Over 50 depositors and shareholders of Cypriot banks are suing the EU and its institutions over losses they suffered when their deposits were seized to recapitalise lenders, it emerged on Friday.

The plaintiffs are seeking damages in excess of €20 million, according to lawyer Kypros Chrysostomides, whose firm has teamed with foreign experts to bring the case to court.

“Cyprus is the only EU member-state to date, to have been provided with financial assistance on the precondition of a ‘bail-in’ and other coercive measures,” the firm said.

It said it was the first time in the history of EU jurisprudence that the Luxembourg Court has been asked to decide whether the acts of the Eurogroup are attributable to the EU, thus raising the obligation for compensation.

The Eurogroup decided in March to close down Laiki Bank and seize deposits over €100,000 to recapitalise the Bank of Cyprus (BoC).

The lender has used 47.5 per cent of the deposits.

The claimants want compensation for losses suffered as a result of the Eurogroup decision, as well as depreciation – in both value and number – of their shares.

Depositors whose money was taken received equity in return.

Under the terms of the so-called haircut, the nominal value of all ordinary BoC shares was reduced from €1.00 each to ordinary shares of nominal value of €0.01 each.

“In particular, the claimants mainly challenge (by way of an application for damages) the March 25 Eurogroup decision to impose a ‘bail-in’ … as well as the acts of the European Central Bank, the Commission, and the Council in endorsing and implementing that decision,” a statement from the firm said.

The Eurogroup, and the EU face claims, primarily for grievous violations of the claimants’ right to property and of the principles of non-discrimination, protection of legitimate expectations, and the principle of proportionality, as prescribed by EU law.

The firm said defendants’ were normally expected to respond within two months, unless an extension was granted by the court.

By Nemanja Bjedov
ALTHOUGH Omonia host Anorthosis in the Round 14 opener on Saturday afternoon at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia at 3pm, the most interesting game of the day, at least according to the current standings, will be the clash between Ermis Aradippou and Apollon Limassol that will kick-off thee hours later.

“This game will be very different than the one at the beginning of the season but we are aiming for all three points, as we always do.
“Ermis are well organised defensively and we must respond to that with a quality and passionate team effort if we plan to achieve our goal,” stated Apollon coach Christakis Christoforou, whose side celebrated a narrow 1-0 victory over the Aradippou side in the season opener.

Christoforou will not be able to count on his skipper Giorgos Merkis as well as Marios Stylianou, who are both suspended, while several players are doubtful and will be given late fitness tests.

“The game against Ermis is our seventh game in the last 27 days and after this game we will have some time to rest properly and return to action with a clear mind.
“We are pleased that after 23 games played so far, both in Europe and locally, we have managed to get to the top of the league. Our main objective is to reach one of the spots that lead to Europe next season and that is what we will focus on,” Christoforou concluded.

Apollon are currently second overall with 30 points, behind their city rivals AEL on an inferior head-to-head record, while Ermis are third with 26 points. Anorthosis are fifth also with 26 points, while Omonia are seventh with 24.

After Monday night’s 2-0 defeat to arch-rivals APOEL, Omonia’s board decided to make a coaching change with Pambos Christodoulou succeeding Toni Savevski.
His debut on the bench will be against another ex-AEL coach in Jorge Costa who is now at helm of the Ammochostos side.
Also on Saturday afternoon, at 5pm, Aris take on Alki in Limassol.

On Sunday afternoon at 3pm, champions APOEL visit Enosis Neon Paralimni, while two hours later AEK Larnaca host AEK Kouklion, while at 6pm league leaders AEL face Ethnikos Achnas at the Tsirion Stadium in Limassol.

In the final game of Round 14, on Monday evening at 7pm, Nea Salamina meet Doxa Katokopia at the Ammochostos Stadium in Larnaca.

Parliamentary spokesman and frontline member of former ruling party AKEL, Nicos Katsourides, officially stepped down on Friday, as the party announced a change in the higher echelons.

Katsourides resigned his position as parliamentary spokesman, although he will remain an MP, as well as his position in both the party central committee secretariat and the political bureau, the highest body of AKEL.

The move was largely expected, as Katsourides essentially retired from politics after his name was linked with the recent Dromolaxia scandal, involving the CyTA pension fund.

Katsourides denied the charges and has taken legal steps against his accusers.

The Dromolaxia scandal is said to be behind another AKEL resignation, that of Venizelos Zanettos who was also a member of the party central committee secretariat. Zanettos, along with Christos Alekou were detained for eight days in relation with the case but were released without charges. AKEL stood by both members, with party leader Andros Kyprianou stating that the whole case was “a stitched-up operation, aimed at hurting the party”.

The new members of the central committee secretariat are: AKEL MP Giorgos Loukaides, Stefanos Stefanou, former government spokesman for the Demetris Christofias administration, Neoclis Sylikiotis, former interior minister for both the Tassos Papadopoulos and the Christofias administration and Nikos Ioannou, Famagusta party district secretary.

