By Makarios Drousiotis

IN THE COLLECTIVE conscience of the Greek Cypriots the July 1974 coup and invasion, which commenced 40 years ago today, were part of a Western conspiracy against Hellenism.

According to this conspiracy theory, Cyprus was destined to become an unsinkable aircraft carrier used by NATO to keep a check on the Middle East.

Forty years on, this theory has not been validated by documentary evidence while it has been disproved by the facts.

Cyprus never became an unsinkable aircraft carrier, but instead became a thorn in the side of NATO. As a result of Turkey’s refusal to recognise the Republic, relations between the Alliance and the EU have been problematic.

When I was researching my recently published book – The Invasion and the Big Powers: the realpolitik of the US and duplicity of the USSR – I found that the theory of a Western plot could not be documented and was, to a large extent, the product of Soviet propaganda at the time.

In reality, the Soviet Union backed the Turkish invasion and consolidation of the status quo to cause divisions within NATO and enhance its relations with Turkey.

Turkey, meanwhile, had given assurances to the Soviet Union that it would not annex part of Cyprus, a development that could have led to double enosis, and said it would not offer facilities to NATO in the occupied part of the island.

Moscow’s main position was that the coup in Cyprus had been staged with the co-operation of the US which wanted enosis and the transformation of the island into a NATO satellite.

The Turkish invasion, the Soviets believed, would block these plans. This was reflected in the intensity of Moscow’s demarche on Athens immediately after the coup, “the Soviet Union cannot allow to pass the dangerous evolution of the situation in Cyprus and in that region, which is located close to the borders of the Soviet Union.”

On July 15, the USSR’s ambassador to Ankara, Vasily Grubyakov, had an hour-long meeting with Turkish President Fahri Korutürk. Grubyakov informed Korutürk that Moscow was ready to work with Ankara to defend the independence and integrity of Cyprus.

In statements to the press, Grubyakov said: “We are supporting those who are fighting against insurgents.”

The Soviets believed Nicos Sampson’s aim was Enosis

The general secretary of the Central Committee of the USSR, Leonid Brezhnev sent a letter to President Richard Nixon and reminded him that there was an “understanding between the Soviet Union and the United States – and among many other countries, including Turkey – that the interests of Cypriot people and tranquility in this area as a whole is served by the independence and sovereignty of Cyprus.”

Moscow was demanding the return of Archbishop Makarios to power and the immediate withdrawal of Greek officers from Cyprus. This line was also adopted by Ankara, which was calling for constitutional order to be restored in order to justify its planned invasion of the island.

Makarios, who had fled abroad after the coup, applied to the UN Security Council to condemn Greece for its invasion of Cyprus. When he arrived in New York Makarios was in contact with the Soviet delegation at the UN.

The discussion of the Cyprus crisis commenced at the UN Security Council in New York, in the presence of Makarios, at 3.30pm on July 19, 1974 (in Greece it was 10.30pm).

While the discussion was taking place, the Turkish invasion force was on its way to Cyprus. The imminent Turkish invasion was not discussed by the Security Council, the debate focusing exclusively on the Greek coup.

Makarios, who was in consultation with Moscow, told the Security Council that the Greek ambassador to Cyprus had contacted him on instructions from his government to explain that reducing the National Guard or withdrawing Greek officers would weaken Cyprus’ defence against the potential menace of Turkey.

“I replied that as things developed, I consider the danger from Turkey of a lesser degree than the danger from them. And it was proved that my fears were justified.

“As I have already stated, the events in Cyprus do not constitute an internal matter of the Greeks of Cyprus. The Turks of Cyprus are also affected. The coup of the Greek junta is an invasion, and from its consequences the whole people of Cyprus suffers, both Greeks and Turks.”

It was decided that time would be given to the UN to complete its consultations for the approval of a resolution condemning Greece’s intervention in Cyprus. By next morning in New York, Turkey’s attack on Cyprus, by air and sea, was already underway and its troops were on the island.

On July 20, on instructions from his government, Turkey’s ambassador in Moscow Ilder Turkmen met the Soviet Union’s foreign minister Andrei Gromyko to inform him of Turkey’s intentions.

According to Turkmen, “Gromyko received the explanation of Turkish intervention [in Cyprus] with understanding,” although he expressed three concerns on which he requested clarification.

Gromyko was concerned about the danger of partition, but “the Turkish answer appeared to satisfy him.”

The second issue on which he sought clarification was over the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Cyprus. Turkmen referred to the Zurich agreements and answered affirmatively, noting however that “there was no specific timing for this action.”

Finally there was the matter of Makarios’ future. Turkmen said Turkey was not opposed to Makarios’ return, but it was not up to them to decide who would be the president of Cyprus. Gromyko was not fully satisfied with the statement about Makarios, but “appeared to accept the Turkish position”.

Gromyko told the ambassador that the Greek coup was tantamount to enosis, “Whether Sampson proclaimed union with Greece as his objective now or not, if he remained, this would be the aim of his government.”

Gromyko’s position indicated that the Soviets believed the Greek coup would mean the annexation of Cyprus, which, he believed, the Turkish intervention would impede.

Moscow positioned itself unequivocally in favour of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, which it characterised as a legitimate reaction to the “Greek military […] continuing their aggressive acts against the independence of the Cypriot people”. Moscow argued that “the Greek intervention” was supported “by certain circles of the NATO military bloc”.

The Soviet government’s announcement included a reference to the fact that “Turkey has landed troops in Cyprus” and that “armed clashes have begun between Turkish troops and detachments of the rebels.”

According to the Soviet government, Turkey was motivated by wanting to “defend the Turkish community on the island and has declared that it undertook this step after it was persuaded that all peaceful means of settling the conflict had been exhausted” and that its aim was “restoring the independence of Cyprus and the authority of its lawful Government”.

Immediately after the start of the invasion, the US submitted a draft resolution at the Security Council calling for a ceasefire and the start talks among the three guarantor powers – Greece, Turkey and Britain.

The American objective was to avert a Greco-Turkish war. But when the Americans arrived at the Security Council for consultations, they found the Turks lobbying against the ceasefire and the Soviets insisting on approving the draft Security Council resolution that had been circulated the previous evening and which referred only to the coup, as if the Turkish invasion had not taken place in the meantime.

In the end a compromise was reached and the draft resolution, prepared about the coup, had the call for a ceasefire and the start of talks added to it.

Thus resolution 353, which called for the withdrawal of Greek officers from Cyprus and made no reference to the Turkish invasion troops, was adopted unanimously on July 20, 1974.

During consultations between the French Permanent Representative Louis de Guiringaud and the Soviets, the Cypriot Permanent Representative Zenon Rossides was also present.

The Soviets said they would “accept anything the Cypriots would accept”. According to the American permanent representative, the “Soviets worked in close harmony with Cypriots, throughout the day, even at the last minute checking with [the] Archbishop himself by phone to make sure he accepted [the] resolution.

Perm Rep Rossides showed himself [a] more-than-willing collaborator [of the] Soviets.”

“At no point was any delegation other than the US willing to abstain or vote ‘no’ on the July 19 draft with its withdrawal language aimed specifically at Greeks – notwithstanding fact July 19 draft out of date in light [of] Turkish intervention,” stated the US delegation’s telegram to the State Department.

The Soviet representative stated before the Security Council that the relevant reference in the resolution referred “to the Greeks officers whose flagrant interference in the domestic affairs of Cyprus, on orders from Athens, was the prime cause of the present crisis.”

After the approval of the resolution, the Soviet Union took the role of observer, despite the continuing violence in Cyprus. And on July 29, 1974, after Turkey had landed thousands of troops in Cyprus, Moscow made representations to Athens over the non-implementation of Resolution 353.

The Soviet ambassador in Athens called on the director of the Greek foreign ministry Angelos Vlachos and underlined the importance of the withdrawal of foreign troops, by which he meant Greek troops.

Vlachos responded that the resolution clearly also referred to all the Turkish troops, and that he would instruct Greece’s ambassador in Moscow to protest “continued Soviet anti-Greek posture on [the] Cyprus issue”.

The Soviet ambassador replied to Vlachos that he could issue whatever instructions he desired, but he disagreed that “Turkish forces should be included in the definition of foreign forces” under the SC resolution.

On August 10, a few days before the second Turkish offensive, Ankara sent ambassador Ismail Soysal to Moscow on a special mission to assure the Soviet government that Turkey had no intention of partitioning Cyprus.

According to a report by the US State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) on Soysal’s mission to Moscow, the Turks were probably seeking “Soviet understanding should [Ankara] feel compelled to resume military operations on Cyprus”.

