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Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 99-11-27

Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>


CONTENS
  • [01] Stone-throwing Turks blamed for breaking car window
  • [02] British co-operation on Menson case not recognition, Turkish Cypriot official admits
  • [03] Government to seek tenders for Paphos airport
  • [04] Petrol prices could rise to offset cost of crude
  • [05] Staff suspected of embezzling cash to play the stock market
  • [06] Bulent Ecevit, of Rauf Denktash Street, nabbed in Oroklini for driving without a licence – sensation
  • [07] Denktash dashes Varosha hopes
  • [01] Stone-throwing Turks blamed for breaking car window By George Psyllides TURKISH soldiers were yesterday blamed for shattering the window of a car parked at Minoos Street on the Green Line, in the old city of Nicosia. Police yesterday said they were investigating an incident in which a car window was smashed by stones. The car was parked outside a house at Minoos Street, in the Chrysaliniotissa area of Nicosia, which faces the buffer zone. Police believe the stones were thrown by Turkish soldiers, who man a sentry post west of the street. Other sources suggested the smashed window was the work of vandals in the government-controlled areas. But National Guardsmen on duty at the end of Minoos Street told the Cyprus Mail that stone throwing from the north was a regular phenomenon. The Turks, one soldier said, used slings to launch stones across the buffer zone all the time. Residents of the street also confirmed that the Turks threw stones almost daily. "Sometimes the stones come from the guard post to the west of the street, and sometimes from the front," one worried resident said. Another resident said the car owner's house had also been targeted with stones. Unficyp has been informed about the incident. Unficyp spokeswoman Sarah Russell told the Cyprus Mail yesterday: " the UN has received the report and is looking into it."
  • [02] British co-operation on Menson case not recognition, Turkish Cypriot official admits By Martin Hellicar SOMEWHAT unexpectedly, the occupation regime yesterday passed up an apparent opportunity to claim Britain was recognising the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). On Thursday, a 'court' in occupied Nicosia convicted and sentenced a Turkish Cypriot to 14 years behind bars for the 1997 London murder of British rapper Michael Menson. Several British witnesses and British police officers investigating the Menson's January 1997 murder were in the occupied areas to testify in the trial. Yesterday, the director general of the occupation regime's 'Ministry of Foreign affairs and Defence', Resat Caglar, called foreign journalists to a press conference in occupied Nicosia to comment on the verdict. Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash has for years been trying to use any opportunity to claim international recognition for his breakaway 'TRNC'. Caglar was expected to toe the line and tell journalists that Britain's acceptance of the 'court' ruling on a murder on her soil was tantamount to British recognition of the 'TRNC'. Foreign news agencies had even set up interviews with Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou, ready to get his reaction to the north's recognition claims. But, in the event, Caglar made no such claims. "This is a recognition by Britain that our institutions work properly, that our courts and judicial systems are up to standards of those of Britain," Caglar said. "It demonstrates their faith in both our institutions and systems," he added. But then he said: "There is no question of our interpreting this as recognition of the state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus because this would require diplomatic moves and an exchange of ambassadors etc." Caglar admitted he would "love to think" this was a form of recognition by Britain, but it was not. He did, however, add that it did the 'TRNC' recognition campaign "no harm." The British High Commission in Nicosia has refused to comment on the possible political significance of the 'trial' in the north. The man convicted on Thursday, Ozgay Yorgun, fled to the north soon after the killing. He was tried in the north because the breakaway state does not extradite to other countries. Caglar said yesterday that the go-ahead for the case to be tried in the north was given via the British High Commission, by the British Home and Foreign Offices. He added that Britain and the 'TRNC' had cooperated on police matters for over 10 years. Caglar also said separate Turkish Cypriot courts were recognised under the 1960 constitution, so there was no reason for the government not to recognise them now. Attorney-general Alecos Markides says the European Court has ruled that 'courts' in the north can only be recognised as an extension of the mainland Turkish judicial system. Yorgun is one of three men accused of dousing Menson with gasoline and setting him on fire on January 28 1997. The two other suspects - Greek Cypriot Charalambos Constantinou and Mauritian Mario Pereira - are being tried for murder in Britain. Menson died of burns 16 days after what his family insist was a racist attack.