Giorgos Loukaides was also voted in to the political bureau. The other newly elected members of the political bureau are; Toumazos Tselepis, who was a prominent member of the Cyprus problem negotiation team for both Christofias and Papadopoulos, AKEL MP Giorgos Georgiou, former presidential aid for the  Christofias administration Christos Christofides and Chrystalla Antoniou, Larnaca party district officer.

The new members were elected after a secret ballot.

Nicosia Municipality warned on Friday that it had given clear instructions to rubbish collectors not to ask homeowners for a Christmas tip.

The municipality said that although the practice has diminished in recent years, it had not totally disappeared. It was not right to put cash-strapped homeowners under pressure to pay a tip.

Also the municipality said there were scam artists pretending to be working for the municipality in order to trick people into giving them money.

“The public is urged, if they receive any such visits, to refuse to give a tip and to let the collectors know they are violating a staff circular,” the municipality said.

The Kapnos Airport Shuttle on Friday announced its schedule for the holiday period.

On Christmas Eve, December 24 and New Year’s Eve, December 31, schedules will run as normal but only until 21:30 from Nicosia and 22:15 from Larnaca airport

The service on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day is as follows:

On December 26 and January 2, the schedules return to normal with the first shuttle leaving Nicosia at 05:45 from Larnaca Airport at 06:00 from Nicosia.

By George Psyllides

UNEMPLOYED Bank of Cyprus (BoC) borrowers will not have to pay their regular instalment for a year on housing loans, the lender announced on Friday.

BoC chairman Christis Hasapis said unemployed borrowers will pay the token amount of €10 per month, instead of the normal payment.

And that can be cut by half if the customer cannot afford it, the bank said.

“In this way the mortgages of the unemployed will be considered ‘performing loans’ and all of these people will be able to sleep better at night,” Hasapis said.

The arrangement can be extended if the customer remained unemployed for over a year.

The maximum duration of the scheme was three years, Hasapis said.

The lender said it would continue to help customers, even after they have found a job by allowing them to just pay the interest rate on their loans for an extra 12 months.

However, Hasapis said, from the moment an instalment was reduced, future payments would be higher.

If the value of the mortgaged property was under €250,000, then the interest rate on the housing loan could be reduced by up to 2.0 percentage points but not under 3.75 per cent, Hasapis said.

This measure will be in effect for two years.

The BoC chairman said the scheme would come into effect immediately, and was part of the lender’s measures to support its unemployed customers.

Asked about the large borrowers who owed the bank some €6.0 billion, Hasapis said BoC would find ways to collect its money.

A list of 30 large borrowers has been doing the rounds in recent days.

“We are starting from the large ones (borrowers) and that is why you have seen this list of 30 people. They are people who owe over €100 million,” Hasapis said.

He said some have started selling properties voluntarily to pay off the bank.

“We think the bank is on the right path and we also think the entrepreneurs who owe this money will find the proper ways to pay the bank,” Hasapis said.

BoC is reeling after a Eurogroup decision to seize depositors’ cash to recapitalise the lender.

The decision also called for the closure of the island’s second biggest bank, Laiki.

“This was an experiment in economics on an economy that was small enough to be experimented on by a federation,” said BoC CEO John Hourican. In an interview with British daily The Independent, Hourican said if the experiment failed “the damage to the economy is extreme but the damage to the EU is not. The bail-in has removed the one thing the Cyprus banking system needs and that is confidence.”

Three football fans were remanded in custody for four days on Friday in connection with attacking and injuring police officers during a football cup fixture in Larnaca on Thursday.

Police said they were looking for three other suspects.

Eight police officers were injured during the incident, one seriously.

The trio, aged 22, 23, 24, were arrested for attacking the officers on duty at the Dhigenis Oroklinis versus APOEL Nicosia game, which the away team won 4-2 in extra time.

The suspects were among 50 APOEL fans who tried to get into the stadium without paying.

The group approached the entrance and asked the employee to let them enter without a ticket.

He refused and they started throwing stones at the ground staff and police officers.

The fans then clashed with around six officers, assaulting them using stones, sticks and glass bottles.

PRIME Minister Enrico Letta told critics of his 2014 budget on Friday that Italy still needed to demonstrate its credibility to wary financial markets, rejecting calls for steeper tax cuts and more measures to stimulate growth.

Speaking as the lower house of parliament in Rome passed a procedural confidence motion on the budget, Letta said the government had done all it could to help investment while maintaining control of public finances.

“We and Europe are both still under observation,” he told reporters in Brussels where he was attending a summit of European Union leaders. “We absolutely have to maintain the same care that the father of a family does. I say that to everyone in Italy who wants Father Christmas instead.”