Moscow showed total indifference to the second Turkish offensive which commenced on August 14 and resulted in the occupation of 36 per cent of Cyprus’ territory and the displacement of 160,000 Greek Cypriots.

The Soviets, who had made such a big fuss about the July 15 coup, did not utter a word about the Turkish invasion and its consequences.
Gromyko was on holiday and Moscow showed no interest in Turkey’s actions.

Ambassador Turkmen met with deputy foreign minister Semyon Kozyrev on August 14 and 15 and concluded there was “no change in the Soviet position”. The only difference was that the Soviets no longer referred to Makarios and “his return is clearly secondary to them now.”

Asked about the reaction of the USSR, Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit told a press conference called to explain the new offensive that “no untoward reaction of any kind” had been received from the Soviet Union immediately after the resumption of hostilities in Cyprus.

Ecevit sought publicly to reassure Moscow that Turkey was taking into account its concerns about the geopolitical balance in the region. “We will show special care to protect the atmosphere of detente in the world, and particularly in our region, during our Cyprus operation as well as in future attempts to find a solution to the Cyprus issue,” he said.

As a result of the invasion, Greece withdrew from NATO, while the US Congress imposed an embargo on the sale of arms to Turkey. Ankara responded by closing all US telecommunications facilities that were used to monitor the Soviet nuclear arsenal.

The Cyprus crisis had created a major rift in NATO at the height of the Cold War.

Moscow’s policy remained unchanged in the years after the invasion. Up until 1977, which was the period of my research, the Soviets were interfering in Cyprus’ domestic political system, with the sole aim of safeguarding the status quo.

They used the Cyprus crisis to undermine the coherence of NATO and to curry favour with Turkey which was considered of great strategic importance.

Shortly after the UN resolution was adopted, Makarios met by chance the Austrian diplomat Dr Ludwig Steiner, who had served as ambassador to Nicosia.

Steiner, relaying his conversation with Makarios to the Americans, described his anger over the General Assembly resolution on Cyprus and the lack of support from Non-Aligned Movement member states, with whom he had worked for years and on whose support he had counted.

Makarios said he realised he “could expect no help from the Soviets, and, in this connection, told Steiner that he now felt a certain pro-American tendency ‘deep in his heart’.”

The Invasion and the Big Powers: the realpolitik of the US and duplicity of the USSR by Makarios Drousiotis (Alphadi publications: Nicosia) In Greek

By Loucas Charalambous

MANY have dismissed the National Council as a national coffeeshop. Giorgos Perdikis, one of its regular customers, described it a few years ago as a national chicken coop. Personally, I prefer to call it a national circus, because this best describes what takes place.

In the circus, each performer – acrobats, dancers, clowns – has a specific role and together they make up the show. In the same way, each one of our politicians has a role, performing his own set piece every time there is a meeting at the presidential palace.

The only difference is that at the real circus the audience is seated inside the auditorium watching the show, whereas at the national circus there are no spectators inside the palace watching the performances.

Spectators cannot even watch the actual performance on television because there is never a live broadcast. What is broadcast, from another room at the palace, is the personal account given by each politician of the performance he gave at the meeting.

Last Monday’s national circus show was one of the most successful to date. On top of the agenda, sent by President Nicos Anastasiades ahead of the meeting, was the discussion over whether the present procedure for a settlement should continue or be abandoned and replaced with ‘another strategy’.

No doubt, Anastasiades had hoped that this cunning tactical manoeuvre would have put Papadopoulos, Omirou and Perdikis on the spot forcing them to admit that they had no credible, alternative policy to propose.

At the time when a serious effort, perhaps the last, was being made to reach a settlement and while Anastasiades was accusing the Turkish side of delaying tactics he inexplicably decided to raise, at the National Council, the issue of abandoning the talks and a supposed change of strategy. And he does not understand that this is not serious behaviour.

He is obviously not bothered that outsiders are laughing at his behaviour. “He seems less serious than Christofias,” a foreign journalist told me with regard to Anastasiades’ actions.

The president, it appears, does not understand that it is not Papadopoulos and Omirou he is making fools of with his antics.

He is making a fool of himself and our side, by illustrating that we are not really interested in a settlement and are content to play silly games.

Another farce was staged at Monday’s meeting.

In an attempt to ingratiate himself with the rejectionists, Anastasiades proposed and the national circus approved the creation of a ‘Council of Geostrategic Studies’ that will submit proposals to the National Council, “which will study them and subsequently formulate the strategy of the Greek Cypriot side for overturning the Turkish designs.”

This will save us! After 50 years of the Cyprus problem and with partition already a reality, Anastasiades will set up a council of geostrategic studies to block the Turkish designs.

But the Turkish designs, with the valuable help of our politicians, who have never wanted a settlement have been achieved. What other Turkish designs could our national circus overturn from now on?

Who does Anastasiades think he is taking for a ride, having given up the only thing he should have pursued with the utmost urgency – the settlement that would allow us to salvage what is still salvageable – and taken up silly games?

For once the president and the members of our national circus must inform us in which century they hope to solve the Cyprus problem. Will it be when Turkey has finally bought all of Cyprus?

WHAT CAN you say on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Turkish invasion that has not already been said? Could anything be written that would not be utterly tedious, boring and clichéd and not come across as a send-up?

I could write that we will continue our unyielding struggle for the liberation of every single village in the occupied area and the return of all refugees to their homes, but customers would think I had a screw loose.

Not even our courageously defiant politicians make such statements nowadays, preferring to talk about a fair and just settlement that would be achieved with a minimum of struggle and preferably without the need of negotiations with the intransigent Turks who, in contrast to us, have never been consumed by the burning desire for a settlement.

The Turks might pretend they want a settlement but their real objective is partition along the current dividing line which they have achieved without our politicians noticing because they had been too busy putting up a brave resistance to the Turkish designs and thwarting Anglo-American plots to impose suffocating time-frame on talks.

MEANWHILE our illustrious party leaders decided to mark the 40th anniversary of the invasion by putting together a new strategy for the liberation of the occupied parts. Monday’s National Council meeting agreed that all the leaders would submit proposals for a new strategy when they meet again in September.

What new strategy these slogan salesmen will come up with is anyone’s guess, but I suspect they would agree on the re-branding and re-marketing of the Cyprob as an issue of invasion and occupation rather than as a bi-communal dispute, because this would help our unyielding struggle to go on for a few more years.

An even more radical strategy change would be for Prez Nik to put in a request to the UN Security Council to stop negotiating for settlement with the Turks and choose another country. For instance, we could negotiate for solution with the Maltese who are much more reasonable chaps than the Turks and are unlikely to demand political equality and rotating presidency because their army – if they have one – would be even more pathetic than ours.

This is the new strategy our leaders should be exploring as it would greatly improve the prospects of a fair and viable solution, so long as the devious foreign powers do not use the Maltese factor to press for a speedy closure of the Cyprob.

NATIONAL saviour and leader the Alliance of Lillikas, Yiorkos Lillikas, who has acquired a reputation for his bold and original thinking, wasted no time in giving his views about the new strategy. He said:

“Forty years after the twin crime we must carve a new assertive policy. We must attribute again to the Cyprus problem its true character, as a problem of invasion and occupation. We must give to our struggle the correct content as an anti-occupation, liberation struggle.”

I hear Yiorkos is even toying with the idea of moving into a flat and offering his palatial, super-luxury home in the Laiki Sporting Club area to be used as a training camp for the volunteers of his liberation struggle.

His fellow-Paphite Yiannakis Omirou had an even better idea for a new strategy. “To ensure unity of action we must propose as a basis for a settlement the unanimous communique of the National Council of 2009.” There is a good chance the Maltese would accept this even though it might be a better idea to first try out the assertive policy combined with the anti-occupation, liberation struggle.

THE ANNIVERSARY of the coup is the favourite time of year for the Paphite windbag Omirou because it gives him the opportunity to talk about the time when he announced on a local radio in Paphos that Makarios was not dead, as the coupist-controlled CyBC had been reporting on July 15.

This year he also wrote an article in which he praised the resistance to the coup by the paramilitary Union of Paphos Fighters who had been given guns by the Makarios government. According to Omirou, EDEK also had a “well-organised, armed group” which joined the Union of Paphos Fighters and put the whole of the Paphos district under “the popular resistance forces.”

Omirou wrote: “In Paphos there was not just simply resistance. There was a mass popular uprising. It was a popular revolution against the barbarity of the totalitarianism the Athens junta was trying to impose… The mass nature of the resistance was owed to the democratic traditions of the district…”

The district even had armed civilians to protect its democratic traditions and ensure everyone in Paphos supported Makarios.

