I am amazed at the statement made by Vice Chairman of Bank of Cyprus, Wilbur Ross, to the effect that the present management and shareholders of the Bank have nothing to do with the losses suffered by the former bailed-in depositors.

The legal entity of Bank of Cyprus remains the same, notwithstanding the fact that the “new” shareholding structure of the bank has changed.

Those that have invested in the re-structuring of the Bank, including Mr Ross, obtained their stake at a giveaway price and they knew, or ought to have known, that if the bank is found legally bound to the bailed-in depositors, it will remain the legal responsibility of the bank (and by extension its current shareholders) to offer and pay the appropriate compensation.

It is clearly wrong of Mr Ross to assume that the EU or the government should bear the responsibility and cost of future compensation, if any.

S. Nicola, Erimi

I would like to share my recent experiences on a Cyprus Airways flight from Paris to Larnaca on November 20.
The flight was delayed 50 minutes – the only flight delayed from 20 out of Charles De Gaulle that morning.

On boarding the plane, we were informed by the pilot, that the delay was because someone’s pet dog had been incorrectly put into the cargo.

The animal had to be removed and placed in the correct section of the plane. In this situation, good PR comes into play, which Cyprus Airways is in desperate need of.

After the flight was underway one of the first things the stewardess did was sit in the rear galley and read all of the local papers. I know at my place of employment I am not allowed to sit and read newspapers during working hours.

Then when the pilot made his usual announcements he made a geographical mistake when speaking about Serbia and after I informed the stewardess who was not reading the papers, she came back later to tell me the pilot was correct.

One would think that a pilot’s homework would be to be up to date and I hoped he could find his way back to Cyprus. But it was not only that.

Cyprus Airways pilots should know better when it comes to the sensitivities about countries. Imagine if we were on a British Airways flight and the pilot announced we would be flying over ‘Macedonia’ or the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’!

I think that the writing is on the wall for Cyprus Airways and the employees themselves are become resigned to their fate. I feel very saddened that the airline has become what it is today.

As a Cypriot I was proud that such a small country once had such a fantastic airline and I loved and always chose to fly with Cyprus Airways.

From a business point of view, I don’t believe anyone or company in their right mind would purchase Cyprus Airways in its current state.

The problem is not only with the government-appointed management and political party interventions, but also its employees.

The only solution is for the airline to be bought out by its staff that is if they pull their socks up and genuinely believe in the Company.

Andreas Savva, a very saddened Cypriot, Limassol

By Evie Andreou

After recycling more than 20 million cans and donating over €260,000 worth of medical equipment to the children’s wards at Nicosia’s Makarios Hospital, Cans for Kids charity has overseen the creation of a similar venture by the Turkish Cypriot Cyprus Green Action Group (CGAG).

With this move CGAG has established the first ever can recycling initiative in the north, Teneke Çocuk/Can Kid.
Teneke Çocuk, implemented by CGAG, aims to mobilise the public to collect and recycle their tin cans for the benefit of sick children just like their mentors, and to use the proceeds from the cans they sell to buy medical equipment for children’s wards at hospitals in the north.

“We decided to also use the proceeds from the sale of the cans to help children in need,” said CGAG member Tuğbek Kaya.

“It’s a huge impact on the health services and I’m quite sure that when these guys have a go that the health service there will also benefit” said vice-president of Cans for Kids Rosie Charalambous, referring to the charity’s donation of medical equipment to the children’s wards at the Makarios hospital over the last 24 years.

To recycle used drinks cans all over the island has been Cans for Kids’ vision for quite some time.

The opportunity to do that arose in the summer of 2013 with a call for proposals by EEA Grants that offered funding to Cypriot non-governmental-organisations to carry out bi-communal environmental projects, Cans for Kids secretary Valerie Mavratsas said.

“We felt that [CGAG’s] aim to preserve and protect the island’s natural environment was very much in line with the vision of Cans for Kids,” Mavratsas added.

Under the EEA-funded project Together We Can, the two groups met to develop their ideas and Cans for Kids acted as a mentor for CGAG. “We felt that we could share our knowhow as well as how to avoid the pitfalls,” Mavratsas said.

The mentoring included workshops, seminars and hands-on training by inviting CGAG to help in the sorting out and can crashing process.

They were also encouraged to attend Cans for Kids events and given advice on how to place can collection bins strategically and how to gather support from young people.

Mavratsas said the development of Can Kids is a viable and long term solution to the accumulation of tons of aluminium in our island’s landfills and a win-win situation.

“The environment cannot be divided nor can it be attributed to religion, language or race; it is a whole, and we must protect it because it is everyone’s home,” added chairman of CGAG Doğan Sahir.

He added that CGAG and Cans for Kids managed to create an exemplary partnership.

“Together we have experienced the feeling of enthusiasm, friendship, trust, understanding, solidarity and collaboration for a better environment,” added Cans for Kids chairwoman Olga Demetriades.

Kaya said that CGAG has already set up five collection bins in north Nicosia with the prospect of gradually expanding to other towns. It will sell the cans to raise money for hospitals.

By Constantinos Psillides

RULING DISY may revisit a bill it proposed last year enabling the state to seize the property of anyone found guilty of graft, in light of recent events that have unfolded in Paphos.

The town’s mayor Savvas Vergas, along with two others, are currently in custody in suspicion of corruption. The trio are suspected of receiving bribes to allow for a sewage construction project to go almost €40 million over budget.

“I would say that it’s time to revisit this proposal. The reasons that led the party to suggest it in the first place are more relevant than ever today,” said party spokesperson Prodromos Prodromou, adding that DISY officials would probably have a discussion on the issue over the weekend. The proposal would amend the law, authorising the state to confiscate the property of anyone found guilty of corruption, bribery or embezzlement.

DISY tabled the proposal at the House in October 2013 but the bill didn’t make it out of committee, since a review by the legal services showed that similar legislation was already in effect.

“We looked into it and a month later we concluded that the legislation might already be in place but it wasn’t comprehensive. Our goal was to punish all those who took money from the state by allowing for the seizure of their assets and that just wasn’t possible through the existing legislation,” said Prodromou.

DISY deems the bill a necessity after accusations against bosses at Bank of Cyprus and the now-defunct Laiki arose saying that they amassed personal wealth while purposefully leaving the economy to crash.

DISY leader Averof Neophytou has said the punishment for those who took money that did not belong to them, could not be limited to imprisonment. “It is not fair for someone who steals millions to do a few years in jail and enjoy the loot after they are released.”