  • [03] Government to seek tenders for Paphos airport By Phanis Droushiotis THE GOVERNMENT will be seeking private tenders for Paphos Airport, according to Transport Minister Averof Neophytou. Speaking in Paphos on Thursday night, Neophytou admitted the state no longer had either the ability or the resources to run the airport, adding it was common in Europe and America for private interests to run such concerns. The minister was responding to opposition claims that the government's Improvement Plan for the airport was falling behind schedule and that the millennium would find Paphos with a "third world" airport. Asked why the government was still investing hundreds of thousands of pounds in improvement schemes for the airport if it would end in private hands, Neophytou replied, "This was scheduled before my appointment as a minister." The government announced earlier this year that it would make available £600,000 for further airport and runway improvements, as well as for a new air traffic control tower. Neophytou said told a Lions' club audience that his recent visit to the UK and US had convinced him that the private sector was more competitive than any local government when it came to running establishments such as airports, railways or telecommunications. Neophytou also denied claims by Paphos deputies Nicos Pittokopitis and Georgios Hadjigeorgiou, both of whom sit on the House Transport Committee, that his department was responsible for delays in another major project, the Limassol-Paphos highway. "The highway was planned 10 years ago and will be delivered to the public exactly within the deadline of September 2000," he insisted. "All obstacles will be overcome," he said, referring to complaints from residents of Timi and Kouklia villages that they would not have access to the highway. Neophytou visited the areas yesterday, meeting local representatives. He said after his meetings that he was open to any suggestions, but insisted the government would keep to its schedule. "If people want the highway or any other major project to proceed, they must be prepared to accept new arrangements for reaching their own homes," Neophytou said.
  • [04] Petrol prices could rise to offset cost of crude By Anthony O. Miller WITH crude oil prices more than doubling this year, a rise in the petrol pump price is one option the government is weighing to keep afloat the island's four oil companies, Commerce and Industry Minister Nicos Rolandis said yesterday. "Because crude oil prices are now in the region of $25 or $26 per barrel," Rolandis said, "the (island's four) oil companies are registering a loss" of some $4 million for 1999. "It's an urgent issue, and we realise that the oil companies are suffering because of this," Rolandis said. But he urged "some patience of a few days," since the oil companies will learn of the government's remedy "by December 10." The Republic's contract with Exxon-Esso, Mobil, BP and Petrolina "guaranteed them a 12 per cent (return) on their equity. If they had the 12 per cent, they would have made £2.8 million" in profits by year's end, Rolandis said. But with crude's cost soaring, the island's oil importers will not only fail to make the contract's £2.8 million in profits for 1999, but "instead, they're going to lose £1.2 million" more in the import-and-refining process. "So the red-ink differential is £4 million" for the four companies this year, Rolandis said. "The situation is difficult," Rolandis said. He and Finance Minister Takis Klerides yesterday were "exploring ways of rectifying the situation... (but) have not reached a final conclusion" on what to do, he said. However, "remedial action will have to be taken," Rolandis said. "And such action is either an increase of the (pump) prices again, or a temporary deletion of the excise duty as far as the (oil) companies are concerned." "In other words," Rolandis said, "we shall be collecting the full (petrol pump) price, including excise duty, (but) we shall not charge them with the duty, which means that they shall make up part of their losses." Or there may be some "combination of the two (options)," he said: a smaller (price) increase, and the partial, temporary deletion of the excise duty." "Of course, this means the public coffers will lose the money" in uncollected excise duties," Rolandis said, "so, actually, indirectly, the consumer pays for it -- not directly from his pocket, but... indirectly from the public money." Rolandis said no solution to the problem would emerge until he returned on December 7 from a week of WTO (World Trade Organisation) meetings in Seattle in the United States, and two days beyond that in London.