FOR AKEL’s commies, the anniversary of the coup is an opportunity for it to attack the nationalist right as well as the Yanks and NATO, who were allegedly behind the coup and the invasion. This conspiracy theory has been challenged by a book published a couple of months ago, sparking a rabid reaction from the commies.

“Active involvement of US” in the coup read front page headline in Haravghi on Tuesday. On the same day party chief Andros Kyprianou condemned efforts to absolve the US and NATO of their guilt for the coup and the invasion, while accusing the government of re-writing history.

We must all accept history as it has been written by AKEL’s propaganda department on the instructions of its Soviet masters because anything else would constitute a distortion of communist truth.

LAST WEEK’S exclusive report about the Yanks’ plans to have former Under-Secretary-General of the UN Lynn Pasco-e appointed in the Al Downer position was not officially confirmed by our government because the consultations were meant to be kept confidential.

One hack who contacted his government sources was told that the government would rather nothing was written about the matter. Meanwhile AKEL, which was not very enthusiastic about the appointment, has avoided vetoing it because it sensed that this was what Prez Nik would have liked. But Nik could not possibly oppose the man favoured by our new strategic partners to kick-start the talks and maintain the pretence that he is committed to a settlement.

A CyBC show discussed the Pasco-e speculation, with its US correspondent arguing that his appointment would be disastrous for the Greek Cypriots because he was a tough nut and a big Annan-plan supporter. The show’s presenter said it would be terrible if after all the trouble we went to to get rid of Downer we would end up with a special envoy that was worse than the Aussie. A ‘Bring back big bad Al’ campaign is on the cards.

THE TROIKA is back in town but we hear its members are not very pleased with the feet-dragging over the foreclosure and insolvency legislation. Foreclosures legislation has been the main subject of most of the Troika meetings.

There have also been rumours that the Troikans are concerned about the complacency shown by the government, which has been constantly congratulating itself for returning to the markets and sorting out public finances, and is considering new measures. One report is that it would ask the government to cut another 100 million from its spending as a way of reminding it that it is still in a programme.

The Troikans must have thought they were dealing with lunatics when they were told that the sale price of a property taken over by a bank would have to be approved by the former owner, its debtor, who would be entitled to commission his own valuation. This is the democratic way of executing foreclosures – the former owner having a say over the selling price. Democratic traditions are not the exclusivity of the Paphos district.

WHEN the heads of the Troika arrived for their Friday meeting with the House Finance Committee, there were only two deputies there. Ethnarch Junior, the committee chairman, and Green leader Perdikis (about whom we will never again write a bad thing after everything he has done to help Cyprus rugby) were the only ones present.

Delia and Martin sat in the meeting room waiting for the committee’s deputies most of whom were outside smoking and drinking coffee. This rudeness made us all ashamed. I do not know if our deputies were trying to prove a point, but they should have known that it was very ungentlemanly to leave a lady waiting, even if she represented the hated IMF.

This was no way to treat the delightful Delia who repaid the rudeness by not budging an inch in the discussions about the NPLs and foreclosures, which inspired a memorable sound-bite from AKEL deputy Stavros Evagorou. He said the international lenders “have praised Cyprus’ return to the markets but did not concern themselves with Cypriots’ inability to return to the supermarkets.”

ETHNARCH junior revealed at last what he had in mind when demanding the renegotiation of the memorandum. It is all about the sale of the Greek operations of the Cypriot banks to the Bank of Piraeus last year.

Junior argued that the forced sale, ordered by the Eurogroup as a condition of the bailout, constituted a theft of Cypriot assets worth €3.5 billion. This was reportedly the value of the assets transferred to Piraeus Bank which paid only €500 million for all the business in Greece of the Cypriot banks. Junior is demanding that the €3.5 billion was returned to Kyproulla.

Who will return it is anyone’s guess. If our Central Bank Governor was dumb enough to agree a price for the banks’ assets at just a seventh of their value why would the international lenders cover the loss? It would be interesting to hear how Junior proposes that the government negotiates the payment of €3.5 billion by the Troika for a benefit enjoyed exclusively by the shareholders of Piraeus Bank.

WE WERE all shocked to hear the news about the FBME, the administration of which was taken over by the Central Bank after the US government declared it “a financial institution of primary money laundering concern.”

Nobody could say what this actually means, but if the Tanzania-based bank is forced to leave Kyproulla there would be some 300 staff added to the ranks of the unemployed. Would the Central Bank have taken such drastic action if Professor Panicos was still in charge?

His personal assistant and and ruler of the bank during his governorship Eleni Markadji would never have allowed it as her husband had been a director and consultant of FBME for many years. But Markadji, who is currently on unpaid leave, is no longer the force she had been during Panicos’ rule.

I WOULD like to end on a positive note, even though today is the 40th anniversary of the invasion. We may have been a bit harsh on our loser politicians for their 40-year failure to secure a settlement that would end the Turkish occupation, but we should also praise them because in these 40 years they ensured that we did not lose any more of our territory to the Turks. We need to accentuate the positive ever so often.

By George Psyllides

TODAY, Sunday July 20, 2014 marks the 40th anniversary of the island’s division, the unsettling wail of the sirens in the early morning hours a stark reminder of the events of 1974 that brought about the current state of affairs.

Memorial services will be held across the government-controlled areas for those killed during the operation, dubbed Attila by Turkey.

In the Turkish-occupied north meanwhile, various celebrations will be held to mark the anniversary.

The celebrations will be attended by Turkish President Abdullah Gül, in north Cyprus for a two-day visit.

Turkish troops landed in Kyrenia early on Saturday July 20, 1974 while paratroopers were being dropped inland and its air force bombed targets across the island.

“From our east facing room (at the Ledra Palace Hotel in Nicosia) we watched as about 12 lumbering transport aircraft flew in sedate circles before the backcloth of the Kyrenia range and began dropping paratroopers on the central plain,” veteran war correspondent and military historian Colin Smith, who worked for the Observer at the time, said.

The invasion found Cyprus reeling in the aftermath of a coup that overthrew president Makarios on July 15.

It had been engineered by the Greek junta and executed by the National Guard, whose officers were mostly Greek, and the EOKA B paramilitary organisation, which wanted union with Greece.

Turkey claimed it had the right to invade or “intervene” under the Treaty of Guarantee it had signed along with Greece and Britain, though the article it cited also states that the sole aim of taking action is to re-establish the state of affairs.

Under the Treaty, the guarantor powers must also prohibit any activity aiming at either union with any other country or partition.

At the time of the invasion, Cyprus had been independent – on paper at least — for 14 years.

However, the power sharing agreement between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots had already broken down three years after the declaration of independence.

The apparent reason was president Makarios’ proposals to change the constitution to make it more functional. The Turkish side disagreed and withdrew from the arrangement.

Inter-communal clashes broke out late in 1963 and many Turkish Cypriots withdrew into enclaves, which they defended with firearms.

In 1974, Turkey declared a ceasefire on August 16, after occupying one-third of the island, according to its plans.

On top of the dead and missing, between 160,000 and 200,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 to 60,000 Turkish Cypriots were displaced.

Cypriot photographer and cinematographer Doros Partasides recalls the drama of missing persons and the mixed feelings captured on people’s faces, “the joy of those whose relatives returned, and the overwhelming sorrow of those whose loved ones did not.

“We should not forget everything that happened, we should tell the story to the younger generations. At the same time we should also build a happy, peaceful future,” he said.

A damaged Presidential Palace after the coup July 15, 1974

Presidential Palace after the coup July 15,1974

A bombed car in front of the Presidential Palace on July 15, 1974

The archbishopric damaged in the coup

Tanks rolling through Nicosia on the day of the coup July 15

Nicos Sampson declaring himself president on July 15, 1974

Turkish troops on their way to Cyprus July 20, 1974

Turkish paratrooper landing in Cyprus as others get into position, July 20 1974

Turkish soldiers take up positions during the Turkish invasion

Turkish troops with flag

Turkish troops

Nicosia under fire

A body hanging out of the window of a bombed hotel in Famagusta

Distraught refugees displaced by the Turkish invasion (Doros Partasides)

British soldiers handing out bread in refugee camps created on the British Bases (Doros Partasides)

An elderly man in a refugee camp (Doros Partasides)

Families pleading for news of their relatives who went missing during the invasion (Doros Partasides)

The Nicosia International Airport which has been part of the UN controlled buffer zone since the Turkish invasion

A damaged Cyprus Airways plane on the tarmac of Nicosia airport which has been part of the UN controlled buffer zone since the Turkish invasion (Doros Partasides)

The arrival lounge at the Nicosia International Airport which has been part of the UN controlled buffer zone since the Turkish invasion

Recent shot of the crumbling Nicosia airport which has been part of the UN controlled buffer zone since the invasion

A deserted road in Famagusta, seized by the Turkish troops and uninhabited for the last 40 years

A bougainvillea covers an unfinished house in the deserted town of Famagusta, seized by the Turkish troops and uninhabited for the last 40 years

The Agia Zoni church in Famagusta

The sandy beaches of Famagusta remain empty for the last 40 years

A recent photo of the ghost town of Famagusta seized by the Turkish troops and uninhabited for the last 40 years (Doros Partasides)

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller

At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Sunday by Israeli shelling in a Gaza neighbourhood, where bodies were strewn in the street and thousands fled toward a hospital packed with wounded, witnesses and health officials said.