Prodromou said DISY tabled to the House Ethics Committee the matter of high-ranking state officials who became rich from shady dealings made possible by abusing authority. “We wanted to further look into the matter. How come a state official with a €3,000 salary ended up owning yachts and amassed properties? We wanted to prevent that from happening and also go after these people,” he said, adding that the House discussion was is still ongoing.

By Jean Christou

CYPRUS’ HYDROCARBONS future could end up being less lucrative without a political settlement, UN Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide warned in an interview with the Sunday Mail.

After a week of contacts on the island, the Norwegian diplomat, who comes from a country known for its well-managed oil wealth, said he had looked deeply into the reality of the island’s gas prospects with and without a Cyprus settlement.

“There are not enormous quantities. It is significant but it is quite expensive to get hold of because it’s very deep so it requires expensive technology and you have to build many places because it’s compartmentalised, which means production and exploration costs are high,” he said.
“It will be a relatively expensive gas to produce.”

Eide said there was already a lot of natural gas on the global market and current prices were quite low since the advent of fracking “which means the margin isn’t very high”. An international company looking at Cyprus would see political conflict and expensive gas ‘and not very much gas’ either. “I am not convinced they would say ‘let’s go for Cyprus’,” he said.

Statistically, any country that discovers hydrocarbons that can go either of two ways – the road to mismanagement and/or political conflict, or they can do it right, he said. Successful oil-rich countries were successful because they established clear rules and regulations and avoided political conflict, he said.

“And Cyprus is now exactly at the point where you have to choose between these two destinies. There is no middle ground. It will either take you into much more trouble and a little bit of income, or it will take you to a balanced politically viable solution or any other agreed solution, and more wealth,” he said.

“I would think about how smart it is to perpetuate the conflict just as you’re moving into an oil and gas economy… it sounds harsh but I’m saying this thing will either get better soon or significantly worse because that’s what history tells us.”

Eide has found his initial efforts to facilitate a Cyprus solution stymied by the Greek Cypriot side’s withdrawal from the negotiations in October in response to incursions by the Turkish seismic vessel Barbaros into Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone. President Nicos Anastasiades has said he would not even discuss going back to the table while the Barbaros remains, while Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot side want hydrocarbons on the table before halting their explorations.

Both sides rejected Eide’s proposal, which he said he thought was quite good but was misunderstood.

It involved creating a panel of talking heads to discuss the future of hydrocarbons ahead of a settlement but did not involve negotiations or co-decisions.

“It was taking the starting point that the Greek Cypriots do not want in any way to negotiate hydrocarbons before a solution, so my proposal was totally consistent with that,” he said.

The panel’s ideas would not be part of a settlement but an inspiration for the post-settlement management of resources “because this has to happen anyway”, and both sides were well aware of it.

“My sense is that it was probably too much for the Greek Cypriot side. I was not suggesting they stop now. That was explicit,” he said. The Turkish Cypriots didn’t like it because they wanted something “much more”, to be part of the current decision-making.

“So I don’t really understand… in the sense since the proposal was closer to the Greek Cypriot side than the Turkish Cypriot side, I was kind of less surprised by the rejection in the north than here,” he said.

“But what I told both leaders now, and I also warned them… for a time I am not coming up with another plan. Now it’s up to them. They know how to propose to me what do to.”

Many Greek Cypriots feel it is unfair that the breakaway state in the north should now claim a share of the wealth clearly located off the southern coast, and believe that if the situation were reversed the Turkish Cypriots would not even consider sharing.

Eide was diplomatic, saying a lot of bad things had happened in Cyprus in the past. Grave mistakes were made on both sides “not necessarily in equal proportion” which had created a lot of unnecessary suffering, he said, but dwelling on it would not take Cyprus forward.

Of all the differences involved in the Cyprus issue, hydrocarbons has not been one of them, and everything to do with the topic rested with the future federal state as already agreed by the sides.

“Normally I would say that if you agree on the future but not on the present, then let’s move forward, because then we get to the future. But that’s clearly not what’s happening here,” he said.

But he believes the two sides will find their way back to the table within a reasonable period though he could not say when, other than “this winter”. The leaders wanted to meet but did not know how because a circumstance had been created which needed to be changed.

Eide said the arguments both sides use were exactly the same “with an alternative cast”.
“My answer to both sides is if you really want to know if the other side is ready to play the game and deliver something, you have to see that at the table,” said Eide. “You will not find out by shouting with a megaphone over the Green Line.”

The only way back now was if both sides were willing to do something “where of course the presence of the Barbaros is one of the things”.

If that happens, Eide said it could easily be a matter of months rather than years to reach a solution. There were no advantages to postponing. His approach would be systematic, starting with the “soft differences” and working their way to the hard-core ones, which could only be in the form of trade-offs.

“The process of getting there will hopefully create trust because you see that you’re ticking off things,” he said.

As to whether or not he would be willing to ‘bang heads’ – to use a phrase from a couple of his predecessors – Eide said he could be both mild and tough when necessary.

In the meantime, with little negotiating to do, he has spent his week encouraging ordinary Cypriots not to leave everything to the political class.

“In a sense the non-solution of the Cyprus problem is such an integral part of political life that it’s almost defining leaders,” he said. Political figures on both sides might not be able to untangle themselves from their long-held positions without input from broader Cypriot society. Ordinary Cypriots needed to ask themselves what they wanted – to live with each other or divorce – “which I would clearly not want but of course it’s possible”.

Having said that, Eide was clear his mandate was to help find a unified solution and the phrase that dare not speak its name ‘a two-state solution’ was not part of that. He was not here to find just “any solution”, though if any country decided peacefully to part, the international community would likely not prevent it, he said.

Eide believes he could very well be the last negotiator for Cyprus one way or the other but is in it for the duration.

“I have not given myself a time limit. I am personally not in a hurry,” he said. “I dare to say and it’s a very dangerous statement which I know will be used against me if I am wrong, but I am saying humbly and hoping not to be misunderstood, but I think I will be the last negotiator.”

He hopes that meant a solution but the alternative was that the UN and Cypriots themselves would give up.

“Sometimes certain things get better by waiting but while a lot of people seem to think you’re in the middle of a big drama… I’ve seen bigger dramas. No one is dying which… means things can be repaired.” It was all very civilised compared to other conflicts in that the two sides in Cyprus may disagree “but they agree to disagree”.

As a challenge for a seasoned diplomat on a scale of one to ten, Eide didn’t even blink before saying Cyprus was a 6.5. “I would give it a three on complexity but maybe an eight on the factor which is… the comfort in the non-solution.”

OUR THOUGHTS are with our president who not only has to undergo a serious heart operation in a faraway, foreign land on Thursday, but on his sick-bed he will live with the fear of being visited by those charmless leading members of the Cyprus-US lobby.