The lower house of parliament passed the confidence motion, a standard measure used to speed legislation, ahead of a separate vote to approve the package later in the day. The Senate is due to complete parliamentary approval on Monday.

The budget, which keeps Italy’s public deficit just within the EU ceiling of 3 per cent of GDP this year, trims some taxes on employment and replaces the hated IMU housing levy.

But it has been widely criticised for not doing enough to cut spending and help growth.

Letta’s coalition, based around the centre-left Democratic Party and a smaller centre-right group led by Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, is more confident of being able to pass reforms since a break with former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who quit the government last month.

But it faces a huge challenge in turning around an economy which has shrunk by more than 9 per cent since 2007, with youth unemployment running at over 40 per cent and an industrial infrastructure which has crumbled during the crisis.

The mildly expansionary budget makes minor adjustments to current spending and revenue trends, but with the government determined to banish any doubts about the solidity of public finances, its room for manoeuvre has been severely limited.

Confindustria, Italy’s main business lobby, has been particularly critical of the government’s failure to act more decisively to cut the so-called “tax wedge” – the difference between employers’ labour costs and a worker’s take home pay.

The budget foresees a reduction in the tax wedge of just over 2.5bn euros in 2014 and 3bn in 2015, which it intends to fund partly out of spending cuts, well short of Confindustria’s call for 10bn euros in tax cuts.

However there has already been growing concern that resources originally earmarked to balance tax cuts may be diverted to fund urgent spending priorities such as unemployment benefit funds.

The government expects Italy’s budget deficit to fall to 2.5 per cent of output in 2014 from a targeted 3.0 per cent this year, on the assumption that the economy grows by 1.1 per cent.

That growth forecast is widely considered optimistic and the public debt is seen rising to almost 133 per cent of output this year and next, second only to Greece’s in the euro zone.

The budget envisages some 4bn euros in spending cuts and 7.3bn euros in additional revenues this year, set against 13.9bn euros in new spending commitments, leaving a fiscal gap of some 2.6bn euros.

In addition to the tax wedge cut, the IMU tax on primary residences will be replaced by a new tax on municipal services which will go towards funding cash-strapped local authorities.

Sales of publicly owned buildings are expected to raise 1.5bn euros over three years, while top pensions will be held back and a series of tax breaks will be reorganised. But a spending review under former IMF official Carlo Cottarelli, expected to bring 11.3bn euros of cuts by 2017, will not begin to produce results until 2015.

One source of extra income that has been contested in Italy and abroad is a tax aimed at raising revenue from online multinationals which currently pay their levies in low-tax countries like Luxembourg, Ireland or outside the EU.

At least 18 Iraqi military officers were killed in an ambush on Saturday in the Sunni Muslim-dominated province of Anbar, military sources said.

The commander of the army’s Seventh Division as well as the commander of its 28th Brigade and several other high-ranking officers were among those killed in the attack, the sources said. Another 32 soldiers were wounded.

It was not immediately clear why so many senior officers were in an area controlled largely by Sunni militants linked to al Qaeda, but some sources suggested they had come to document a recent military victory nearby.

Multiple sources said three suicide bombers wearing explosive belts detonated themselves among the officers inside a deserted house in the western town of Rutba, 360 km (225 miles) west of Baghdad.

“All that we know so far is three suicide bombers wearing explosive vests came from nowhere and detonated themselves among the officers,” a military officer who was at the scene told Reuters by phone.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered troops in the area to launch an operation to pursue the militants who carried out the attack, the sources said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suicide bombing is the trademark of al Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate, which merged this year with its Syrian counterpart to form the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Al Qaeda-linked militants have intensified attacks on the security forces, civilians and anyone seen as supporting the Shi’ite-led government, tipping Iraq back into its deadliest levels of violence in five years.

In a separate incident, the commander-in-chief of the police force in Shirqat, 300 km north of Baghdad, was killed and four of his officers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded by his convoy, police and medical sources said.

By Peter Stevenson

RULING DISY leader Averof Neophytou has called for changes to voting procedures in parliamentary elections in attempt to encourage more people to vote.

Neophytou is seeking the introduction of a cross party voting system which allows voters to pick candidates from different parties. Under the present system, voters choose either the party or specific candidates from that same party.

“We believe that the current system deprives tens of thousands of people the right to choose the best candidates, irrespective of what party they belong to,” he said on Saturday.

Neophytou said he was seeking greater openness.

“Parties need to open up to the people. We don’t believe society should be split into parties but that policies should apply to all. We will turn our words into actions,” he said.

DISY’s leader said that all voting procedures need to be looked at including European parliamentary elections and local elections.

He added that DISY will discuss the matter with the other parties but that the main concern is the public.

Responding to a comment that abstentions have now reached 40 per cent, Neophytou said radical measures need to be adopted.

DISY will also put forward a proposal that both mayoral and parliamentary elections take place simultaneously.

