Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 00-10-08

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

From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cyprus-mail.com/>

Sunday, October 08, 2000

CONTENTS

[01] Tourist killed in fall

[02] Tassos Papadopoulos: a life in politics

[03] DIKO hands the leadership baton to Papadopoulos

[04] Two held after van bombed

[05] Man found dead in car

[06] UN Day 2000 at the Ledra Palace

[07] Optimism on Cyprus problem higher than ever before

[01] Tourist killed in fall

A 58-year-old German tourist has been killed after falling three metres down a staircase at a hotel in Kato Paphos, police said yesterday.

Reports said Jurgen Brinkmann was on his way to board a bus outside the hotel at around 7.30pm when he fell and hit his head.

Brinkmann was rushed to hospital where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

Sunday, October 08, 2000

[02] Tassos Papadopoulos: a life in politics

TASSOS Papadopoulos has had a long and distinguished political career.

Born on January 7, 1934 in Nicosia, he is a UK-trained barrister. He began to play an active role in Cyprus politics at an early age. As sector leader for Nicosia, he was an important figure in the 1955-1959 EOKA struggle against British rule.

Although in the 1960 summit in London he chose to rally against the Zurich- London agreements, Papadopoulos was closely involved in creating the Cyprus Constitution.

Since independence he has held various ministerial posts: Interior Minister (1959-1960), Labour and Social Insurance Minister (1960-1970), Agricultural and Natural Resources Minister (1964-

1967), and Health Minister (1967-1970).

Papadopoulos was also an adviser to Glafcos Clerides when he was intercommunal negotiator during the Cyprus talks until April 1976, when he was himself appointed negotiator. He was in the post until July, 1978, representing Cyprus at many international conferences and taking part in several of the country’s recourses to the United Nations General Assembly.

He was also a member of the Eneao (Unified) Party, a group which no longer exists, and was elected a deputy for Nicosia in 1970. In 1976 Papadopoulos was re-elected as an independent deputy.

In the 1991 and 1996 parliamentary election he was re-elected as a DIKO candidate. He is a member of the National Council and chairs the House of Representatives Committee on Foreign and European Affairs. He is also a member of the committees on Legal Affairs and Financial and Budgetary Affairs.

In addition to running a successful law firm, Papadopoulos also participates in international parliamentary organisations as the Joint Chairman of the Cyprus-EU parliamentary committee and as a member of the Delegation of the House to the Conferences of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

Sunday, October 08, 2000

[03] DIKO hands the leadership baton to Papadopoulos

THE lengthy party political career of veteran politician Spyros Kyprianou ended yesterday as he officially passed on the DIKO leadership baton to its parliamentary spokesman, Tassos Papadopoulos.

Speaking before the party’s National Electoral Conference in Nicosia, an emotional Kyprianou, founder of the Democratic Party, said he would not be seeking parliamentary re-election.

He did, however, stress that he put himself at the disposal of the National Council for any advice they might need regarding the Cyprus problem.

Kyprianou said he disagreed with the way the Greek Cypriot side had handled the recent UN-led proximity talks on a settlement of the Cyprus issue in New York, adding that he disputed the fact that Greco-Turkish relations were improving.

Greek F-16 warplanes landed at the Turkish airbase of Balikesir yesterday for joint exercises with their Turkish counterparts – an historic first in relations between the two states.

The new DIKO chairman. Tassos Papadopoulos. thanked the party members for their trust in him and approval, saying that he had received the order of continuing the struggle that was started by the party founders 25 years ago.

“United we will continue, aiming to make DIKO the primary player in decision making, if not the actual decision maker,” Papadopoulos said.

“A new era has begun in which DIKO will regroup and be revived.”

Papadopoulos urged those members who had left DIKO in the past to return to the party, promising that it would be powerful again.

He did not fail to pay tribute to Kyprianou, whom he called a “tireless fighter” who deserved every honour from party members.

“We thank and honour him,” Papadopoulos said.

In an apparent opening to left-wing voters, Papadopoulos stressed that DIKO was a centre party, and attacked government plans to liberalise state-owned organisations, voicing his disagreement with the “sale of state monopolies to multinational companies”.

“We are the servants of democracy,” he said. “We are the power which keeps Cyprus from being bipolar.”

For DIKO it is the person’s needs which are important, and not numbers, Papadopoulos said.

“The state has to provide all basic services to needy citizens,” he added.

Papadopoulos also pledged to fight nepotism, saying that he would fight passionately to uproot it from the state mechanism.

Sunday, October 08, 2000

[04] Two held after van bombed

TWO Limassol men were yesterday remanded in custody for eight days in connection with a bomb attack on a van at Polemidia on Friday night.

Andreas Saouri, 27, and 20-year-old Marios Georgiou, both from Polemidia, were arrested shortly after the 9.30pm blast under a vehicle belonging to Charalambos Kattidis.

Police told he court the pair were seen by eyewitnesses near the scene prior to the explosion, and shortly afterwards.

Investigators said the motives behind the pipe-bomb attack were still unknown.

The van was lightly damaged.

Sunday, October 08, 2000

[05] Man found dead in car

A PATHOLOGIST will arrive from Britain tomorrow to carry out an autopsy on the body of a 32-year-old man found in a car at Ayios Ermoyenis beach in the British Bases.