Meeting those self-important nobodies is enough to make a healthy man ill let alone a man recovering from heart surgery. Hopefully they will be kept out of Nik’s room because if they are allowed in and they start taking about the shortage of Cyprob enlightenment funds he might need another operation.

On the plus side, there would still be much fewer undesirable well-wishers queuing up to see him at his Manhattan hospital than there would have been if he had the operation at American Medical Center in Nicosia as he had originally planned.

Nik, unlike his two predecessors who showed little faith in Cypriot surgeons and travelled abroad for operations, was perfectly happy to have the operation done in Kyproulla and had even made arrangements to be admitted to the American Medical Center.

But suddenly he had a change of heart (sorry about that), inviting public criticism about not trusting Cypriot hospitals and wanting better healthcare than was available to ordinary citizens of Kyproulla. He had made the right decision to start with – one which would have earned him public plaudits for setting a good example – and then he ruined it by changing his mind.

I HEAR that it was not entirely his fault. He was perfectly happy to be operated on in Kyproulla – the surgeons at the Center successfully perform some 50 operations of this type per year – but then all the hangers-on, courtiers and experts started telling him that this was not a good idea and that the president should go to a recognised, top hospital.

Among people urging him to go abroad, apart from his rich friends, were doctors from other private hospitals that could not allow a competitor to receive the mega-positive publicity of having been chosen by the prez for his heart surgery. It would be bad for business.

State hospital doctors – not motivated by business interests – also bad-mouthed the Center to Nik because they could not handle the idea that the prez had not put his trust in a state hospital. This decision may have been influenced by fears that the surgeons and nurses might go on strike on the day he would have had his operation – or they could have opened him up and threatened not to finish the operation unless he agreed to doctors’ demands for higher overtime pay.

In the end Nik, who was not in the best of shape to ignore the scare stories, yielded to the pressure from well-wishers and self-appointed experts, buying into the myth that the prez of Kyproulla had to go the best hospital in world for his operation.

THE DECISION was announced on Tuesday, sparking a bout of speculation about the cost of going to the US and the hospital bills. Why would the taxpayer have to pay for Nik and his entourage to go abroad when ordinary Cypriots would have the same operation here?

On Wednesday the government issued another announcement informing us that Nik would be paying for everything himself, in the hope of silencing his critics. Even if he had hoped to pass the medical costs onto the taxpayer, Nik realised that the political cost would be too high and opted to pick up the bill himself.

This may have won him some brownie points but it also had a minus side as it reminded people that he has quite a lot of moollah in his bank account to be paying the air fares and hotel accommodation of his entourage plus the hospital bills. Such an exhibition of his personal wealth is not something that would endear him to the cash-strapped, impoverished voters who queue up for hours at state hospitals.

NIK is not the first prez to go abroad for surgery that could have been performed on the island that once entertained ambitions of becoming a regional medical centre, with a specialisation in organ transplants. The ambition died when the transplants were taken over by a state hospital.

The late Ethnarch Tassos frequently flew to a hospital in the US for check-ups and treatment, even though he was very secretive about the condition of his health and he always paid the bill himself. Comrade Tof, in contrast, being a communist ideologue could not possibly deprive the taxpayer of the pleasure of paying his medical bills.

The comrade had two major operations before becoming prez – heart surgery and a kidney transplant – and both were performed at a London hospital by British surgeons. Both could have been performed in Kyproulla, at a much lower cost, by Cypriot surgeons but Tof did not trust our union-controlled state hospitals.

There was, after all, the risk that he would be operated on by a surgeon who received his training at a Soviet university and got a job at the hospital because of being an AKEL member.

THE ONLY prez that was happy to go under the knife in a Cypriot medical establishment was the late sea wolf Glafcos Clerides even though he used a private clinic.

When he was to have his first operation as president, friends had found a renowned surgeon to cut him up. However, when he was told that the surgeon could not come to the island to perform the operation and he would have to go to a hospital abroad, he immediately rejected the idea.

He had reasoned that if he went abroad he would have been away for a month, during which time the House President would be performing his duties. House president at the time was the late Spy Kyp, who would be acting president. The old sea-wolf decided that leaving a proven nut-case in charge of the mad-house for a month was too high a price to pay for receiving the best healthcare available. He was a true patriot.

US ambassador John Koenig

FIRST we had the Russian ambassador heaping abuse on a Cypriot hack because he did not approve of the contents of a book the latter wrote about Russia’s relations with Kyproulla, and now the US ambassador John Koenig has decided to go down the same path.

Koenig’s target was the Washington-based columnist and anti-US crusader Michalis Ignatiou whose moralistic sermon is published in Phil every Sunday. Koenig tweeted the following two weeks ago, presumably after reading Ig’s column: “Morning, Michael. Do you have any real sources in DC? U never name any and you get so much wrong. Just askin’.”

This was a much more low-key interference than Stanislav Osadchiy’s bombastic tirade, which featured a 2,000-word statement suggesting the prez sack the hack who was working for the presidency at the time. Koenig’s attack was gentler as the Yanks respect free speech more than the Ruskies, and he did not ask Phil to sack Ig for constantly writing bad things about our strategic partner.

Regular customers will remember that the holier than thou Ig, back in 2004, had promised to write a book that would expose all the Greek Cypriots that had allegedly received bribes from the US in order to support the A-plan. Ten years later, his eagerly-awaited book has still not been published. Now we know why – his DC sources, real and imaginary, let him down.

THERE WAS a response in last Sunday’s Phil that was a testament to Ig’s comical self-importance. Of course he had sources in DC, but “there is no journalist who respects ethics and himself that would reveal his sources,” he wrote, adding that “in the US divulging sources means journalistic death.”

Even when you have no sources it is unethical (and practically a bit difficult) to reveal them, but that is just a theoretical point.

Meanwhile, Ig, who takes himself much too seriously, had to mention that he was being persecuted by the US. “As regards the ambassador I have this to say: In contrast to his predecessors (Schliger, Urbancic and others) who were asking through telegrams to have my journalist’s credentials withdrawn, he is confronting me publicly. Of course it is too early to know his secret thoughts about me.”

Ambassador Koenig, our establishment appeals to you to inform us what your secret thoughts are about Michalis Ignatiou and why you chose to confront him publicly, instead of just asking to have his credentials withdrawn? Were you following the instructions of the Secretary of State, the CIA or President Obama?