“It is not only the cost, which comes to between €5 and €8 million, for each election but that pre-election campaigns are also very costly especially to all those independent parties,” he said. “Making radical changes and modernising is the way to always stay one step ahead.”

Neophytou was speaking following a meeting with President Nicos Anastasiades at DISY headquarters following the 40-day memorial service of former President Glafcos Clerides.

“The relationship between the party and the government is strong and trusting because we are united by many things, but our main aim is to save our homeland,” he said.

Neophytou said that DISY will support the government in its attempts to revive the economy and in finding a suitable solution to the Cyprus problem.

“We hope for more EU involvement which will give us the chance to reunite our country and through a fair solution to the Cyprus problem we can benefit economically,” he said.

CYPRUS’ Volunteer Doctors were at Paphos Mall on Saturday selling bracelets and calendars to celebrate their 20^th anniversary and raise funds.

“Our goal is to provide medical aid to people that need it but cannot afford it,” head of Paphos Volunteer Doctors, Youla Loizidou said.

She added that volunteer doctors, nurses and others are giving their services for free at clinics around the island. Medicine donated by pharmaceutical companies is also being given out free of charge she said..

ANYONE who has not renewed their health card now has until April 30 of next year to do so after the Health Ministry gave an extension to the original January 1, deadline.

The decision came after it was discovered many people have yet to renew their health cards. The ministry has warned cards must be renewed by this new date as no more extensions will be given.

For pensioners, the only paperwork required is proof of the amount of pension they receive each month.

By Harry Papachristou and Lefteris Papadimas

THE GREEK coalition government’s majority in parliament shrank to just three seats on Saturday after a lawmaker rebelled over a controversial new law to extend property taxes to farmland.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s majority of more than 20 seats after last year’s election has dwindled to the point where it raises the risk of political instability that could hamper recovery and Greece’s ability to meet targets for its international bailout.

Samaras expelled lawmaker Byron Polydoras from the conservatives’ parliamentary group after he refused to back the new tax law demanded by Greece’s lenders.

His expulsion reduces the parliamentary group of Samaras’s conservative-Socialist coalition government to 153 in the 300-seat parliament.

The new legislation, which passed on Saturday, replaces a deeply unpopular property levy collected through electricity bills with a broader real estate tax, including land holdings.

Polydoras had argued that the new tax amounted to confiscation.

Greece has suffered six years of recession and record unemployment of about 27 per cent as it has enacted austerity policies under terms of its 240-billion euro bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

The government projects the new property tax will bring in about 2.65 billion euros ($3.62 billion) annually, less than the 2.9 billion euros it collected under the previous regime.

To offset the shortfall, it will cut its investment programme by 200 million euros next year.

The new legislation also reduces the property transfer tax to 3 per cent from a previous 8 to 10 per cent, to help boost transactions in the moribund market. Apartment prices have plunged by 32 per cent since their peak in 2008.

Property accounts for a large chunk of household wealth as  Greece has one of the highest home ownership rates in western  Europe – 80 per cent versus a European Union average of 70  per cent – according to European Mortgage Federation data.

Inspectors from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund troika agreed to the new tax, even though they had raised concerns on whether Greece can collect it effectively.

The Cyprus government and Parliament are taking measures to help Turkish Cypriots participate in the elections for the European Parliament in May, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said on Saturday.

Speaking at an event hosted by the European Parliament office in Cyprus for the EP elections, Kasoulides said that the Turkish Cypriots cannot be granted observer status in the European Parliament.

Kasoulides called on the Turkish Cypriots to participate in the elections and even to run for a seat in the European Parliament through a single electoral list.

“They have this opportunity and the Cypriot government will take all necessary measures and will request the Parliament to approve legislative measures that would facilitate and render their participation as accessible as possible,” the Minister said.

He went on to say that given the number of Turkish Cypriot who acquired a Republic of Cyprus identity “they could elect up to two Turkish Cypriot MEPs through a single electoral list, pursuant to the EU acquis which does not discriminate for the EP elections.”

Kasoulides said that Turkish Cypriots should forget the possibility of obtaining observer status in the European Parliament.

By Humeyra Pamuk and Ece Toksabay
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan denounced “international groups” and “dark alliances” on Saturday for entangling Turkey in a corruption scandal that has exposed deep rifts between him and a US-based Muslim cleric who helped him rise to power.

Sixteen people, including the sons of two ministers and the head of state-owned Halkbank, were formally arrested on Saturday, local media said, in a corruption inquiry that Erdogan has called a “dirty operation” to underminine his rule.

The Turkish leader raised the stakes by accusing unnamed foreign ambassadors of “provocative actions”.

Some pro-government newspapers had accused the US envoy of encouraging the move against Halkbank – a charge denied by the embassy.
“There are extremely dirty alliances in this set-up, dark alliances that can’t tolerate the new Turkey, the big Turkey,” Erdogan in a speech in the northern town of Fatsa. “Turkey has never been subjected to such an immoral attack.”