The mass casualties in the Shejaia district in northeast Gaza appeared to be the heaviest since Israel launched its offensive on the Palestinian territory on July 8 after cross-border rocket strikes by militants intensified.

Anguished cries of “Did you see Ahmed?” “Did you see my wife?” echoed through the courtyard of Gaza’s Shifa hospital, where panicked residents of Shejaia gathered in family groups, while inside bodies and wounded lay on blood-stained floors.

Video given to Reuters by a local showed at least a dozen mangled corpses, including three children, lying in the rubbled-filled streets.

At the hospital, about three kilometres (two miles away), elderly men said the Israeli attack was the fiercest they had seen since the 1967 Middle East war, when Israel captured Gaza.

Thousands fled the neighbourhood, some by foot and others piling into the backs of trucks and sitting on the hoods of cars filled with families trying to get away.

Asked about the attack on Shejaia, an Israeli military spokeswoman said: “Two days ago, residents of Shejaia received recorded messages to evacuate the area in order to protect their lives.”

Hamas, the dominant armed group in the Gaza Strip, had urged people across the territory not to heed the Israeli warnings and abandon their homes.

As the tank shells began to land, Shejaia residents called radio stations pleading for evacuation. An air strike on Shejaia home of Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, killed his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, hospital officials said.

Militants kept up their rocket fire on Israel, with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough toward a ceasefire in sight. Sirens sounded in southern Israeli towns and in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. There were no reports of casualties.

Israel sent ground forces into the Gaza Strip on Thursday after 10 days of air, naval and artillery barrages failed to stop rocket fire.

The military said it beefed up its presence on Sunday, with a focus on destroying missile stockpiles and a vast tunnel system Hamas built along the frontier that cross into Israel.

Before news of the casualties in Shejaia, Gaza officials said at least 353 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed in the 13-day conflict. On Israel’s side, two civilians were killed by cross-border rockets and five soldiers died as fighting increasingly occurred at close-quarters.

TRUCE EFFORTS

Diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire involving, among others, Egypt, Qatar, France and the United Nations, have failed to make headway.

Qatar was due to host a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday, a senior Qatari source told Reuters. Ban was due during the week to travel to Kuwait, Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan, a U.N. statement said.

The Qatari source said Abbas was also due to meet Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.

Western-backed Abbas in April struck a deal with Islamist Hamas that led to the formation of a Palestinian unity government, seven years after the group seized control of Gaza from Abbas’s Fatah party in a brief civil war.

Hamas has rejected Egyptian efforts to end fighting, saying any deal must include an end to a blockade of the coastal area and a recommitment to a ceasefire reached after an eight-day war in Gaza in 2012.

Egypt said on Saturday it had no plans to revise its ceasefire proposal. A Hamas source in Doha said the group has no plans to change its conditions for a ceasefire.

Hostilities between the two sides escalated following the killing last month of three Jewish students that Israel blames on Hamas. Hamas neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

The apparent revenge murder of a Palestinian youth in Jerusalem, for which Israel has charged three Israelis, further fuelled tension.

Israel says more than 1,700 rockets have been fired out of Gaza during this month’s fighting, and between 3,000 and 4,000 destroyed in military strikes – together almost half of the militants’ original estimated arsenal.

Hamas says it is continuously replenishing its stock of weapons and is ready for a prolonged conflict.

The Israeli death toll has been kept low due to the rockets’ relative inaccuracy, a network of air raid sirens and shelters and the Iron Dome rocket interceptor’s 90 percent success rate.

The Israeli military urged Palestinians to flee a growing area of Gaza ahead of further military action in the Mediterranean enclave. Residents say about half of the territory’s 1.8 million population have been told to move.

With both the Israeli and Egyptian borders sealed off, Gazans say they have few places to escape to.

The largest U.N. agency in Gaza, UNRWA, said about 61,500 people had sought refuge in its buildings, mainly schools – more than in any previous conflict there between Israel and Islamist militants.

Germany’s Nico Rosberg capped a memorable eight days for himself and his country by winning his home grand prix for Mercedes on Sunday and stretching his overall lead in the Formula One championship to 14 points.

Following up Germany’s World Cup triumph in Brazil last weekend, his wedding in Monaco and the signing of a new contract with Mercedes, Rosberg led untroubled from pole position to chequered flag.

Lewis Hamilton, his team mate and only real title rival, finished a fighting third after starting in 20th place and then charging through the field.

Finland’s Valtteri Bottas took second place for Williams, his third podium finish in a row and a hefty 20.7 seconds behind Rosberg, after Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa crashed at the start in a collision that brought out the safety car.

Rosberg was the first to win for a works Mercedes team in Germany since Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio in 1954 and first German home winner for a German team since the championship started in 1950.

“It’s fantastic. It’s an amazing feeling to win here at home,” he said. “A special day for me.”

Rosberg now has 190 points to Hamilton’s 176 with Australian Daniel Ricciardo on 106.

The German’s fourth victory of the season had looked inevitable from the moment a brake disc failed on Hamilton’s car in the first phase of qualifying on Saturday, sending the Briton spinning hard into the barriers.

Between them, the Mercedes drivers have won nine out of 10 races so far in 2014 and in normal circumstances would have been celebrating another one-two finish on an overcast afternoon that only turned to rain after the finish.

The 50,000 spectators, a disappointing attendance in a season dominated by Mercedes, were treated instead to the sight of Hamilton on a charge to limit the damage and a series of other thrilling duels further down the field.

BUCKLE UP

Mercedes had warned the fans to buckle up for the ride and Hamilton delivered with a swashbuckling drive that saw him go three abreast at times, picking off a Ferrari and a Red Bull in one swoop.

Hamilton was 10th after 10 of the 67 laps and up to second after 16, banging wheels and bodywork along the way but escaping with only a damaged front wing when he clipped former team mate Jenson Button’s McLaren.

He could not get past Bottas, with the Finn becoming the first Williams driver since Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya in 2003 to rack up three successive podiums, but enjoyed it anyway.

“I had great fun,” said Hamilton on the podium.

“I did as good as I could. It was hard to get through the pack safely and I had a little bit of a collision with Jenson. I thought he was going to open the door which he has done a couple of times lately but that was my bad judgement.

“It was hard to overtake so I’m glad to get some points today,” added the 2008 champion.

Germany’s quadruple champion Sebastian Vettel, last year’s winner at the Nuerburgring, was fourth for Red Bull ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso in fifth.

Ricciardo was sixth for Red Bull ahead of Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Button.

Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen, who tangled with Massa at the start when they lined up third and fourth, recovered to take ninth place while Mexican Sergio Perez made it a double scoring finish for Force India.