CONGRATULATIONS to minister of communications and works Marios Demetriades for his comment lampooning Prez Nik’s former special advisor for aviation matters Christos Petrou. Petrou resigned a couple of weeks ago and in his resignation lament mentioned that the minister deigned to see him just once at a cafe at 7am. The next day Demetriades posted on Facebook the following: “Good morning, this morning at 7.15 I have a meeting at Starbucks.”

“Just look at the level of the ministers of our state,” responded the former advisor whose high level advice for the salvation of Cyprus Airways nobody took seriously.

WE MAY have not extracted a cubic foot of natural gas yet, but our commerce minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis is already talking and acting like a Sheikh. On Tuesday he announced we would be selling natural gas to Egypt by 2018 via a pipeline from the Aphrodite field.

On Thursday Sheikh el-Lakkotrypis announced that he had found an even bigger market for the gas we had not found yet. Cyprus could become an alternative source of natural gas for Europe, he told a meeting, and he was promoting the possibility of creating a gas pipeline linking the eastern Mediterranean to continental Europe. At this rate it will not be very long before our Sheikh closes down all the competing gas producers and establishes a world monopoly for Kyproulla. All that remains now is to find the gas.

PUBLICITY-MAD Auditor-General Odysseas Michaelides was everywhere in the last week as he handed his annual

Odysseas Michaelides

report for 2013 to Prez Nik. Odysseas, despite his weakness for publicity, is proving a very capable shit-stirrer.

He has stirred the merde at the CTO and more recently at the Paphos Sewage Board. The arrests of Mayor Vergas and several other Paphites in connection with the latter case were partly thanks to the work of Odysseas. Vergas, who has been implicated in a host of scams, held a news conference on Monday to announce that he had no intention of resigning.

Incredibly, many Paphite, DIKO supporters gathered outside the hotel at which he gave his defiant news conference to voice their support for their mayor. For the Paphite mob his innocence was indisputable, because he was a Paphite and a DIKO member – a combination for saintliness in this backward part of Kyproulla.

POOR Prez Nik was shown no mercy or compassion by the opposition parties after it was revealed that his law office – which, as we all know, he has had absolutely nothing to do with since becoming president – represented Ryanair that was bidding to take over Cyprus Airways.

He issued a statement Friday giving the facts and calling on the Attorney-General, Auditor-General and the chairman of the House Ethics Committee to carry out investigations of all allegations. “If from the investigations, it is established that there was in any way, any interference by me or my former law office in the decisions taken, I will immediately resign as president.” It was a bit extreme a denial – the sort of denial made by someone who thinks people would not believe him if he did not take an absolute stand.

Nik left Kyproulla last night but he did not fly with Ryanair because the flight connections were not convenient.

PRESIDENT Anastasiades yesterday left for the US where on Thursday he is scheduled to undergo heart surgery. He is expected back in Cyprus before Christmas, but is unlikely to return to the presidential palace before the beginning of January, doctors estimating that he would need a month to fully recover.

While recovering, he should resist the temptation to follow the news very closely (if that is possible), to call the office to give instructions to his associates or to arrange meetings with ministers.

The government will survive for a month in his absence as he has capable and smart associates that can be trusted to perform their duties without his direct supervision and guidance.

In fact, Anastasiades would do well to use the period for his recovery as a time for reflection and self-criticism. His time away from the office will be an opportunity for him to take stock of his presidential record after 21 months in office, evaluate the major decisions he has taken, consider the mistakes he has made (assuming he is aware of them) and think of ways to make his government better, as there is ample room for improvement.

There is a general lack of planning, especially at the presidential palace which has shown an inclination for policy improvisation, idle claims and knee-jerk reactions to criticism.

Aware of this weakness, Anastasiades met his PR advisors two weeks ago to discuss developing a communications strategy that would improve the government’s standing.

However there can not be an effective strategy when the government has no plan and is incapable of thinking through its decisions and declarations.

An example of this slapdash approach was provided a few days ago when the government announced that Anastasiades would be going to the US for his heart operation.

No thought had been given to how the matter would be handled publicly. Tuesday’s announcement sparked a lot of critical comment about the fact that the taxpayer would be picking up the bill and speculation about the total cost.

The operation could have been carried out in Cyprus at a fraction of the cost it was correctly pointed out, so why was the president going abroad, at the taxpayer’s expense?

A day later the government issued an announcement stating that all the costs – hospital bills, hotel accommodation and travel expenses (including those of the president’s doctors) – would be borne by Anastasiades personally.

It also said that he would rather have had the surgery done in Cyprus but had been advised to go to the US by his doctors in case there were complications.

Had some thought been given to the matter on Tuesday a second announcement with clarifications would have been unnecessary on Wednesday. It would also have prevented speculation that Anastasiades would have lumbered the taxpayer with the costs if there had not been a public reaction.

This amateurish approach is fast becoming a trademark of the Anastasiades presidency.

The handling the Central Bank governor’s contract was another example of the slapdash way affairs of state are handled. Not only had the president signed a contract unaware that changes had been made to it but an hour after the governor had given her version of events to the House he issued a scathing announcement pleading ignorance and accusing her of lying.

Again, no thought had been given to the matter, the president acting on an impulse and making the problem much more difficult to manage.

We have been witnessing these knee-jerk reactions too frequently for comfort in the last couple of years – quitting the talks was another impulsive decision with not a thought given to the possible consequences.

The undermining of the finance minister over the foreclosures bill and the retirement bonus of the public employees were other examples of the trademark impulsiveness which Anastasiades seems to have mistaken for shows of decisiveness.

It would be to the benefit of the country and his government if Anastasiades uses his recuperation time to ponder these failings of his presidency and think of ways of reining in his impulsiveness which is anything but a wise advisor.

He should also realise that he would need to take better care of his health when he returns to work and this would be achieved by developing policy plans and preparing strategies for achieving objectives that would not require his continuous attention and cause him unnecessary stress.

A new, better planned and more measured approach to government would be good for his health and the country.

By Angelos Anastasiou

THE Paphos Sewerage Board police investigation this week is the latest in a string of scandals unearthed in recent months but public opinion increasingly appears less outraged than bored; scandal fatigue seems to be settling in on the disillusioned Cyprus public.

Scandal fatigue is hardly a new term, and since news about current events now circulates at the speed of light, people are constantly bombarded with communications so have adapted by learning to filter out nonsense.

As usual, in Cyprus this took a little longer. An exceptionally close-knit society of relatives and acquaintances where the most common address to male strangers is ‘koumbare’ (literally: ‘my best man’) couldn’t help but fight for its traditions. Besides the locals’ famous hospitality, these include a fair amount of back-rubbing, shortcut-taking and looking the other way.