The furore, which has roiled markets, is seen as reflecting a power struggle between Erdogan and his former ally Fethullah Gulen, who wields influence in the police and judiciary.
Dozens of police chiefs have been removed from their posts since the detentions of bribery suspects began.

“Those who don’t see the thief but go after those trying to catch the thief, who don’t see the murder but try to defame others by accusing innocent people – let God bring fire to their houses, ruin their homes, break their unity,” Gulen said in a recording uploaded to one of his websites on Friday.

Erdogan has refrained from naming Gulen as the hand behind the investigation when he blamed an internationally-backed conspiracy. But Gulen’s Hizmet (or Service) movement has been increasingly at odds with the prime minister in recent months.

“This is an operation ordered by some international groups, and their subcontractors within Turkey are carrying it out, as a step taken against the government. We will not bow down to it,” Erdogan said on Saturday.
“When we took power 11 years ago, Turkey’s national income was $230 billion, now it’s more than $800 billion. Can you increase the income so much in a corrupt country?” he demanded, proudly listing highway and airport construction projects his government has implemented during more than a decade in power.

Erdogan’s position is under no immediate threat, but the row between his ruling AK Party and Gulen’s Hizmet movement could help decide local elections due in March.
“A major political struggle has started in Turkey,” said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute. “Ironically, this battle is being fought within the ranks of the governing party.”

He said the definitive battle would come in March, involving the race for mayor of Turkey’s commercial capital Istanbul.
“If the Gulen movement can now use its influence among voters and financial base to tilt the race in favour of the opposition, it will prove itself an effective power against Erdogan, as well as helping deliver Istanbul to the left.

“If, on the other hand, Erdogan wins Istanbul, despite the Gulen movement, he will emerge as Turkey’s most dominant political figure in modern history as well as having potentially subjugated the Gulen movement,” Cagaptay said.

Erdogan, just as he did when he faced a wave of protests in the summer, has pointed to foreign hands in the crisis.
“These recent days, very strangely, ambassadors get involved in some provocative acts,” he said, telling them not to meddle and warning: “We do not have to keep you in our country.”
Several pro-government newspapers had the US Embassy of encouraging the move against Halkbank, saying the United States wanted the bank to stop its dealings with Iran.
“Get out of this country,” read Yeni Safak’s headline, with a photo of US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone. It said the Foreign Ministry was considering declaring him persona non grata. Sources at the Foreign Ministry denied such plans.

The US Embassy reacted sharply. “All allegations in news stories are downright lies and slander,” it said in a statement.
Halkbank’s general manager, Suleyman Aslan, was formally arrested alongside Baris Guler, the son of the interior minister, and Kaan Caglayan, the son of the economy minister, CNN Turk and other local media reported.

A total of 24 people have now been formally arrested and are awaiting trial on corruption allegations.
A court on Saturday ordered the release of 33 others, including the mayor of Istanbul’s Fatih district, Mustafa Demir, and the son of the environment minister, local media reported.

By Tom Perry and Omar Fahmy

Egypt’s deposed Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, and 129 others including members of Hamas and Hezbollah, were referred to trial on Saturday on murder and other charges related to a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak.

These are the third set of charges brought against Mursi since he was ousted by the army in July amid street protests against his rule and they intensify the relentless repression of his Muslim Brotherhood group in the months that followed.

Earlier this week, the prosecutor ordered Mursi and 35 other  Brotherhood leaders to stand trial in a separate case that charges them with plotting with foreigners including Hamas and Hezbollah to carry out a terrorist conspiracy against Egypt.

Those charges, described as “risible” by the Brotherhood, could result in the death penalty for Mursi and his colleagues.

On Thursday, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expressed concern about the charges against Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders in a phone call with army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the man who ousted Egypt’s first freely elected leader.

Sisi is widely seen as the person most likely to win a presidential election expected next year were he to run. The next stage in the army’s transition plan is a mid-January referendum on a new constitution.

The security forces have killed hundreds of Brotherhood supporters in the streets and arrested thousands more. The government accuses the group, previously Egypt’s best-organised political and religious movement, of turning to violence and terrorism – charges the Brotherhood denies.

In a three-page statement, investigating judge Hassan al-Samir described the new case, relating to prison breaks during the anti-Mubarak revolt, as “the most dangerous crime of terrorism the country had witnessed”.

Samir said he had uncovered a “terrorist plan” hatched by the Brotherhood long ago and carried out with foreign players including Lebanon’s Shi’ite militant Hezbollah movement and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas group which rules the Gaza Strip.

Mursi was one of those who escaped from prison after being rounded up with other Brotherhood leaders after the 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak broke out on Jan. 25, 2011.

