intense criticism from parties as non-realistic, more solid by combining it with some elements of the British formula which seeks the transformation of the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) into a federal state that will provide the TC community with extensive autonomy. Specifically, the paper reports that Anastasiades’ new proposal foresees a temporary return to the 1960 regime before the transformation of the RoC into a state modelled by Great Britain, where Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland enjoy high levels of autonomy.
Politis reports that the stance being held by Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides amid these developments is noteworthy, with the paper noting that Christodoulides tried to clear up the mess by stating that Anastasiades’ proposal for a return to 1960 was just a figure of speech, presenting himself as focused on the agreed-upon framework of a bizonal, bicommunal federation. (BBF).
Haravgi reports that Anastasiades’ meeting with the negotiating team did not provide any further clarity as to whether this proposal could be tabled before UN Special Envoy Jane Holl Lute. The paper writes that in fact, no one really understands what Anastasiades wants to propose, since the 1960 regime and a BBF are too antithetical.
Anastasiades is set to meet with the National Council on Wednesday, when he is expected to provide a detailed explanation of his proposal to return to the 1960 regime, as well as provide explanations as to how he got there in the first place.
ECHR finds RoC caused distress to family of missing person
Cyprus Mail, Haravgi, Phileleftheros, Politis
Human Rights
OVERVIEW
Cyprus will be paying out €60,000 in non-pecuniary damages to the family of a GC killed during the Turkish invasion, after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Tuesday that the state failed to keep the family informed on the course of investigations into the soldier’s fate, the dailies report.
The four applicants are the wife and children of Christophis Vasilliou Pashias, a reservist who had gone missing in action during the 1974 Turkish invasion. It was discovered 26 years later that he had been executed by Turkish troops and buried as ‘unknown’ in Cypriot-controlled territory. Pashias had been buried by Republic of Cyprus authorities at a military cemetery in Lakatamia.
Haravgi reports that the court’s ruling mentioned that even though there was a classified report issued in 1993 that concluded that missing persons from Pashias’ unit should be searched for at Lakatamia, the applicants were not informed about the report. The authorities identified and returned the body to his family in 2000.
The case concerns the state’s responsibility for the applicants’ distress between the disappearance of their relative and his identification. Relying on Article 2 (failure to investigate) and Article 8 (distress) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the applicants alleged that the state had failed to effectively investigate and provide them with information on what had happened to their missing relative, and that such prolonged uncertainty had caused them distress. The ECHR found there was no violation of Article 2 but there was a violation of Article 8.
The ECHR awarded non-pecuniary damages of €45,000 – €18,000 to Pashias’ wife and €9,000 each to his three children – while the two parties will share the €14,356 in litigation expenses. It is the first case of a GC killed during the invasion and buried as ‘unknown’ whose relatives accused the state of failing to meet its obligations, the dailies report.
The case was filed with the ECHR in November 2015. The applicants took recourse there after earlier that same year, the Supreme Court in Cyprus had found in favour of the state, setting aside a 2010 decision by a district court that had partly sided with the man’s relatives. The relatives had first sued the Republic back in December 2002.
Cyprus Mail reports that government spokesman Marios Pelekanos told the Cyprus News Agency after the ruling that government’s Law Office would abide by the ruling. “We have been informed about the ECHR decision. The Republic of Cyprus, as a state governed by law, will respect the court’s ruling. The Law Office, as the state’s legal adviser, will evaluate the decision and the issues resulting from it,” he said.
Oil slick that threatened Karpasia headed back to Syria
Alithia, Cyprus Mail, Haravgi, Phileleftheros
External Security
OVERVIEW
A massive oil slick which had been expected to hit Cape Apostolos Andreas in the Karpasia peninsula is now heading back to Syria, TC authorities said on Tuesday according to the dailies.
The oil slick, a consequence of a leakage in a power plant inside a refinery in the Syrian town of Baniya on the Mediterranean coast last Monday, was said to be around 15 nautical miles off Apostolos Andreas on Tuesday afternoon.
Cyprus Mail reports that later in the afternoon, ‘prime minister’ Ersan Saner announced that the direction of the current that had been moving towards the north eastern shores of the island had changed and the that the spillage was shifting back towards Syria.
The news were also relayed by Michalis Loizides, GC co-chair of the Bicommunal Technical Environment Committee, who said he had received information from the north that the spill appeared to be drifting away from Cyprus. Loizides told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) that he was awaiting to be provided with more information by the TC side about the oil slick in terms of its substance and volume. But the most important thing, he said, was that the spill is now moving away from Cyprus heading towards other shores.
TC authorities announced earlier on Tuesday that a 400-hundred-metre barrier was installed off the Karpasia peninsula to prevent the oil slick moving towards the coast. A crisis management unit desk was formed under the ‘prime ministry undersecretary’ Huseyin Amcaoglu and consults with experts from Turkey.
Two ships dispatched from Turkey to collect the waste are also expected to reach the area by Friday, while coast guard vessels and drones from the Lefkoniko base were sent to monitor the oil spill from sea and air. Saner said the two vessels would still arrive in the area for the clean-up, Cyprus Mail reports.
Agriculture Minister Costas Kadis said earlier the Republic had notified the TC side of the oil slick and that the government stood ready to assist but received no response.
“Unfortunately, our intention and willingness to help, so far, remain unanswered, we have not received any information or any response from the authorities of the illegal regime and so we remain alert,” Kadis told the CNA. He added that the government had not expected the slick to reach government-controlled areas.
Kadis said that an oil recovery vessel, the Alexandria, has been made available to Cyprus by the European Maritime Safety Agency and will be deployed if needed. The vessel carries anti-pollution equipment. Cyprus, he said, had also informed Greece and Israel of the incident, in the framework of their trilateral cooperation.
In statements to the press from the “Zenon” Coordination Centre, located in Larnaca, the Director of the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research, Marina Argyrou, said that the slick appeared to be “oil sheen” rather than crude oil. She said that sheen management is very different from crude oil, and that it evaporates either with temperature or with water movement, while in areas where it does accumulate absorbent booms can be used.