A February 2014 study by the European Commission indicated that 92 per cent of Cypriots believe that ‘rusfeti’ – various forms of patronage – is the fastest and most effective way to deal with the government. Not surprisingly, very few complain of this practice.

It was perhaps this reflexive, almost innate, secret-keeping that enabled the system to function so smoothly for so long – and shocked Cypriot society out of its wits on those rare occasions it was faced with wrongful acts. Since 1960, the young democracy has seen its fair share of scandal in public life – whether it was embezzlement of taxpayer money, or money laundering by public officials, or abuse of power in favour of party loyalists – but the elite knew it had to follow the golden rule: such issues do not enter the public debate.

But in recent years a transformation seems to have occurred. Probably triggered by an unprecedented financial meltdown early in 2013, the complacent public suddenly threatened to demand punishment. It has yet to do so in any meaningful way, but the fear of a rising public has driven a few points home – chief among them: you can’t fool everyone forever.

And so it was that a barrage of scandals has started coming to light, one seamlessly segueing into the next. Just this year, Cyprus has seen the Dromolaxia case go to court, the Central Prisons shenanigans, millions of suspicious money funnelled to political parties, the First Lady making a great land deal with the Church, the ongoing Cyprus Tourism Organisation saga, and a handful of scandals relating to the Paphos municipality.

A man responsible for uncovering some of these, and certainly many of the rest, appears to have been blessed with right-place-at-the-right-time destiny. Auditor General Odysseas Michaelides seems to have taken it upon himself not just to unearth but clean up whatever dirt he can get his hands on, no matter how big or small. Faced with criticism that his service concerns itself with minor cases, he was dismissive. “We will go after the big along with the small,” he has said. “We can’t receive reports of wrongdoing, however small, and not investigate them so that people won’t say we concern ourselves with minor issues.”

Nonetheless, a sense of weariness appears to be setting in, according to former DISY MP – turned corruption vigilante – Christos Pourgourides.

“Indeed, people increasingly follow public scandals with apathy,” he told the Cyprus Mail. “It has been instilled into people’s minds that things can’t change, and many increasingly give up hope.”

Pourgourides appeared convinced that this is the direct result of the huge financial blow Cypriots suffered in March 2013, when many lost a lifetime’s savings, others lost jobs, and some lost both.

“After the kick in the head a couple of years ago with the economy, people have pulled away from public life. It has only reinforced the view that nothing can change,” Pourgourides explained.

The view that a monumentally calamitous occurrence, such as a national financial disaster, could conceivably lead people to focus more on the predicament they find themselves in and less on issues that affect them only tangentially, has nominal merit. It would certainly fit with the circumstances Cypriots have been faced with – the times are most decidedly not ordinary.

Not so, claimed AKEL’s former government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou, arguing the problem is systemic and not circumstantial.

“The assumption that public apathy is on the rise is false,” he told the Cyprus Mail. “Polls systematically indicate strong disapproval ratings against public officials embroiled in scandals. Unfortunately, however, this projects into public criticism and contempt towards institutions, politics and politicians.”

While subtle, the distinction is there: Stefanou argues that people don’t respond to the mounting scandals with indifference by choice, but rather are driven to political apathy by ineffectual and untrustworthy governance.

“That said, it falls to institutions and politicians to win back society’s trust by proving they can, and are willing to, function properly in the people’s best interest.”

But whether the public has actively chosen to withdraw or disengaged because state institutions failed its expectations, never before has Cyprus seen such range – and extent – of corruption in its public domain. And the suspicion, of course, is that it had always been there, neatly tucked under the rug.

Now, the rug has been violently pulled and society at large needs to deal with what’s there. It could well be that what is being diagnosed as public apathy or systemic failure isn’t scandal fatigue at all, but rather the aftershock of an ugly truth revealed – and the precursor to learning how to deal with it.

By Mary Wareham

Nations around the world agreed in November to continue deliberations on “lethal autonomous weapons systems” – that is, weapons systems that would be able to select their targets and use force without any further human intervention.

There are serious concerns that fully autonomous weapons systems – or “killer robots,” as they are also called – would not be able to distinguish between soldiers and civilians, or judge whether a military action is proportional.

Countries could choose to deploy these weapons more frequently and with less critical consideration if they do not have to worry about sacrificing troops. Proliferation of these weapons systems could spin out of control easily, both for military and police use.

At the prompting of nongovernmental organizations and United Nations experts, discussions began earlier this year to address the many technical, legal, military, ethical, and societal questions relating to the prospect of lethal autonomous weapons systems.

The debate should be expected to deepen and broaden as the talks continue. The hope is that they will lead rapidly to formal negotiations on a new treaty pre-emptively banning weapons systems that do not require meaningful human control over the key functions of targeting and firing.

Such weapons in their fully autonomous form do not exist yet, but several precursors that are in development in the United States, China, Israel, Russia, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and other nations with high-tech militaries demonstrate the trend toward ever-increasing autonomy on land, in the air, and on or under the water.

If the military robotic developments proceed unchecked, the concern is that machines, rather than humans, could ultimately make life-or-death decisions on the battlefield or in law enforcement.

By agreeing to keep talking, the 118 nations that are part of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), an existing international treaty, acknowledged the unease that the idea of such weapons causes for the public.

A new global coalition of nongovernmental organizations called the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots continues to pick up endorsements, with more than 275 scientists, 70 faith leaders, and 20 Nobel Peace laureates joining its ranks in calling for a pre-emptive ban on the development, production, and use of fully autonomous weapons. In August, Canada’s Clearpath Robotics became the first private company to endorse the campaign and pledge not to knowingly develop and manufacture such weapons systems.

The UN expert on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns, has called on all countries to adopt a moratorium on these weapons. Austria has urged nations engaged in the development of such weapons systems to freeze these programs, and has called on nations deliberating about starting such development to make a commitment not to do so.

Talking about the issue is good, but diplomacy is moving at a slow pace compared with the rapid technological developments. The commitment of the CCW talks – a week of talks over the course of an entire year – is unambitious. It is imperative for diplomatic talks to pick up the pace and create a new international treaty to ensure that humans retain control of targeting and attack decisions.

In the meantime, nations need to start establishing their own policies on these weapons, implementing bans or moratoriums at a national level.

The United States has developed a detailed policy on autonomous weapons that, for now, requires a human being to be “in the loop” when decisions are made about using lethal force, unless department officials waive the policy at a high level. While positive, the policy is not a comprehensive or permanent solution to the problems posed, and it may prove hard to sustain if other nations begin to deploy fully autonomous weapons systems.

One thing is clear: Doing nothing and letting ever-greater autonomy in warfare proceed unchecked is no longer an option.