  • [05] Staff suspected of embezzling cash to play the stock market POLICE ARE investigating allegations that two employees embezzled £3 million from the Polemidhia Cooperative Bank. The Chairman of the bank, Costas Thoma, who is also Kato Polemidhia Mayor, reported the case to police on Thursday. Thoma told police the two employees had confessed to stealing the money in a letter they had sent to the bank committee. The letter did not say why they were taking the money, Thoma said. Police said yesterday that initial investigations suggested the suspects had been using the money to invest in the stock market and in real estate. The duo had allegedly been embezzling money from the bank for the past three years. The two suspects are understood to have returned over £2 million in cash and personal mortgage to the bank. Trade Minister Nicos Rolandis, who has been following the case closely, yesterday blamed the incident on the "hunt for easy money through the stock market." The auditing service of the director of cooperative development is investigating to find the exact method the two had used to siphon the money, and the conditions under which they had been operating. The bank yesterday assured its customers that their accounts had not suffered from the embezzlement.
  • [06] Bulent Ecevit, of Rauf Denktash Street, nabbed in Oroklini for driving without a licence sensation BULENT Ecevit was brought up before Larnaca District Court yesterday after going for a drive in the government-controlled areas and being arrested. Ecevit was nabbed in Archbishop Makarios Avenue, Oroklini, on Thursday afternoon. He told the court he had gone for a drive after visiting family friends in the mixed buffer-zone village of Pyla. The court, and representatives of Unficyp, listened intently as Ecevit said he was not aware that he was not allowed to enter the south. The defendant, who gave his address as Rauf Denktash Street, in the Famagusta area village of Strongylo, was fined £230 after he pleaded guilty to driving an unregistered vehicle, without a recognised driving licence or insurance cover. He was ordered to pay the fine on the spot before being released. For those who think that Bulent Ecevit did not get his just desserts, it should be pointed out that he is a 25-year-old Turkish Cypriot hairdresser who lives in the occupied area. The court heard that he had been named after the Turkish Prime Minister -- who had ordered the 1974 invasion during a previous spell as premier. Ecevit junior was born in Strongylo just a few months after the invasion, on October 10, 1974. Ecevit junior, speaking through an interpreter, said he had visited Pyla with his 17-year-old fiancée, to introduce her to friends and relatives. He then decided to go for a drive and ended up in Oroklini. He apologised to the court for straying over, explaining that he did not know his way about that well and had not realised he was committing an offence.
  • [07] Denktash dashes Varosha hopes Martin Hellicar TURKISH Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash yesterday blew away any suggestions that the Turkish side might hand over Varosha to government control. On Thursday night, visiting Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou fuelled rumours that a hand-over might be in the offing by suggesting such a move might be a good gesture for the Turkish side to make ahead of the Helsinki EU summit. The Turks are hoping Greece will lift its veto on Turkey becoming an EU candidate at the 15-nation bloc's December summit. But according to reports from the north yesterday, Denktash has dismissed the possibility of a hand-over of the ghost town. Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou yesterday said the return of Varosha would be a "serious development". He said such a development would be "taken into account" at Helsinki. But he added that the issue had not been tabled by the Turkish side. Archbishop Chrysostomos said the return of part of the occupied areas was unacceptable. "We must fight for all of Cyprus," he said after a morning meeting with Papandreou. This is not the first time there has been talk of the Turkish side handing over Varosha, a ghost town since 1974, as part of a settlement deal. Athens has made it clear she wants to see concessions from Ankara on Cyprus and Greco-Turkish relations before lifting its veto on EU candidacy. Greece has not specified what these concessions should be. Papapetrou said Cyprus would be happy to see Turkey join the EU if Ankara gave ground on Cyprus first. "The aim is for the Greek representation not to come away from Helsinki empty- handed, because if this happens Turkey will come away without a candidacy," the spokesman warned. "We are not opposed to Turkey's EU candidacy," he added. Denktash was yesterday also reported as saying that he would only talk to UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan during the proximity talks in New York next week. Reports yesterday suggested the talks -- set to start on Friday, December 3 -- were to take place solely in New York, rather than opening in New York and then moving to Long Island for a second round. Papapetrou said President Clerides and his back-up team were to leave for the US on Tuesday, travelling via Zurich. He said Clerides would be in the States by December 1. Papandreou concluded his Cyprus visit yesterday with a round of meetings which included calls on Clerides, Archbishop Chrysostomos and party leaders.
    © Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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