In a telephone interview with Al Jazeera immediately after he left prison, Mursi said the jail had been opened by locals with no instructions from Brotherhood leaders. He said he and other Brotherhood leaders had not fled and were looking for representatives of the prosecution to report what had happened.

Samir’s statement did not name the accused Hezbollah or Hamas members. A judicial source said 68 of them belonged to Hamas. At least one Hezbollah operative jailed in Egypt escaped during the chaos in 2011. He then fled to Lebanon.

An ideological cousin of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas had been part of an alliance including Hezbollah until the Arab Spring uprising redrew the political map of the region. Mursi’s opponents demonised the Palestinian group during his year in office, accusing it of scheming against Egypt.

Mursi and his comrades, including Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie, were charged with killing and kidnapping policemen, attacking police facilities and carrying out the prison break.

After protests against Mubarak began, the prosecutor said, the Brotherhood, extremist groups and more than 800 militants who had infiltrated from Gaza staged attacks on police before assaulting three prisons to release their allies.

At least 50 police and prisoners were killed in the raids in which at least 20,000 criminals escaped, Samir’s statement said.

The accused were also charged with kidnapping four policemen and holding them in the Gaza Strip. It also said the men had “appropriated animal and poultry livestock” from the prisons.

The judicial source said Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a prominent cleric based in Qatar, was among the accused.

The charges brought against Mursi and the Brotherhood this week formally implicate them in violence against security forces in the Sinai Peninsula, the desert territory bordering Israel where militant attacks spiked after Mursi’s overthrow.

Some 200 soldiers and policemen have been killed since then.

The cases also bring formal charges against members of Mursi’s presidential staff who had been held without charge since July. These include Essam El-Haddad, his national security adviser, who is accused of divulging state secrets to Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Haddad and another presidential aide, Ayman Ali, were both transferred to a maximum security prison on the outskirts of Cairo on Saturday, a security official said.

The army-backed authorities have in recent weeks also charged secular activists in connection with protests organised in defiance of a new law that restricts the right to assembly.

In a move criticised by activists as an escalation against dissenters, the police raided the offices of a prominent rights organisation this week, holding five activists for nine hours and arresting another sought in connection with protests.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said on Saturday that the Egyptian security forces had “expanded their harassment of political activists”, saying the government was targeting voices demanding “justice and security agency reform”.

Greece agreed on Saturday to sell the operator of its natural gas grid operator to Azerbaijan’s state energy company, in a 400-million-euro deal that drives forward the faltering Greek privatisation programme.

The Azeri company, SOCAR, was the only bidder for a 66 percent stake in Greece’s DESFA, in a tender held in June. The deal is expected to be completed after regulatory approvals late next year.

SOCAR wants to use DESFA to increase its footprint in southeast Europe, Chairman Rovnag Abdullayev said at a signing ceremony in Athens. “This deal encourages us to further strengthen our presence in the region”, he said.

Greece is struggling to meet privatisation targets set by the terms of international bailout. Its efforts have been hurt by lack of investor interest, red tape at home and regulatory obstacles from the European Union.

About 3.9 billion euros worth of privatisation deals have been signed since Greece’s bailout began three years ago, raising about 2.6 billion euro in cash. It was supposed to have raised about 22 billion euros by the end of 2013, under the original terms of its bailout.

Greece plans to raise 3.56 billion from asset sales next year. But its privatisation chief warned earlier this week that it may not be able to sell natural gas retailer DEPA in 2014, as planned, because of lack of investor interest and regulatory obstacles raised by the European Union.

By Mark Meadows
Luis Suarez celebrated his new contract by sending Liverpool to the top of the Premier League thanks to two goals and another virtuoso display in a 3-1 home win over crisis club Cardiff City on Saturday.
Manchester City moved up to second despite a bizarre Vincent Kompany own goal in a 4-2 victory at lowly Fulham while Manchester United, in seventh, overcame West Ham United 3-1 at Old Trafford through Danny Welbeck, Adnan Januzaj and Ashley Young.
Uruguayan Suarez, who penned a new long-term deal with the club on Friday, expertly volleyed in Liverpool’s opener before setting up Raheem Sterling for the second.
Suarez then made it 3-0 with his 19th league goal of a great season on the stroke of half-time.
The easy win over 15th-placed Cardiff, and their beleaguered manager Malky Mackay, put Liverpool a point clear at the top with 36 from 17 games.
Arsenal, on 35 points, can take back first place by beating visiting Chelsea on Monday night.
There were also victories on Saturday for Newcastle United and Stoke City while managerless West Bromwich Albion drew 1-1 with Hull City and there was a dour 0-0 stalemate between Sunderland and Norwich City.

By Elias Hazou

THE FANATICS won: that’s the view shared by a growing number of modern historians and researchers on the outbreak of inter-communal violence on the island exactly 50 years ago.