Mary Wareham is advocacy director of the Human Rights Watch Arms Division, where she leads HRW’s advocacy against particularly problematic weapons that pose a significant threat to civilians. She is also serving as the global coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots.

This article first appeared in www.themarknews.com

By Michael Hann

Champions Manchester City galvanised their pursuit of Premier League leaders Chelsea on Sunday with an emphatic 3-0 victory over a Southampton side who have surprisingly come between the leading title protagonists.

With table-topping Chelsea held to a 0-0 draw against Sunderland on Saturday, victory for City at fortress St Mary’s took them above Southampton into second place with 27 points from 13 matches, six behind Jose Mourinho’s pace setters.

Tottenham Hotspur came from a goal down to beat Everton 2-1 with goals from Christian Eriksen and Roberto Soldado moving Spurs up to seventh with 20 points.

After a less than convincing start to the attempted defence of their title, City’s display against Southampton saw them back to their free-flowing best as goals from Yaya Toure, Frank Lampard and Gael Clichy condemned Ronald Koeman’s high-flying side to a first home defeat of the season.

“We beat a very good team,” City manager Manuel Pellegrini, speaking to Sky Sports, said. “They were second in the table and deserved that position.

“It was important to have a clean sheet again, they had just one chance in the 90 minutes and that is important for the trust in our team.

“It was close in the first 45 minutes and we continued working as a team in defence and attack until we scored.”

SCREAMING CITY
City screamed for a penalty for a foul on Aguero in a goalless first half when Jose Fonte’s hefty challenge wiped the Argentine out in the box. Incredibly Aguero, making his 100th Premier League appearance, was booked for diving.

But Ivorian midfielder Toure, so often City’s go-to man on their way to the title last season, put his side in front after 51 minutes when his low shot from the edge of the area flicked off Saints defender Toby Alderweireld and past Fraser Forster.

When French defender Eliaquim Mangala received a second yellow for a foul on Shane Long it seemed Southampton had a lifeline but that was snatched away when Lampard ghosted through into space and buried his shot low into the corner after being picked out by James Milner.

Clichy hammered the final nail into Southampton’s coffin when he turned the ball home in the 88th minute.

“I’m disappointed because in the second half the beginning was a bit better than the start of the game,” Koeman told Sky Sports after his side dropped to third.

“You know that if you do some mistakes you are punished for that. It was not good enough today and we have to realise that. The difference was the quality.”

SPURS FIGHTBACK
Everton’s Kevin Mirallas produced a stunning strike from 20 metres to open the scoring at White Hart Lane in Sunday’s clash between the two Europa League representatives.

Tottenham equalised six minutes later when Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard palmed Harry Kane’s shot into the path of Eriksen, who kept his composure to score.

In first half stoppage time, Soldado scored his first league goal since March when he raced on to Aaron Lennon’s astute pass and powered a shot past Howard.

Everton applied pressure late on but Spurs stayed strong to avoid their third consecutive league defeat at home.

By Constantinos Psillides

CHRISTOS Drakopoulos, the Greek national who is wanted for his alleged connection to the Paphos Sewage Board scandal, is expected to arrive in Cyprus to answer questions no later than Wednesday, a police source told the Cyprus Mail on Monday.

The source told the Cyprus Mail that Drakopoulos’ lawyer contacted authorities upon being informed that a warrant would be issued for his arrest.

“The lawyer contacted police and informed us that his client is willing to cooperate. He said that he didn’t want a warrant for his arrest floating around and that he will come willingly. He is expected on Tuesday, Wednesday the latest,” said the source, adding that police had a backup plan if Drakopoulos did not show up.

“If he is not on the island by Wednesday the latest then we will go and get him. The international arrest warrant is set up and will go immediately into effect if he doesn’t show.”

Drakopoulos is a key person in the case and it has been alleged he is one of several contractors who paid sewage board manager Eftihios Malekkides and Paphos mayor Savvas Vergas money in kickbacks.

Drakopoulos company was awarded a tender for constructing a waste treatment plant in 2007.

According to the head investigator’s testimony in court during last week’s remand hearing, a high ranking official with the sewage board gave a statement to police saying that in 2007, on the day the contract for the waste treatment plant was signed, he met with Drakopoulos who told him that he would give Malekkides the sum of £200,000 (around €340,000) to split between himself, Vergas and two other municipal councillors.

The official told authorities how Drakopoulos left the municipality only to return after a while with nylon bags filled with stacks of money. The official added that the company’s owner stepped into the mayor’s office accompanied by Malekkides and the two councillors.

Drakopoulos’ statement to investigators appears to be the missing component for police to proceed with further arrests.

The sewerage project that Vergas and Malekkides were handling was estimated to cost €78m but taxpayers have so far paid €109m, with contractors claiming around €25m more. The two men are suspected of inflating the project’s budget in order to receive kickbacks from contractors.

While Malekkides and Vergas are still refusing to cooperate with authorities, police are expanding their investigation to an unnamed European country where the two men could have moved their assets. Police are looking for a money trail leading from the board to the suspects’ bank accounts.

Police chief Zacharias Chrysostomou told the media on Monday that the investigation was proceeding well and that police had been granted access to the suspects’ bank accounts.

Malekkides, Vergas and Georgios Michaelides – a former DISY councillor who is suspected of receiving a bribe of €30,000 by a contractor – are expected to appear before court on Friday.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Socratis Hasikos promised on Monday that this week would be one “of rapid developments” in the matter of early elections for the Paphos municipality. Hasikos has been looking for a way to oust Vergas, who, two weeks ago, held a press conference to announce that he would not be stepping down as mayor because doing so “is the same as admitting that I am guilty”. Vergas has suspended his participation to the municipal council while the councillors have already said that they refuse to sit at a meeting chaired by Vergas.

Hasikos is looking for a way to call for an early election and to that end has asked Legal Services for their input. Legal Services are expected to come up with a lawful way of showing the embattled mayor the door, later this week.

By Jean Christou

FIFTY ONE new HIV positive cases were diagnosed in Cyprus between January and October 2014, up five cases over the same period last year.

From the 51 new cases 43 were permanent residents. Seven were people who live abroad and one resident of the north of the island.

Of the 43 permanent residents 32 were Greek Cypriot – 30 men and two women – and 11 foreigners, all male.

The figures were presented on Monday to mark International AIDS Day.

According to the numbers, from the beginning of 1986 to October this year, a total of 847 HIV cases have been diagnosed in Cyprus.

Of this figure 464 were people of Cypriot origin, including four Turkish Cypriots. The remaining 383 were foreign residents and non residents diagnosed on the island.