Driver and constructor standings after the Formula One German Grand Prix at Hockenheimring on Sunday

Drivers Points
1. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 190
2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 176
3. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Red Bull 106
4. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 97
5. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams 91
6. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull 82
7. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India 69
8. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 59
9. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark) McLaren 37
10. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams 30
11. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India 29
12. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 19
13. Jean-Eric Vergne (France) Toro Rosso 9
14. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus 8
15. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) Toro Rosso 6
16. Jules Bianchi (France) Marussia 2
17. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Sauber 0
18. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Caterham 0
19. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Lotus 0
20. Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico) Sauber 0
21. Max Chilton (Britain) Marussia 0
22. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Caterham 0

Constructors Points
1. Mercedes 366
2. RedBull – Renault 188
3. Williams-Mercedes 121
4. Ferrari 116
5. Force India – Mercedes 98
6. McLaren 96
7. Toro Rosso – Renault 15
8. Lotus – Renault 8
9. Marussia – Ferrari 2
10. Sauber – Ferrari 0
11. Caterham – Renault 0

THE NICOS and Elpida Shacolas Foundation has donated nine million euros towards the building of the University of Cyprus’ (UCY) Medical School.
Businessman, Nicos Shakolas, signed the agreement with UCY’s rector Constantinos Christofides in the presence of the President Nicos Anastasiades, Education Minister Costas Kadis, the UCY board and the medical school’s students.
The school will be called Nicos K. Shacolas School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
President Anastasiades said that the foundation’s generosity would contribute to the steady development of the university.
“The first public university driven by knowledge, research and innovation, has succeeded in securing numerous European funds and has become the biggest employer in terms of youth,” the president said.
He said that the UCY employs more than 500 new scientists, with funding coming exclusively from EU programmes and that it has successfully approached organisations and private individuals to contribute through donations and scholarships.
“The development of UCY contributes to the development of the country,” the president said.
Christofides said that the donation has made it possible to achieve the goals of the university and of the medical school in difficult economic times.
Shakolas has already donated another €4.5m for the erection of the ‘Shacolion Health training centre’ also at the UCY.

By George Psyllides
POLITICAL systems, including federation, will be part of the school curriculum in the near future according to Education Minister Costas Kadis, who stressed however that this was not connected with the island’s political problem.
“What the education ministry sees as useful at this moment is to enrich the current curriculum,” he told state radio, adding that it would not be a new lesson.
This would be an addition so that pupils also learn about the federal system, among others, its characteristics, pros and cons, and so on.
It is so that pupils, “tomorrow’s citizens, become familiar with what exists and operates across the world” and was not connected with the Cyprus problem which for decades has become bogged down in the dispute over the nature of a future federation.
Reports said the inclusion of such topics in the curriculum was the initiative of ruling DISY MP Nicos Tornaritis.
On hearing the news, DIKO announced it would table the matter for discussion before the House Education Committee so that the party was briefed officially about the contents of the lesson and the “government’s real intentions”.
The definition of federation is simple and it is right to teach it and it should be taught in schools, the party said in a statement.
“However, the critical element that makes a federal solution viable and functional is the content, since, there are dozens of models internationally under the title federation, with a totally different content,” DIKO said.

By Anton Zverev and Peter Graff
A TRAIN carrying the remains of most of the almost 300 victims of the Malaysia Airlines plane downed over Ukraine left the site on Monday, after the Malaysian Prime Minister reached a deal with the leader of pro-Russian separatists controlling the area.
The aircraft’s black boxes, which could hold information about the crash in rebel-held eastern Ukrainebut will not pinpoint who did it, would be given to the Malaysian authorities, Prime Minister Najib Razak said, indicating he had bypassed Kiev, which has lost control of much of the east.
The expected handover of the bodies and the black boxes, and reports by international investigators of improved access to the wreckage of the airliner four days after it was shot down, takes place against calls for broader sanctions against Russia for its support for the rebellion, though Western leaders are struggling to agree a united response.
he United Nations Security Council on Monday condemned the downing of a Malaysian passenger plane in Ukraine with 298 people onboard and demanded that armed groups allow “safe, secure, full and unrestricted access” to the crash site.
The 15-member council unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by Australia, which lost 28 citizens in the crash, demanding those responsible “be held to account and that all states cooperate fully with efforts to establish accountability”.
The Malaysian leader said he had reached an agreement with the separatists for recovered bodies to be handed over to the authorities in the Netherlands, where the largest number of victims came from.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told a news conference that a train carrying around 200 body bags was on its way to rebel-held Donetsk and then to Kharkiv, which is in Ukrainian government hands, from where the bodies would be taken back to the Netherlands to be identified.
The shooting down of the airliner on Thursday sharply deepened the Ukrainian crisis, in which separatist gunmen in the Russian-speaking east have been fighting government forces since pro-Western protesters in Kiev forced out a pro-Moscow president and Russia annexed Crimea in March.
Shaken by the deaths of 298 people from across the globe, Western governments have threatened Russia with stiffer penalties for what they say is its backing of pro-Russian militia who, their evidence suggests, shot the plane down.
But, with Russia challenging them to produce proof, some of those taking a firmer line are saying the acid test will be if the separatists improve access to the site and Russia stops supporting them.
European Union foreign ministers are due to discuss further penalties on Tuesday, but the most they are expected to do is to speed up implementation of sanctions against individuals, and possibly companies, agreed in principle last week before the plane was brought down.
Diplomats say more serious sanctions against whole sectors of the Russian economy will depend largely on the line taken by the Dutch, due to the number of Dutch victims.
Emotions ran high in the Netherlands, where prosecutors opened a war crimes investigation.
“It is clear that Russia must use her influence on the separatists to improve the situation on the ground,” Prime Minister Rutte said.
“If in the coming days access to the disaster area remains inadequate, then all political, economic and financial options are on the table against those who are directly or indirectly responsible for that,” Rutte said.
US President Barack Obama echoed that approach.
“Now’s the time for President Putin and Russia to pivot away from the strategy that they’ve been taking and get serious about trying to resolve hostilities within Ukraine,” he said at the White House.
Putin and Russia have a direct responsibility to compel separatists to cooperate with the investigation, and the burden is now on Moscow to insist that separatists stop tampering with the investigation, he said.
European security monitors said gunmen stopped them inspecting the site when they arrived on Friday, and Ukrainian officials said separatists had tampered with vital evidence, allegations echoed by Obama.
“What are they trying to hide?” the US president said.
But the spokesman for the European security monitors said they had had unfettered access on Monday, and three members of a Dutch disaster victims identification team arrived at a railway station near the crash site and inspected the storage of the bodies in refrigerated rail cars.
Peter van Vliet, whose team went through the wagons dressed in surgical masks and rubber gloves, said he was impressed by the work the recovery crews had done, given the heat and the scale of the crash site. “I think they did a hell of a job in a hell of a place,” he said.
As they went about their work, fighting flared in Donetsk, some 60 kilometres from the site, in a reminder of the dangers the experts face operating in a war zone.
The government in Kiev denied sending the regular army into the centre of Donetsk, which pro-Russian separatists captured in April, but said small “self-organised” pro-Ukrainian groups were fighting the rebels in the city.
Four people were killed in clashes, health officials said.
Donetsk is at the heart of a rebel uprising against rule by Kiev, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has vowed to retake the city as part of what Kiev calls its “anti-terrorist operation” against the separatists.
Russia’s defence ministry challenged accusations that pro-Russian separatists were responsible for shooting down the airliner and said Ukrainian warplanes had flown close to it.
The ministry also rejected accusations that Russia had supplied the rebels with SA-11 Buk anti-aircraft missile systems – the weapon said by Kiev and the West to have downed the airliner – “or any other weapons”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry laid out what he called overwhelming evidence of Russian complicity in the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines plane, and expressed disgust at how the bodies of the victims had been treated at the crash site.
“Drunken separatists have been piling bodies into trucks and removing them from the site,” he said on NBC television on Sunday. “What’s happening is really grotesque, and it is contrary to everything President Putin and Russia said they would do.”
Television images of the rebel-controlled crash site, where the remains of victims had lain decomposing in fields among their personal belongings, have turned initial shock and sorrow after Thursday’s disaster into anger.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he had spoken to Putin for the first time about the disaster. At least 27 Australians were on the flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.
Abbott said an Australian investigation team was in Kiev but had been unable to travel to the site. He said there had been some improvement with the Ukrainian government offering access.
“But there’s still a hell of a long way to go before anyone could be satisfied with the way that site is being treated,” Abbott said. “It’s more like a garden clean-up than a forensic investigation. This is completely unacceptable.”
Putin, in a televised address, said the downing of the airliner must not be used for political ends and urged separatists to allow international experts access to the crash site.

By Elias Hazou
THE GOVERNMENT and its international lenders have reached agreement on a key objective of the bailout deal, reducing the number of pending applications for title deeds at the land registry to 2,000 by year’s end, interior minister Socrates Hasikos said on Monday.
Currently the title deeds pending with the Land Registry concerning building irregularities exceeds 30,000.
“After completing the evaluation of the properties, the second top obligation is the issuance of the title deeds, as by the end of the year the titles to be issued should be reduced to 2,000,” Hasikos told reporters, adding that the land registry has only six months left to conclude the task.
Responding to a question, Hasikos said the government and the troika could agree in the coming days to slash the transfer fees in the real estate sector by 50 per cent.
Noting the government’s aim to halve transfer fees, Hasikos said the lenders want to explore the fiscal impact of such an action.
“This is one of the issues under discussion and I expect that in the coming days we will conclude this issue and proceed with a 50 per cent reduction in these fees,” he said, adding that the government will present figures justifying this reduction.
“I have the impression we will convince (our lenders),” he concluded.
Officials from the ministry met with technocrats of the troika, (EC, ECB and the IMF), currently in Cyprus for the fifth review of the Cypriot economic adjustment programme.
The title deeds in question are those where an application for issuance has been made to the land registry by the developer. But that leaves some 90,000 to 100,000 still in limbo where no such application has been made. The troika has demanded a task force to look into the other 100,000.

