Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 02-12-12

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Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 02-12-12

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

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

Thursday, December 12, 2002

[01] What's new about the new plan?
[02] Sombre Clerides sets off for Copenhagen
[03] Credit card transactions to be halted from midnight on Friday
[04] 'Signing the plan would be betrayal'
[05] Turkish poll shows broad opposition to Annan plan
[06] Does anyone know who's running the country?
[07] Police prepare stringent security for Israeli game
[08] Copenhagen hopes send shares soaring

[01] What's new about the new plan?

THE REVISED United Nations plan to reunite Cyprus contains few changes from an initial power-sharing proposal submitted last month, details obtained by Reuters yesterday showed.

The plan increases the number of Greek Cypriot refugees allowed to return in a territorial adjustment but limits those moving to Turkish-administered territory, details financial incentives which could be offered to Turkish settlers to leave and limits the Greek or Turkish troops allowed to remain on the island.

Key elements of the plan, that the island be governed by a presidential council with rotating presidency and comprised of two ethnic "component states" linked by a common state remain, along with proposals that the Turkish Cypriots surrender territory.

The revised text, submitted on Tuesday, is likely to be negotiated on the sidelines of the EU summit in Copenhagen, where Cyprus is expected to be formally declared a future member from 2004.

The Turkish Cypriots currently control around 36 per cent of Cyprus, carved out after the 1974 Turkish invasion.

The new draft details territorial handovers to limit Turkish Cypriot territory to 28.5 per cent of Cyprus, handing back some 49 villages to the Greek Cypriot component state and allowing some 90,000 refugees to return.

The initial draft, which contained two alternative maps, proposed 85,000 refugees return under Greek Cypriot administration.

If the new proposal is adopted, it would create a Greek Cypriot administered pocket of territory in the Karpasia peninsula on the north eastern tip of Cyprus.

The UN have attempted to counterbalance the increased number of Greek Cypriots returning to surrendered territory with imposing a lower quota on the number of displaced Greeks allowed to return to areas the Turkish Cypriot state would retain.

In a bid to maintain the bizonal character of the state, it suggests that the Greek Cypriots' not exceed 28 per cent of the total population in the Turkish Cypriot area, and that that percentage be built up in stages over a 15-year period.

The initial draft suggested a 33.33 per cent quota, built up over a 20-year period.

In one of the more quirky elements of the new draft, the UN proposes that for an interim period of four years after a settlement Greek Cypriots entitled to return to homes on the Turkish Cypriot side only use their homes "temporarily, i.e. no more than an average of three nights a week."

The arrangement would be reviewed after 25 years from the agreement coming into force, the draft says.

Greek Cypriot officials said the revised draft would effectively limit the number of Turkish settlers allowed to remain on Cyprus to around 50,000, from an estimated 115,000 on the island today.

That would be achieved through a list of criteria residents must meet to gain Cypriot citizenship; those who held Cypriot citizenship in 1960, those married to Cypriots and those who had been permanent residents of Cyprus for at least seven years.

There would also be an additional list of 33,000 foreigners on each side who could gain citizenship.

Persons who do not receive permanent residency can apply for financial assistance to relocate, with a cash grant of no less than 10,000 euros for a household of four, the plan states.

It also specifies that Greek and Turkish contingents be of a minimum of 2, 500 and a maximum of 7,500. The initial draft only referred to a "four digit" figure.

[02] Sombre Clerides sets off for Copenhagen

By Jean Christou

PRESIDENT Glafcos Clerides and his top advisers, as well as the four main party leaders, left early yesterday morning for Copenhagen for the most crucial date in Cyprus' history since the Turkish invasion in 1974.

By tomorrow, Cyprus could be accepted for accession to the EU in 2004 and the island's political problem could be on the road to a solution if an agreement on the lines set out by the UN is signed in the Danish capital.

UN special envoy for Cyprus Alvaro de Soto also left for Copenhagen yesterday, travelling there via Amsterdam.

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash will not be travelling to Copenhagen, but is sending his 'Foreign and Defence Minister' Tahsin Ertugruloglu. Denktash, who returned to the island a week ago after spending two months in the US recovering from heart surgery, is due in Istanbul today for a medical check up.

The Turkish Cypriot leader told a television station on Tuesday night that he had not been invited to sign any documents in Copenhagen, despite an announcement from the UN earlier that day saying Secretary-general Kofi Annan had asked both leaders to make themselves available should it prove necessary.

"In Copenhagen, they are trying to subject us to time pressure. Clerides will go to Copenhagen in his capacity as president of the so-called Cyprus Republic. We, in turn, are not being invited as one of the two equal sides in Cyprus," Denktash said.