Some 553 of the total 847 are permanent residents in the south of the island while 288 are resident abroad, three in the north and one unknown, implying an asylum seeker.

Sexual contact was the means of transmission in 93.4 per cent of all cases to date – 55.4 per cent through heterosexual relations and 38 per cent through homosexual relations. In three per cent of cases the cause of transmission could not be determined while in 1.2 per cent, the disease was contracted through a blood transfusion and 1.1 per cent through the use of illicit drugs.

Of the total 847 cases, 596 were men and 251 were women. Some 66 per cent of all cases were in the 20-29 age group, 31 per cent in the 40-65 age group and 4 per cent were cases involving young people under the age of 19.

In his speech, which was read by Permanent Secretary Christina Yiannakis, Health Minister Philippos Patsalis said being diagnosed with HIV no longer meant certain death from AIDS, especially in developed countries.

“AIDS is still an open wound for humanity,” he said. “It is a wound that tests the health, the cohesion of societies and the respect for human rights.”

Patsalis said that at a European level from 2004 until today, the number of cases of infection with HIV had not decreased but had increased by 33 per cent.

“Cyprus has low rates of infection with HIV, estimated at less than 0.1 per cent of the general population,” he added. But he did say there appeared to be more cases emerging among the homosexual population than before.

Patsalis said Cyprus had spent €2m in 2012 and €2.6m in 2013 to battle AIDS and treat HIV.

He said the Grigorios clinic at Larnaca General Hospital was doing an excellent job for patients, offering not only free clinical care but also psychological support and counselling.

“There is an urgent requirement in any modern and conscious society for continuous training and for policies aimed at the prevention, care and support of patients with AIDS,” Patsalis said. “It is also the responsibility of all to help eliminate any social stigmatisation so that HIV-positive people have the same rights as their fellow citizens.”

The head of the health ministry’s AIDS Management Programme Dr Yannis Demetriades echoed the minister’s comment about the necessity of putting an end to the prejudice that exists against HIV-positive people in Cyprus. “They experience violations of their human rights and have no voice,” he said.

THE TECHNICAL Committee on Cultural Heritage on Monday announced the near completion of conservation works to the mosque of Evretou/Evretu.

The mosque – built at the beginning of the 20th Century on the main road of a small village located in the Paphos district – was selected as part of the priority intervention emergency projects of the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage. The project was implemented by the United Nations Development Programme Partnership for the Future (UNDP-PFF).

“The preservation of the Evretou/Evretu Mosque has a unique cultural significance as it is important for the history of the settlement as well as a testimony of religious architecture in Cyprus,” said the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot members of the technical committee, Takis Hadjidemetriou and Ali Tuncay respectively in a joint statement.

Conservation works focused on cleaning of the site including removal of vegetation, excavation for the purposes of natural drainage and prevention of further erosion of the external stonewall, repair to windows and the entire reconstruction of the roof. The project also included repairs to internal and external walls, strengthening of structure with metal rods, restoration of stonework and rebuilding and sealing of joints.

The cost of the project was of around €73,600 including works, designs and supervision costs fully funded by the European Union.

More information on on-going projects of the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage can be found here: http://www.cy.undp.org/content/cyprus/en/home/operations/projects/partnershipforthefuture/support-to-culturalheritage-monuments-of-great-importance-for-c.html

By Constantinos Psillides

GREEK pop singer Sakis Rouvas told media on Monday that there was nothing shady about his Paphos concert on August 8, adding that what followed the event “was unfortunate”.

The pop singer has found himself entangled in the many alleged scandals featuring Paphos mayor Savvas Vergas. The mayor is currently under investigation for allowing a tax exemption for the concert’s organisers, a company run by Constantinos Sifantos the husband of Vergas’ close associate Maria Solomonidou. The exemption was granted under the condition that the company would donate part of the proceeds to charity. No money has so far been given to charity while the documents relating to the concert has gone missing from the municipality’s archives.

During the course of the investigation police came across a contract allegedly signed by Vergas, which includes a fee of €100,000 to Rouvas from the company organising the concert, but it was never submitted to the municipality.

The pop singer – who visited a school in Limassol as part of an event to promote volunteerism event – didn’t try to avoid reporters but said that he didn’t wish to fan the flames by making detailed comments.

Asked on the sum he received as payment Rouvas said that the more he talked about the story the more energy it received.

“I believe the case is in good hands. When everything comes to light then we can talk about this more comfortably,” said Rouvas, adding that some people had taken advantage of his fame to serve their own purposes.

Shortly after the story broke, the pop singer’s manager issued a statement claiming that the artist’s payment for the concert was not €100,000 but €40,000.

CYPRUS was part of wider regional discussions in Turkey on Monday during the visit to Ankara by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

According to Turkish media, Putin arrived in Ankara with a large delegation, including 10 ministers, for trade discussions including a Turkish demand for a price reduction on its natural gas supply from Moscow. The two countries are also aiming to increase their two-way trade volume from the current $33 billion to $100 billion by 2020.
Lavrov met his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu before the fifth session of the High Level Cooperation Council meeting where they discussed the trade deals expected to be signed.

On regional issues, they discussed Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and Cyprus.

Lavrov said Moscow “would keep a positive attitude for uninterrupted negotiations on the Cyprus issue”, Turkish media reported. The foreign minister also appeared to be in favour of negotiations on the Cyprus problem recommencing as soon as possible, according to the Turkish press.

Putin also made a comment about Cyprus ahead of the visit when he denied that Russia was involved in any gas projects in and around Cyprus.

“I don’t know who said what about the issue. But I know that neither the Russian state nor the energy ministry are involved in any gas projects in Cyprus. It is up to private companies to deal with the process, if there is one. They need to know that it will be their own responsibility to deal with any crisis and risks there,” he said.

By Kate Kelland

THE world has finally reached “the beginning of the end” of the AIDS pandemic that has infected and killed millions in the past 30 years, according to a leading campaign group fighting HIV.

The number of people newly infected with HIV over the last year was lower than the number of HIV-positive people who joined those getting access to the medicines they need to take for life to keep AIDS at bay.

But in a report to mark World AIDS Day on Monday, the ONE campaign, an advocacy group working to end poverty and preventable disease in Africa, warned that reaching this milestone did not mean the end of AIDS was around the corner.

“We’ve passed the tipping point in the AIDS fight at the global level, but not all countries are there yet, and the gains made can easily stall or unravel,” said Erin Hohlfelder, ONE’s director of global health policy.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS is spread via blood, semen and breast milk. There is no cure for the infection, but AIDS can be kept at bay for many years with cocktails of antiretroviral drugs.