By Angelos Anastasiou

THE government is planning to clamp down on foreign students who enter Cyprus to study, only to abandon their studies and remain in the country to work illegally.

Suggestions by a ministerial committee include a seven-year cap on the duration of studies and relate only to third-country nationals – students from countries other than EU-member states. Universities would be given a two-year transition period to harmonise their operations.

Additionally, eligible university candidates will need to fulfil specific academic criteria, including a minimum 50 per cent school-leaving English language mark, or a general pass-mark – 50 per cent – on their school-leaving certificate and at least a 5 mark IELTS certificate.

The proposals, reported in Politis on Monday, also include a clause transferring the responsibility of certifying such students’ travel documents to their countries’ consulate in Cyprus, and of their academic credentials to the education ministry. Each student’s criminal record and health certificate must be issued by the competent government authority in his or her home country.

Private universities will also be allowed to enrol third-country students up to 10 per cent of their education ministry-approved capacity, given the school does not exceed its capacity maximum. The responsibility for checking that universities maintain their capacity caps will lie with the education ministry in collaboration with the migration and the civil registry departments, which will assume the obligation to provide the ministry with political asylum applications, fake marriages, illegal employment, and criminal activity for each school.

Private universities will also be obliged to report their class call sheets to the education ministry, in order to establish whether the 70 per cent mandatory attendance minimum is complied with. Following a review, the list of names of third-country students that fail to attend 70 per cent of their classes without a valid medical justification will be forwarded to the migration and civil registry departments.

Strict measures holding private universities accountable for such instances are also included in the proposals. Specifically, third-country students abandoning their studies will still be counted in the university’s 10 per cent quota, with no right of replacement until the registered student’s programme study is over.
Additionally, private universities are obliged to refund tuition fees to all registered students who have abandoned their studies or have applied for political asylum, or have engaged in criminal activity.

By Elias Hazou

BANK OF Cyprus (BoC) is expected to open the book for offers on new shares by the end of this week or on Monday at the latest, as the island’s largest lender seeks to raise around €1bn ahead of an EU-wide stress test.

The process of the capital increase is currently in its first, exploratory phase, with interested investors seeking details and obtaining answers from BoC.

The opening of the book – where investors submit binding offers – is expected on Friday or Monday, industry sources said. That process will last a few hours.

Through the capital increase the bank aims to raise its core tier 1 capital – a measure of a bank’s capital adequacy – from 10.6 per cent to just under 15 per cent.

The scheme allows existing shareholders to participate in three phases. The capital increase is expected to be approved by an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders in August.

The subscription price for the shares will be the same at all phases and for both new investors and existing shareholders.

Present shareholders, including a mix of major local and Russian depositors who represent 80 per cent and the pre-bail-in shareholders whose stake has been diluted to just 0.5 per cent, will be able to take part in up to 20 per cent of the new capital increase.

BoC as well as other local banks are under pressure to beef up their core tier 1 ratio as they try to deal with rising levels of non-performing loans, often reaching 45 to 50 per cent of portfolios.

Local lenders are finding it hard to recover delinquent loans amid an austerity-hit and credit-starved economy, where unemployment stands at close to 20 per cent.

The EU-wide stress tests of 128 systemic banks within the eurozone will be announced in October.

BoC launched an investors’ ‘road show’ for the new shares issue two weeks ago. HSBC and Credit Suisse have been advising the bank on its recapitalisation plans and will also be arranging the sale of new shares between July 18 and 28. Joining them will be Deutsche Bank and VTB Capital.

By a Staff Reporter

POLICE have recommended arresting prominent developer Theodoros Aristodimou, his wife, and a former Paphos municipality official, reports said, as part of a probe into the demarcation of land plots in Paphos.

Daily Politis on Monday said Aristodimou, who had also served as chairman of Bank of Cyprus in the past, his wife Sotiroulla, and former municipal engineer Savvas Savva, were named as suspects in a police report submitted to the state legal services.

The case was reported to police on July 1 and concerned an application filed by Aristo Developers, Aristodimou’s company, for a permit to demarcate 177 plots in the Skali area.

The application was approved, but according to the complaint filed to police, it later emerged that new plans were added in the file and the previous ones had been annulled.

With the new plans, the company basically took back some 5,000 square metres, which had been previously earmarked as green spaces in accordance with the rules and regulations.

The value of the land was estimated at €2.0 million, Politis said.

The company denied the accusations, saying the municipality got the calculations wrong. It claimed that the municipality had asked for new plans to be submitted and the discrepancy came about because the land area was bigger than what was recorded on the title deeds.

The changes in the demarcation of green areas were made at the behest of the water department to protect a stream.

By Angelos Anastasiou

FINANCE ministry officials remained in lengthy talks with the troika of international lenders on Monday over some of the controversial provisions that would allow banks to foreclose insolvent borrowers’ properties.

State broadcaster CyBC reported late last night that the Cypriot side had settled on a draft foreclosures bill, including a clause allowing the borrower to appeal the foreclosure process in court. From the report it was assumed that the troika – opposed to this provision – had yielded on the point.

However, negotiations are ongoing at a technocratic level with the focus being on striking the appropriate balance between the rights of borrowers and lenders.

A meeting between the finance minister and the troika – European Central Bank, European Commission and International Monetary Fund – to reach agreement has yet to be scheduled, but Finance Minister Harris Georgiades and Interior Minister Socratis Hasikos, along with Attorney General Costas Clerides, met at the finance ministry on Monday in order to discuss the contested provisions.

“The issue has reached its high point,” Hasikos said entering the meeting, implying imminent decisions.

“The government will act humanely, but on the other hand we have to respect the lender’s right to receive what he is owed,” he added. “We will try to get over this in the most painless way possible.”

As the bill has acquired ‘prior action’ status – meaning it needs to have been passed before the next tranche of international aid to Cyprus can be released – the government had planned for it to be ready for Legal Services to review and submit to the Council of Ministers by Wednesday. The bill would then be forwarded to parliamentary parties for review, ahead of voting at an extraordinary House plenary session before September’s Eurogroup that would decide on approving the next aid tranche. This planning required the bill to have been finalised by Tuesday, but deadlines are nearing and agreement on the final text has yet to be reached.

The Cyprus News Agency reported on Monday that the bone of contention was a clause allowing the borrower to appeal the foreclosure process in court, a provision which the troika had argued would make the process more time-consuming. The government also insists on borrowers being allowed an active role in determining the value of their property collateral – also not acceptable to the Troika.

Initial scheduling had Georgiades and Central Bank governor Chrystalla Georghadji meeting with the troika mission heads on Thursday, in order to finalise the fifth update of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Cyprus and the Troika.

The MoU’s fourth update called for a bill allowing the foreclosure of property used as collateral while exempting primary residences until the new legal framework on insolvency is passed by year-end.

Foreclosures in Cyprus followed a highly complex process involving government bureaucracy and court orders that could be postponed almost indefinitely, before a property could be auctioned off by the government’s land registry. It has been reported that foreclosures take 12 years to conclude on average, allowing borrowers to default on their loan payment without immediate foreclosure concerns, and frustrating lenders who found themselves unable to collect or apply pressure to borrowers.

The new foreclosure framework seeks to combat such distortions by removing the land registry from the proceedings, and allowing banks to carry out court-ordered foreclosures themselves.

THE GOVERNMENT’S legislation for the guaranteed minimum income (GMI), which in effect reformed the state welfare system, has come under considerable criticism both from affected social groups and some political parties. For instance, AKEL’s deputies have been arguing that the government’s welfare reform was a case of taking from the poor to help the poorer.

This is a smart slogan with an element of truth in it as the government has indeed redistributed the money paid out in welfare support to different groups. Some payments were cut and others were scrapped and the money that was saved was used to finance the GMI, with the state spending on welfare, which reached one billion euro during the Christofias, presidency remaining at the same level.

Many deputies and union officials must not have understood what the government had done and seemed to have been under the impression that there would be new funds to finance GMI. But none of them thought it worth asking where these ‘new’ funds would come from given the country is in an assistance programme. They just assumed the government, which avoided explaining how the GMI would be funded, would find the cash from somewhere.

