Front Page Headlines
OEDA (Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility) in Pentakomo closer to closing down
Jaspers does not give approval to solution of creating an energy production unit. Ministry of Agriculture is looking over all scenarios and will take decisions soon. The pilot plan to receive part of substandard RDF (refuse-derived fuel) from the (Vasilikos) Cement Works begins.
- Brexit: The deal is a thorn
- “United” by the coronavirus
Anxiety surges
First death by coronavirus outside China recorded yesterday – Cyprus on alert. Dead reach 305, more than 14,000 incidents. Large number of states established air traffic embargo and closed borders with China.
- Illicit actions: Stress test for EU-Turkish (relations)
They invoke Migration (issue) to misdirect
Exploitation and trafficking of people untouched. Questions over Ministry of Interior’s numbers. NGOs speak of intentional confusion.
- Tensions on the first day of Brexit
- Presentation of artworks return to the two communities as a CBM today
- Difficult to locate burial sites
Scoot returns
The software of the system which has been out of order for years is to be upgraded, aiming to mitigate Nicosia’s traffic problems by 20% to 25%. Traffic lights will become… smarter and will extend the time of the green light when ambulances, fire engines and buses approach, so they can pass through smoothly and not create chaos in the streets.
- Waste from the occupied areas will be taken to be processed at Skouriotissa
Main News
Cypriots leaders to be briefed on measures against coronavirus
Alithia, Haravgi, Phileleftheros, Politis
CBMs, Internal Security, Negotiations Process
OVERVIEW
President Anastasiades and T/C leader Mustafa Akinci are expected to be briefed on Monday by the bicommunal Technical Committee for Health on the measures taken on both sides to prevent coronavirus infections in Cyprus, Politis report citing the Cyprus News Agency.
The report is part of the newspaper’s coverage on the recent coronavirus scare in Cyprus which is also covered by all other dailies but Politis gives prominence to the meeting in its front page.
Politis recalls that the leaders will be briefed in a joint meeting with the Technical Committee on the necessary measures. Phileleftheros adds that the Technicall Committee will meet at 18:00 at Ledra Palace and that the leaders will join them at 19:00, right before their scheduled participation in an exhibit of returned artworks from both communities.
Cyprus News Agency cites statements by Leonidas Phylactou, the G/C head of the bicommunal committee for health. Phylactou said that the members of the committee will exchange views and information on the measures taken to prevent infections.
Phylactou stated that the Technical Committee has been active for years in handling cases such as the one of the coronavirus. He added that the aim is that information is exchanged for the benefit of the whole island. The members of the committee are in constant contact, he added.
Technocrats and experts in epidemiology will be taking part in Monday’s meeting of the Technical Committee, Phylactou also said. “This is solely an exchange of information” Phylactou noted. He added that “knowing what is happening at any given moment in the occupied areas is a useful tool for the Republic of Cyprus to plan its own moves”, as well that it is also useful for the T/Cs to know what is happening in the government controlled areas.
Phylactou pointed out that the decisions are taken by the Ministry for Health and that the Technical Committee operates as a bridge of communication, and added that the committee has worked together in the past regarding the West Nile virus, Ebola and MERS.
Haravgi reports that the exhibition that opens on Monday at Ledra Palace, in the presence of the two leaders, includes 50 works by G/C artists and audiovisual material related to T/C artists. The works of art by G/C are a part of a collection of 219 works that had been saved by the T/Cs and were returned to the government controlled areas in September. The Greek Cypriot side returned audio and visual recordings of important T/C musicians that had been in the public broadcaster’s archives. The newspaper notes that the exhibition is not yet open to the public.
KEY ACTORS
Leonidas Phylactou (Tech. Comm. Health)
>> The members exchange information and decisions are taken by Ministry of Health
>> Knowing what is happening in the occupied areas is a useful tool for the RoC
Passage of time makes finding burial sites of missing persons more difficult
Haravgi
CBMs, Human Rights
OVERVIEW
Haravgi publishes an interview with Leonidas Pantelides, the G/C member of the Committee for Missing Persons. Pantelides tells Haravgi that the CMP is missing information on about half the missing persons from both communities.
Pantelides points out that the discovery of remains at the bach of Pervolia in Larnaca has caused a large amount of residents to come forward with information. He noted that that means that people often need a reason to give information, a problem that exists in both sides, especially when it comes to villages that were mixed in the past.
Pantelides also said that the scheduled excavation at Dikomo (where it is believed that a great number of remains of people executed in Mesaoria were moved in the 1990s by the Turkish army) will take place. However, due to the large area and the large cost this will happened when there is enough preparation and confirmation of the existing information.
When questioned on the validity of the information he said that the percentage of excavations were remains are found has been decreasing since 2007 when it was 44% to 17% last year.
EU – Turkish relations in a critical phase, Nicosia believes
Phileleftheros
EU Matters, External Security, Regional/ International Relations
OVERVIEW
Phileleftheros reports that the developments regarding the EU’s targeted measures regarding Turkey’s drilling in the Cypriot EEZ will contribute to deciding the direction in which relations between Turkey and the EU will move towards. The next few weeks will be crucial for the future relation and the the country’s accession process, the newspaper adds.
The daily cites diplomatic sources in Nicosia who note that the measures targeting persons involved in the drillings will not stop Turkey from proceeding with its plans in the Cypriot EEZ. Nicosia’s aim, the same sources add, is to make Turkey’s efforts more difficult.
The newspaper further adds that the EU will be assessing the totality of its relations with Turkey. The report sites a statement made by Saturday by Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides, who has said that in February and in March the EU will discuss its overall approach to Turkey. Philelefteheros adds that Brussels do not want to discuss this just on a technocratic level but also on a political level.
Phileleftheros also recalls a letter recently sent by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu to the EU’s leadership, asking for the block to reassess its policy regarding accession. He had pointed out that accession negotiations should move forward on the basis of the EU’s interests, and not of those of a few member states.