United Nations data show that in 2013, about 35 million people were living with HIV, 2.1 million people were newly infected with the virus and some 1.5 million died of AIDS. By far the greatest part of the HIV/AIDS burden is in sub-Saharan Africa.

The AIDS pandemic began more than 30 years ago and has killed up to 40 million people worldwide.

The United Nations AIDS agency, UNAIDS, says that, by June 2014, some 13.6 million people globally had access to AIDS drugs, a dramatic improvement on the 5 million who were getting treatment in 2010.

“Despite the good news, we should not take a victory lap yet,” said Hohlfelder.

She highlighted several threats to current progress, including a $3bn shortfall in the funds needed each year to control HIV around the world.

“We want to see bold new funding from a more diversified base, including more from African domestic budgets,” she said.

ONE also noted that HIV is increasingly concentrated among hard-to-reach populations such as injecting drug users, gay men and sex workers – groups who are often stigmatised and have trouble accessing treatment and prevention services.

The U.S. Supreme Court appeared conflicted on Monday over whether to uphold the conviction of a Pennsylvania man found guilty of making threatening statements to his estranged wife, law enforcement officers and others on social media.

The nine justices, hearing an hour of oral arguments in a closely watched case testing the limits of free speech online, considered an appeal filed by Anthony Elonis, who served prison time for posting a series of statements on Facebook in 2010 after his wife left him.

The case touches upon the rise of social media and how people use it to express strongly held feelings. But the legal question is whether prosecutors needed to show Elonis’ intent to threaten, or if it was enough for them to show merely that a reasonable person would have felt threatened.

His Facebook posts, written in the form of rap lyrics, talked about killing his wife, knifing an female FBI agent and shooting schoolchildren. After a court granted his wife a protective order against him, Elonis posted: “Is it thick enough to stop a bullet?”

Some justices appeared concerned about a broad range of speech being criminalised, including ill-advised remarks by teenagers on social media and songs by rap artists such as Eminem known for violent imagery in their lyrics.

Chief Justice John Roberts read aloud Eminem’s lyrics from the song “’97 Bonnie and Clyde” in which the rapper describes dumping his wife’s body in a lake.

Roberts asked whether Eminem could have been prosecuted. U.S. Justice Department lawyer Michael Dreeben said Eminem would not be prosecuted because of the different context. Everyone knows Eminem is an entertainer and the comments were not made at a time when his wife had sought a protective order, Dreeben said.

Other justices expressed concern about prosecutions undermining the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment free speech protections.

Justice Elena Kagan said the government’s proposed standard was “you should have known you were going to cause fear – and that’s not the kind of standard we usually use under the First Amendment.”

Among those sounding sceptical of Elonis’ argument that his remarks were intended as art or a form of therapy was Justice Samuel Alito. “This sounds like a roadmap for threatening your spouse and then getting away with it,” Alito said.

Elonis was convicted of violating a federal law that outlaws sending a threatening communication and sentenced to 44 months in prison.

A ruling is expected by the end of June.

By Constantinos Psillides

JUSTICE Minister Ionas Nicolaou and University of Cyprus rector Constantinos Christofides signed a memorandum of cooperation on Monday, in an effort to improve the lives of prisoners and prison guards at the Central Prison.

The memorandum includes among other things that prison staff can receive psychological support from a specialised unit within the psychology and sociology departments of the university. They will also be able to take psychology and sociology courses.

While the exact nature of those training courses is not yet defined, the minister said that it would be either through a scholarship or attending selected classes. The same opportunity will also be made available to inmates.

“What is important here is that the university’s willingness to prove that prison grounds can provide people with the opportunity to go into a rewarding profession when they are released. It can give people the opportunity to gather knowledge and experience useful for their future,” said the justice minister.

Christophides told the press that “the quality of a people’s civility is how they treat those that are weaker than them. We at the university are willing to offer our expertise in a number of issues where we can work together with the prison administration to achieve quick results.”

A series of lectures are planned to take place in the prison.

By Darya Korsunskaya

RUSSIA’S Gazprom on Monday cancelled a project to construct the South Stream pipeline to supply gas to southern Europe – an apparent casualty of the dispute between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.

The announcement was made after Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a state visit to Turkey earlier in the day that Moscow could not carry on with the South Stream project if the European Union was opposed to it.

“The project is closed. This is it,” Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller told reporters in Moscow.

The planned $40bn Gazprom-led pipeline was supposed to cross the Black Sea to southern Europe via Bulgaria and had been intended to start supplying gas next year.

Western powers have introduced economic sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine conflict and Europe is keen to lower its dependence on Russian gas supplies.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Putin said the European Commission was reluctant to give the green light to the South Stream project.

“We see that obstacles are being set up to prevent its fulfilment,” Putin said. “If Europe does not want to carry it out, then it will not be carried out…We think this is against Europe’s economic interests and is causing damage.”

Putin said Bulgaria was under pressure from the European Union, which gets a third of its gas volumes from Russia.

“If Bulgaria is deprived of the possibility of behaving like a sovereign state, let them demand the money for the lost profit from the European Commission,” he said.

To avoid disruption of supplies and to bypass Ukraine, Russia has built the Nord Stream gas pipeline directly to Germany across the Baltic Sea.

Putin said Russia would reduce the gas price for Turkey by 6 per cent, starting next year, and had agreed to supply Turkey with an additional 3 billion cubic metres (bcm). Last year, 13.7 bcm of gas were pumped to Turkey via the existing Blue Stream pipeline.

He said Russia was potentially ready to build a gas hub on the Turkish-Greek border to supply Europe with gas to compensate for the loss of South Stream.

“We are ready to not only expand the Blue Stream, but to build another pipeline system to supply the growing demand of the Turkish economy, and if it is deemed justified, to set up an additional gas hub for the South European consumers on Turkish territory, near the border with Greece,” he said.

MUCH of Nicosia’s Makarios Avenue was closed to traffic from Monday to accommodate the ‘Christmas Street’ organised for the second year in a row by the municipality and Lefkosiazo group.

The avenue from Evagoras Street until Arnaldas Street will be closed to vehicles for the whole of December until January 4, while traffic is directed to other streets to avoid congestion.

From early Monday morning preparations were underway to install a luna-park, a stage and 21 wooden houses that will be used as stalls, shops and to host events.

Around one hundred Christmas trees will line the street all bought and decorated by political parties, private individuals, organisations and companies.

The wooden kiosks, which will be open to public from December 7 until January 2, will serve food and beverages like mulled wine, sweets and various traditional dishes.

There will also be events for children, marching bands and choir music. The organisers said they will announce the full schedule of events, later in the week.