AKEL deputies pretended to be shocked when the representatives of the Troika told a House finance committee meeting last Friday that any proposed new welfare payments would have to come out of the existing state budget. In other words, some existing benefits would have to be cut to finance new ones.
Paraplegics and the disabled were directly affected by the welfare reform and their organisation has been protesting against the new law because it envisages means-testing the adult children of the claimants before granting state assistance. If the offspring have above a certain income, the parents would be ineligible for state support.

These cases do not exactly fit the AKEL description of ‘taking from the poor to give the poorer’ and neither does the scrapping of the handouts given to refugees, without any means-testing, to build a house. The reality is that we do not have unlimited funds to offer comprehensive welfare support to everyone that might be in need. During the Christofias presidency welfare payments more than doubled, many of them going to people who had no right to receive state help. This generosity contributed to the state’s financial woes.

But if our politicians are so keen on setting up a real welfare state they could raise the funds to support it by reducing the extortionate wages and pensions paid to public employees. By reducing the public sector pay-roll we could have money to support everyone in need of state help. And AKEL would be satisfied that the government was not taking from the poor to give to the poorer. But when a country chooses to have the best-paid teachers in the EU, it cannot also have an adequate welfare system.

By Elias Hazou

THE CENTRAL Bank of Cyprus (CBC) announced late on Monday that it was placing FBME Bank – rocked by money laundering allegations – under resolution.
In a short statement, the regulator said the move was intended to protect depositors. The announcement came out after the Resolution Authority – including the finance minister and the Central Bank governor – issued a decree on the sale of FBME Bank’s operations in Cyprus.

The decree, which has immediate effect, notes that additional resolution measures may be taken if deemed necessary.

Although the bank is solvent, it’s understood that its operations have been dealt a serious blow after US and German financial institutions stopped transacting with it, in the wake of the money laundering allegations. Had the bank’s branch here declared bankruptcy, the Cypriot state – itself broke – might then have found itself having to backstop the bank’s insured deposits (up to €100,000).

Placing the bank under resolution would pre-empt that, sources explained.

FBME was placed under the administration of the CBC last week, hot on the heels of a US Treasury report implicating the lender in money laundering.

In a statement earlier on Monday, FBME said CBC staff “have been present at FBME Cyprus since the afternoon of 18 July 2014, monitoring and approving payment instructions. It is intended that this will be a temporary measure to resolve the situation arising from the US Department of the Treasury announcement and will serve to mitigate the impact on the Bank of the allegations that have been made.”

It added: “FBME is working with the CBC to address the current situation and to reassure the market that FBME continues to act in accordance with current regulations.”

The Tanzania-chartered lender went on to say that the allegations of the US Treasury Department “were made without prior notification to FBME or presenting us with the opportunity to comment on them, and in an effort to address the matter the Bank has instructed specialist advisors to engage with the US authorities with a view to resolving the issues and to temper the adverse impact of the announcement.”

The CBC took over the operations of the Lebanese-owned FBME Bank in Cyprus on Friday, a day after the US Treasury Department announced it was blacklisting FBME for alleged links to Hezbollah.

Asked by the Mail, Central Bank sources said earlier on Monday that the regulator has the power to revoke FBME’s licence at any time should this action be warranted. The same sources, who requested anonymity, said a team of about eight CBC staff were now stationed at FBME, monitoring all payment transactions.

They declined to comment on whether the US Treasury’s allegations have been substantiated to any degree.

“Obviously, the current arrangement [FBME administration by the Central Bank] cannot go on forever,” they said, adding rather cryptically that it was “a matter of days” before the situation clears up.

Last Thursday the US Treasury accused FBME, which though chartered in Tanzania operates primarily in Cyprus, of facilitating financial activity for transnational organised crime and Hezbollah, calling it a “primary money laundering concern”.

The Mail moreover understands that US authorities first became ‘interested’ in FBME at least two years ago; during this time the Americans had been at work gathering hard data on the lender.

FBME was originally established in Cyprus in 1982 as a subsidiary of the Federal Bank of Lebanon SAL.

The US Treasury report, dated July 15, listed a number of suspicious transactions and legal violations from FBME over the last decade, including allegations that a bank customer “received a deposit of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a financier for Lebanese Hezbollah”.

“FBME was involved in at least 4,500 suspicious wire transfers through U.S. correspondent accounts that totalled at least US$875 million between November 2006 and March 2013,” the report said.

The findings open the process to institute special measures against the bank and all of its subsidiaries. The Treasury Department has proposed applying the “Fifth Special Measure” under the US Patriot Act, which blocks US financial institutions from carrying out any transactions with the sanctioned bank. There is a 60-day comment period from the publishing of the Treasury Department report before any final action can be taken.

By Nick Macfie

A TransAsia Airways turboprop plane crashed on its second attempt at landing during a thunderstorm on an island off Taiwan on Wednesday, killing 47 people and setting buildings on fire, officials said.

The plane, a 70-seat ATR 72, crashed near the runway on the island of Penghu, west of the mainland, with 54 passengers and four crew on board, they said. No one was killed or hurt in the buildings.

Eleven injured people on the plane were taken to hospital, the government said.

The aircraft took off from Taiwan’s southern city of Kaohsiung, headed for the island of Makong, but crash-landed in Huxi township of Penghu County, the main island of the chain also known as the Pescadores.

“It was thunderstorm conditions during the crash,” said Hsi Wen-guang, a spokesman for the Penghu County Government Fire Bureau.

“From the crash site we sent 11 people to hospital with injuries. A few empty apartment buildings adjacent to the runway caught fire, but no one was inside at the time and the fire was extinguished.”

About 100 firefighters were sent to the scene, as well as 152 military personnel and 255 police, he added.

According to an official at the Civil Aeronautics Administration, air traffic control reported that the inclement weather at the time of the crash did not exceed international regulations for landing.

Visibility was 1,600 meters and the cloud cover was as low as 600 meters, added the official, who declined to be identified.

Television networks aired footage of TransAsia’s president, Chooi Yee-choong, bowing in apology.

“We express our deepest apologies to everyone for this unfortunate event.”

Typhoon Matmo hit Taiwan on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain and strong winds, shutting financial markets and schools. It passed the island and headed into China, downgraded from typhoon to tropical storm.

TransAsia Airways is a Taiwan-based airline with a fleet of around 23 Airbus and ATR aircraft, operating chiefly short-haul flights on domestic routes as well as to mainland China, Japan, Thailand and Cambodia, among its Asian destinations.

By Harro Ten Wolde

The bodies of the first victims from a Malaysian airliner shot down over Ukraine last week arrived back in the Netherlands on Wednesday amid dignified grief tinged with anger.

Bells pealed and flags flew at half mast in memory of the 298 people killed when flight MH17 crashed in an area of eastern Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists, in the first national day of mourning since wartime Queen Wilhelmina died in 1962.

King Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister Mark Rutte led dignitaries on the tarmac as two military aircraft carrying 40 plain wooden coffins landed at Eindhoven Airport in the southern Netherlands.

A military honour guard stood to attention as a lone trumpeter played The Last Post, the military funeral call for people killed in war.

After a minute’s silence – observed in stations, factories, offices and streets across this stunned nation – soldiers and marines boarded the Dutch Hercules C-130 and Australian Boeing C-17 to carry the coffins to 40 waiting hearses lined up on the runway.

Relatives of some of the victims were present at the airport but were shielded from the media glare, officials said.

Amid US accusations that the rebels shot the civilian plane down in error with a Russian-supplied missile, an opinion poll showed an overwhelming majority of the Dutch want economic sanctions imposed on Moscow, even if it hurts their own economy.

Windmills around this low-lying coastal nation were set in a mourning position and church bells tolled as the planes carrying the remains arrived from Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, shortly before 4 p.m. (1400 GMT).

The remains of an unknown number of victims were transported in refrigerated rail carriages from the rebel-held part of Ukraine on Tuesday. Rutte has said that while some of the bodies may be identified immediately, it may take weeks or even months to complete the grim task.

SHOCK AND SORROW

With 193 of the dead from the Netherlands, Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said almost every family in the country of 15 million knew someone who died or their relatives, contributing to a national mood of shock and sorrow.

“Think of all the people who were flying away on holiday, all the young people who had just finished their final school exams,” said Jikkie van der Giessen from Amsterdam.

“They were looking fully toward the future and then you’re shot down. Whether it was an accident or on purpose, the fact is it’s horrible,” she said.