The man, identified as Constantinos Charalambous from Limassol, was found dead in the driver’s seat on Friday at 6.40pm.

Reports said the car doors were locked, and a bottle of water was found next to him.

Cyprus state pathologist Sophoclis Sophocleous, who was called to the scene, said there were no evident signs of foul play.

The causes of the man’s death will be determined tomorrow by the British pathologist, who was called in since Charalambous was found on British bases territory.

Sunday, October 08, 2000

[06] UN Day 2000 at the Ledra Palace

UNFICYP will celebrate UN Day 2000 with an open house at the Ledra Palace Hotel in Nicosia next Sunday.

In what has now become an annual event, people from both sides of the island will gather in the hotel grounds and mingle with UN personnel to enjoy a bicommunal cultural programme.

Two concerts will be held throughout the day with a variety of performers, some local and others drawn from UNFICYP ranks.

Soldiers will also organise sports and games ranging from football and tug- of-war to boxing and boot throwing. Children can enjoy face painting, a bouncy castle and cartoon films.

Information tents on the UN and each contingent will also be set up and a raffle will be held for charities on both sides.

Meanwhile yesterday, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot pupils met in the mixed village of Pyla in the Larnaca district to share experiences and talk about their common roots.

Around 60 pupils from Paphos, aged between 16 and 18, are participating in the two-day workshop called ‘Youth Encounters for Peace’.

Co-ordinator Nicos Anastasiou told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) that the next step would be for their parents to meet. He said members of the team already communicate through the Internet.

Sunday, October 08, 2000

[07] Optimism on Cyprus problem higher than ever before

THE middle of next year will be make or break time for the Cyprus problem, but optimism is higher than it has ever been, diplomats on the island have told the Sunday Mail.

For once the new optimism among the international community appears to have rubbed off on the leadership of both communities. Unprecedented statements of hope and talks of progress have issued from both sides since the latest round of UN-led proximity talks ended in New York last month.

On Wednesday Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides said the Greek Cypriot side expected talks to wind up one way or the other by the middle of next year.

His assessment of a 50-50 chance for a solution, however, leaned more towards the positive rather than the negative, when he said talks this summer had become substantive and yielded more hope than ever before.

The latest round got off to a shaky start after UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan spoke about the equal status of the parties, prompting President Glafcos Clerides to boycott the first two days of talks but pleasing Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. Annan later clarified that the equal status he spoke of was part of a comprehensive settlement and in line with UN resolutions.

“Denktash was pretty gleeful over Annan’s statement,” one diplomatic source told the Sunday Mail. “Clerides is now content because he has his clarification and Denktash is content because of the language contained within it, which is open to interpretation. It was in fact a very clever piece of drafting by the secretary-general.”

The source said the Greek Cypriot side has now realised the statement was made in order to make progress in the talks by putting the status issue to one side, since this was one of the major obstacles to Denktash’s willingness to negotiate.

“He (Annan) was after a statement which literally said ‘let’s get on with the talking, nothing is going to be agreed until everything is agreed’, and this put the status issue out of the way,” the source said.

He added that the international community was very confident with the way UN envoy Alvaro de Soto is going about the negotiations.

“He has shown himself to be a very gifted mediator and is going about things the right way,” the source said.

“And for the statements by Mr Cassoulides… that’s the most positive thing we’ve heard from the Greek Cypriot side in a long while. It’s not going to be overnight, but things are moving in the right direction.”

A second western diplomat agreed that there was a genuine feeling that both sides were getting down to business.

“I have a feeling by middle of next year we are going to be arriving at an interesting place,” the diplomat said. He said there were some very strong forces keeping both sides at the table. “For the Greek Cypriots it’s EU accession and they want to keep their noses clean, and the Turkish Cypriots are being told quite firmly by Turkey that they are not to walk out as long as the UN is producing reasonable suggestions.”

A third diplomatic source said there seems to be a higher level of trust in the UN from the Turkish Cypriot side

“Because nothing is agreed until everything is agreed they can afford to tackle bits of the problem at different times, because you’re not ticking things off on a check list, which is one of the advantages to this approach instead of banging your head against a brick wall on one particular issue,” the source said.

“The fact that the four core issues are interrelated means as you make progress on one you are likely to make progress on another. I believe the current optimism is justified.”

Government sources told the Sunday Mail there seemed to be a shift in the attitude of the Turkish Cypriot leader, which has contributed to the new hopes for progress.

“It was the fact that Mr Denktash agreed to engage in negotiations for the first time without satisfaction of his preconditions such as recognition,” the sources said. “I think that was a positive step forward. The language he was using during the New York talks was mildly different from his usual language. Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe Turkey made some suggestions to him or maybe he just has some other reasons.

“The fact is he started talking business on all core issues without satisfaction of his preconditions.”

The sources said what Annan had done in New York was to find a formula without giving anything to Denktash to satisfy his precondition for recognition.

“In a way it was a face-saving exercise for Denktash, but Annan was crystal clear in his explanations to the President,” the sources said.

The government sources said they could not confirm whether or not the Greek Cypriot side is in a strong position at the moment. “We have never been in a strong position since 1974, but I believe that we have a real possibility to negotiate a good settlement,” they said. “We pray for progress but we can’t say we expect it.”

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