Mutual distrust was aided and abetted by false-flag operations and disinformation on both sides. Perhaps the only ingredient missing was the spark to light the powder keg, and that came on December 21 1963.

A historical analysis of the period both before, during and right after is like navigating a minefield.
The dominant narrative on the Greek Cypriot side has been that in 1963 the Turkish Cypriots mounted an insurrection, effectively seceding/withdrawing from the Republic which they sought to undermine.

The Turkish Cypriot official narrative holds that the Greeks, the majority, never regarded them as equal partners and provoked the conflict by attempting to scrap the 1960 Constitution: they were the victims reacting to the violence initiated by the Greeks.

Greek Cypriot fighters in Limassol

Tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show in the immediate aftermath of the Republic’s establishment.

Disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 that Archbishop Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots.

Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement.

He then proposed 13 amendments to the constitution. Under the proposals, the president and vice president would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.

The ‘Akritas’ plan, drafted at the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot Interior Minister Polycarpos Yiorkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work.

The plan stipulated an organised attack on Turkish Cypriots should they show signs of resistance to the measures, stating: “In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside intervention would be either justified or possible.”

Turkish Cypriot fighters in Limassol in early 1964

The trigger came in December 1963, which has come to be known as ‘Bloody Christmas’. On December 21, a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter in Nicosia. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed.

On the same day, armed Turkish Cypriots from the paramilitary TMT (Turkish Resistance Organisation) clashed with Greek Cypriots loyal to Yiorkadjis. The conflict escalated fast and spread from Nicosia to Larnaca, Famagusta, Limassol, Paphos and Kyrenia.

On December 24 alone, 31 Turkish Cypriots and five Greek Cypriots were killed. There were attacks on Omorphita, Kumsal, Kaimakli and other parts of the capital, as well as nearby villages.

Newspapers at the time reported the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes in the days and weeks that followed. According to the Times, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes.

British soldiers were brought in on December 27 1963, ahead of the UN peacekeeping force UNFICYP in March 1964

Fearing a Turkish invasion, Makarios agreed to a British proposal for troops from the British bases to deploy between the two sides. The first British soldiers from this truce force went on patrol in Nicosia on December 27, immediately trying to supervise a ceasefire. Under their supervision, 545 Turkish Cypriot hostages were exchanged for 26 Greek Cypriots.

In April 1964 Turkish Cypriots established a bridgehead at Kokkina, in the Tylliria region north of the island, providing them with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited EOKA leader George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch an attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions.

The threat of a Turkish military escalation and a resolution of the United Nations Security Council calling for a ceasefire ended the standoff. The UN peacekeeping force, UNFICYP was established in Cyprus in March 1964, mainly comprising troops from the British truce force. Few could have imagined then that UNFICYP would still be present today, half a century later.

Political commentator and columnist Loucas Charalambous was a teenager at the time; he recalls how preparations for an armed conflict were underway long before December 1963.
“Weeks before, our teachers would come to school and speak to us, rather excitedly, about a ‘struggle’ that was imminent. Some of them even bore side arms,” he told the Sunday Mail.

Greek Cypriots being evacuated from predominantly Turkish Cypriot neighbourhoods

Charalambous personally witnessed military exercises taking place by paramilitaries months prior to the outbreak of hostilities.

“In the afternoons, we’d play football near a house, and then these armed men showed up, kicked us out and started training.”

It turned out that the site, located next to the Presidential Palace no less, ended up becoming the headquarters of the ‘Akritas’ organisation.

Charalambous also remembers seeing sandbags being filled in the days before December 21 near what came to be known as the ‘Green Line’ in Nicosia.

“Greek Cypriot policemen used to get off work early in the afternoons, which was rather curious. It was obvious that they were going off to do training. The Turkish Cypriot members of the police of course did not fail to take note of this and knew something was brewing,” he said.

“By the following morning (December 22) barricades and roadblocks had been erected almost across the length of the entire Green Line. It can only mean that both sides had been preparing.”

Research produced by Canadian scholar Richard Patrick in the 1970s is considered among the most authoritative accounts of the period.

Patrick was an officer in UNFICYP in the late 1960s and pursued his interest in the Cyprus conflict as a doctoral student in political geography at the London School of Economics. This research was published as ‘Political Geography and the Cyprus Conflict, 1963-1971.’

Women and children being evacuated from the Turkish village of Ayios Sozomenos

Summarising his findings, Patrick wrote: “The general trends of the December 1963 – August 1964 period are clear. . . Decisions were made to implement the conflicting ideas of enosis [union with Greece] and taksim [partition] by various coercive movements. Violence induced a refugee movement which altered existing demographic fields.”

Subsequently a Turkish Cypriot civil and military administration was developed to govern the Turkish Cypriots and the land they held, he said.

“The result was the de facto partition of the Republic of Cyprus.”