Many of the passengers on the flight to Kuala Lumpur were tourists, but at least six were AIDS experts on their way to a conference in Melbourne, Australia on the deadly disease.

Representatives of the many countries whose citizens died in the crash were present at the airfield, including the governor-general of Australia, Peter Cosgrove. Their flags lined the airfield at half-mast on a cloudless day.

Trains came to a stop for a minute as the country observed a minute’s silence. No planes took off or landed at Schiphol Airport, from which the Malaysian Airlines flight departed, for 13 minutes around the time the bodies land.

A silent memorial rally was planned outside the royal palace in Amsterdam’s Dam square on Wednesday evening.

With so many of their countrymen dead, the Dutch have been taking a leading role in the international effort to recover and identify the bodies and investigate the cause of the crash.

Dutch authorities are leading the investigation, with extensive help from other countries. The plane’s black box flight recorders, handed over by the rebels’ leader, were flown from Ukraine on a Belgian military plane on Tuesday to Britain, where a team of experts will examine them.

From Eindhoven, the bodies were to be driven in a convoy of hearses to a military barracks near the town of Hilversum, where forensics experts will begin the painstaking work of putting names to the remains.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said it was unclear how many bodies had been transported to Kharkiv and how may have been left behind at the crash site.

Rutte, thrust into an unaccustomed spotlight, said on Tuesday the disaster had fundamentally changed the way the Dutch view Russia, urging the European Union to unite behind a firm approach to force Moscow to cooperate with the probe.

He has spoken almost daily with U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other European leaders to coordinate the return of the bodies and discuss the investigation and the consequences.

With US intelligence pointing to the aircraft having been shot down accidentally by the Moscow-backed separatists, the Dutch mood of sorrow is starting to be mixed with indignation.

The poll published in the daily De Telegraaf said 78 per cent of the Dutch would be prepared to impose punitive sanctions on Russia even if it hurt their own economy.

The Netherlands has disproportionately large trade and financial flows with Moscow due to its position as an oil and commodities trading hub and an offshore base for companies.

The loss of life has few parallels in recent Dutch history. More than 200 Dutch citizens died in the 1977 Tenerife airport disaster, in which two fully-loaded Boeing 747s collided on the ground with the loss of 583 lives, the world’s worst civil aviation disaster.

The worst post-war disaster in the Netherlands occurred in 1953, when the North Sea flooded low-lying eastern areas one stormy night, sweeping over dikes to take more than 1,800 lives.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Crispian Balmer

Gaza fighting raged on Wednesday, displacing thousands more Palestinians in the battered territory as US Secretary of State John Kerry said indirect truce talks between Israel and Hamas had made some progress.

While pressing a 15-day-old offensive, Israel scrambled to contain economic damage from a halt of flights to Tel Aviv’s main airport by US and European airlines spooked by the long-range rocket salvoes of Hamas and other Gaza Strip guerrillas.

Adding to pressure on Israel, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said there was “a strong possibility” that it was committing war crimes in Gaza, where 668 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting.

Israel denied the suggestion, stepping up the war of words and accusing Hamas of using fellow Gazans as human shields.

Kerry met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and was due to see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before returning to Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza and has mediated with Islamist Hamas.

“We have certainly made some steps forward. There is still work to be done,” said Kerry, on one of his most intensive regional visits since the peace negotiations he had brokered between Netanyahu and Abbas broke down in April.

“We are doing this for one simple reason. The people in the Palestinian territories, the people in Israel, are all living under the threat or reality of immediate violence. And this need to end for everybody.”

Kerry has been working through Abbas, Egypt and other regional proxies as the United States, like Israel, shuns Hamas as a terrorist group. Hamas brushed off the US diplomat’s appeal, saying it would not hold fire without making gains.

“Our interest and that of our people is that no agreement should be made before the conditions of factions of resistance are met,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

Israel launched its offensive on July 8 to halt rocket salvoes by Hamas and its allies, which have struggled under an Israeli-Egyptian economic blockade on Gaza and angered by a crackdown on their supporters in the nearby occupied West Bank.

After aerial and naval bombardment failed to quell the outgunned guerrillas, Israel poured ground forces into the Gaza Strip last Thursday, looking to knock out Hamas’s rocket stores and destroy a vast, underground network of tunnels.

“We are meeting resistance around the tunnels … they are constantly trying to attack us around and in the tunnels. That is the trend,” Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said on Wednesday.

MILITARY LOSSES RISE

Hamas and a smaller Gaza faction, Islamic Jihad, said they killed several Israeli soldiers in two separate ambushes on Wednesday. Israel had no immediate comment on those claims.

Some 29 troops have been confirmed killed so far in the conflagration. Three civilians have died in rocket attacks out of Gaza, including a foreign labourer hit on Wednesday.

The military says one of its soldiers is also missing and believes he might be dead. Hamas says it has captured him, but has not released a picture of him in their hands.

Already hurt by mass tourist cancellations, Israel faced increased economic pressure after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) took the rare step on Tuesday of banning flights to Tel Aviv for at least 24 hours.

Many other foreign carriers, on heightened alert after a Malaysian airliner was shot down over a combat zone in Ukraine last week, followed suit. Israeli carriers continued to operate.

The FAA action represented a public relations coup for Hamas, which is anxious to dent Israel’s global image. However, the Tel Aviv stock exchange and Shekel were flat, with traders showing little immediate concern about the flight stoppages.

An Israeli official said Netanyahu had asked Kerry to help restore the US flights. A US official said the Obama administration would not “overrule the FAA” on a security precaution but noted the ban would be reviewed after 24 hours.

However, U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines said it would extend its suspension of flights on Wednesday, as did Germany’s Lufthansa and Air Berlin as Polish airline LOT.

Clouds of black smoke hung over Gaza, some 65-km (40 miles) south of Ben Gurion, with the regular thud of artillery and tank shells filling the air.

Palestinian medics said two worshippers were killed and 30 wounded in an attack on a mosque in the heart of the densely populated Zeitoun neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.

In southern Abassan and Khuzaa villages, residents said they were besieged by Israeli snipers who wounded two Palestinians as they tried to emerge from hiding with white flags in hand. Israeli tanks fired shells near ambulances, discouraging their approach to recover casualties, witnesses said.

In a move that could effectively turn Abbas into the main Palestinian point person for any Gaza truce, his umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on Wednesday formally supported core conditions set by the Hamas-led fighters.

These demands include the release of hundreds of Hamas supporters recently arrested in the nearby West Bank and an end to the Egyptian-Israeli blockade of Gaza, which has stymied the economy and made it near impossible for anyone to travel abroad.

Egypt has tried to get both sides to hold fire and then negotiate terms for protracted calm in Gaza, which has been rocked by regular bouts of violence since Israel unilaterally pulled out of the territory in 2005.

Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel’s right to exist, balked at Cairo’s original, barebones offer. The dispute was further complicated by distrust between Egypt under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Hamas.

Egyptian sources said a unified Palestinian position could help achieve a deal. Unlike Hamas, Abbas and his Western-backed PLO have pursued peacemaking with Israel for two decades.

DEATH, DESTRUCTION

Gaza’s Health Ministry said 49 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday, many of them in the southern town of Khan Younis — one of the focal points of Israel’s recent assault.

In the far north, residents continued to flee Beit Hanoun as Israeli tanks thrust deeper into the border town and destroyed nearby orchards in their search for hidden Hamas tunnels.

“Columns of people are heading west of Beit Hanoun, looking for a safe shelter. This is not war, this is annihilation,” said 17-year-old Hamed Ayman.

“I once dreamt of becoming a doctor. Today I am homeless. They should watch out for what I could become next.”

Gaza officials said that so far in the 16-day conflict, 475 houses had been totally destroyed by Israeli fire and 2,644 partially damaged. Some 46 schools, 56 mosques and seven hospitals had also suffered varying degrees of destruction.

“There seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes,” the UN’s Pillay told an emergency session at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

She also condemned indiscriminate, militant rocket and mortar attacks out of Gaza.

Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said the U.N. rights council was an “anti-Israel” body.

“Israel is acting according to international law. It is acting against terrorism. It is regrettable civilians are killed, but when we call on them to vacate and Hamas calls on them to stay, then that is what happens,” she told Israel Radio.

AN 88-year old man, Andreas Prokopiou, was found dead on the east bank of the Klirou dam in Nicosia district.

According to the police, the man was reported missing from his nursing home by his family on Tuesday night.

Preliminary reports by police investigators suggest the man wasn’t the victim of a crime.

An autopsy is scheduled to be held on Thursday to determine the cause of death.