From his research, Patrick argued that most Turkish Cypriots moved only after Turkish Cypriots had been killed, abducted or harassed by Greek Cypriots within their village or quarter.

“Most refugees expected to return to their homes within a few months at the most, and it was this assumption of an early return that facilitated their departure in the first place,” he said.

These findings cast doubt on the argument that the Turkish Cypriot gathering into enclaves was a calculated move by hardline Turkish politicians wanting ethnic segregation.

Patrick goes on to note: “Any official administrative organisation to direct refugee movements was not established until the bulk of the refugees had already moved on their own initiative.”

The researcher also makes this interesting point: “In any case, by August 1964, the abandoned homes were looted…Neither community had the resources to rebuild the houses, to purchase new farming equipment or to provide resettlement grants. The side that undertook such indemnities would also be tacitly admitting to a degree of responsibility in the creation of the refugee problem, and that neither community was prepared to do.”

Opinions vary on whether the conflict could have been avoided. Costas M Constantinou, professor of international relations at the University of Cyprus, believes it could have been.

The barricades go up at the bottom of Ledra Street at end of 1963

“I don’t consider that the 1963 troubles were inevitable, though one would certainly expect that those who remained committed to either enosis or taksim, even after the advent of independence, would have found an opportunity to prove the dysfunctionality of the Republic, one way or another, and to use it as a pretext to legitimise their opposing political aspirations.”

The segregation that followed the forceful movement of the Turkish Cypriots into enclaves in 1963-64 had tremendous implications and created a paradoxical alliance between Greek and Turkish nationalisms, he said.

“For the Greek nationalists, the withdrawal of the Turkish Cypriots from the government allowed them to rule the bi-communal Republic mono-communally under the law of necessity, something that politically marginalised the Turkish Cypriots and put them under considerable social and economic pressure,” he said.

“For the Turkish nationalists, the enclave period was a great opportunity to build a separate system of governance that would progressively create the rationale for an ethnically-based territorial division of the island when conditions allowed, as they did in 1974.”

Assessing those explosive times, Yiannis Papadakis, a social anthropologist with the University of Cyprus, says:
“In Turkish Cypriot collective memory, 1963 stands for the major collective trauma, as does 1974 for Greek Cypriots. Turkish Cypriots annually, and officially, commemorate 1963 as ‘Kanli Noel’ (Bloody
Christmas) for which Greek Cypriots have no official commemoration.

1974 is officially commemorated differently by the two sides with Greek Cypriots placing the greatest emphasis as ‘the dark anniversaries of the coup and the invasion’, while for Turkish Cypriots it stands for the ‘Happy Peace Operation’.”

Dr Meltem Onurkan Samani, assistant professor of History at the European University of Lefke, and vice-president of the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR), thinks that neither side was disposed toward compromise.

“It was obvious that both leaderships had shared the opinion that the 1960 state would not last forever and they had decided to be ready for the day.

The spot in Nicosia where two Turkish Cypriots were killed on December 21, 1963

Goodwill was missing from the very beginning,” she said “The 1960 constitution was the one that required goodwill, interdependency, good cooperation and dialogue and trust between two communities of Cyprus. On the contrary, unfortunately both sides’ leaderships did their best to create mistrust between the communities in order to prove that the 1960 settlement was not working and that the guilty party was ‘the other side’.”

By Angelos Anastasiou

WITH less than two working days to Christmas, only 45 households have applied so far to have their power restored free-of-charge for the holiday period, the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) said yesterday.

On Wednesday EAC chairman Charalambos Tsouris said it would restore power to 700 customers who had been cut off due to lack of payment. Supply would be restored with no strings attached from December 18 to January 8, the authority had said.

The sluggish response to the prospect of completely free electricity for 22 days has caused the EAC to backtrack somewhat on the numbers it announced on Wednesday. Spokesman Costas Gavrielides said the authority was not in fact aware how many of the non-paying customers might actually be households.

“We don’t know the number,” Gavrielides said. “We have the total figure of establishments without power but not of homes in particular, and that’s why I refrained from [initially] giving numbers,” he added, referring to the initially estimated 700 powerless homes.

“The low number of applications thus far may indicate that most cases of non-payment are not down to inability to pay,” Gavrielides added.

He said the low  demand for reinstating power could also be the result of misconception regarding additional action that could be required of those customers. On Wednesday the authority suggested those who would reapply could discuss long-term payment of outstanding bills. If a payment plan was in place by January 20, those customers could avoid being disconnected again.

But the EAC was clear that the free holiday supply was not contingent on that.

“This is absolutely not a prerequisite. Nothing is required,” the EAC spokesman reiterated. “One just needs to apply for their power to be reinstated at their local EAC customer service office.”

He added: “Every home can have its power supply restored simply by applying, but we advise those affected to negotiate a payment plan by January 20 in order to avoid the inconvenience of having it cut off again.”