Speaking yesterday at Larnaca Airport before boarding a specially chartered Cyprus Airways flight, a sombre Clerides was asked by reporters if he would be signing a settlement: "Under today's circumstances, if I listen to some fools then I shouldn't sign for a settlement. If I listen to others who think rationally, I must think about it seriously." He said, however, that he had not take any decision on the matter. "People are concerned about this question and I am concerned too," he added.

Questioned on the revised UN blueprint for a settlement submitted to both sides by De Soto on Tuesday morning, the President said there was little room for amendment.

Asked if he would negotiate with a representative of the ailing Turkish Cypriot leader, Clerides said he had in the past he voiced his opposition to negotiations with anyone other than Denktash. "I don't know if Denktash will designate a representative. And I don't know whether if he does I will designate a representative too," he said.

Clerides made it clear, however, that the Greek Cypriot side did not view its accession prospects as being linked with a settlement. "Our position is that accession is a different issue and the settlement is a different issue, " he said. The EU is expected to issue its decision on whether to accept Cyprus as a member first thing tomorrow morning.

Accompanying the President to Copenhagen were Attorney-general Alecos Markides, Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou, Undersecretary to the President Pantelis Kouros, AKEL General Secretary Demetris Christofias, DISY President Nicos Anastassiades, DIKO president Tassos Papadopoulos, KISOS president Yiannakis Omirou, Democratic Movement President Dinos Michaelides and Foreign Ministry officials. United Democrats President George Vassiliou, the island's Chief EU negotiator, was also due to fly to Copenhagen from Brussels later yesterday. Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides, who was in Rome yesterday, will also join the team in Copenhagen.

Two small political parties, New Horizons and the Green Party, with one seat each in the House decided not to accompany the President, voicing their strong opposition to the Annan plan..

Leaving Larnaca yesterday, De Soto did not rule out the possibility of an agreement being signed on the sidelines of the EU summit. "Well... Why not?" he said when asked by journalists. He said, however, that there were no plans for Kofi Annan to be in Copenhagen.

[03] Credit card transactions to be halted from midnight on Friday

By Nicole Neroulias

IF THE strike at JCC Payment Systems Limited is not resolved this week, the Cyprus Bankers Association will halt all credit and debit card transactions at midnight this Friday.

More than �35 million in transactions have remained unaccounted for since the strike began on November 27 at the JCC electronic centre, which is the primary processor of card transactions in Cyprus.

In response to the Association's announcement, petrol stations stopped accepting card payments yesterday afternoon. Other businesses have opted to wait for the Friday deadline, in the hope that the strike will be resolved by then, according to the Small Shopkeepers' Association (POVEK).

Direct cash withdrawal from ATM machines will remain operational, but customers will only be able to use machines operated by their own banks, explained Maria Ioannou, a spokesman for the Cyprus Bankers' Association.

"If someone has an account with the Bank of Cyprus, they won't be able to get money from a machine owned by Laiki Bank," she said.

If the strike ends before midnight on Friday, Ioannou said the Cyprus Bankers Association would send a new announcement permitting transactions to continue.

JCC management has assured businesses, which have not received any money from cardholder purchases in the last two weeks, that the transactions will be processed as soon as the strike is resolved. However, General Manager Takis Fekkos said that he could not estimate when this would happen, due to the silence from banking union ETYK.

ETYK representatives again did not return calls for comment yesterday.

The labour dispute began when JCC re-hired an information technology specialist, reinstating him to his previous post of deputy department manager. ETYK appealed to the Labour Ministry, saying JCC had violated standard practices by hiring the manager without union permission, and the Ministry upheld the appeal.

However, when JCC demoted the employee to the status of a newly appointed member of staff, ETYK was unhappy and decided to initiate strike action for as long as the employee remained at the company.

The Labour Ministry and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry have dismissed the strike an illegal violation of the Industrial Relations Code, and urged ETYK to lift all strike measures.

POVEK General Secretary Melios Georgiou also condemned the strike, concerned that the suspension of credit card transactions would have disastrous effects on businesses during the holiday shopping season.

"This is an enormously big problem for the shopkeepers," Georgiou said. "We spoke with ETYK, but unfortunately they are determined to continue the strike. It seems like a bad joke for such a problem to be created for the shopkeepers and for both sides over such a small issue."

Cyprus's credit and debit card spending has been on the rise, particularly during the holiday season. In 2001, spending reached almost half a billion pounds, with more than �50 million during December alone. December 2000 and 1999 saw expenditures exceed �42 million and �33 million, respectively.

[04] 'Signing the plan would be betrayal'

By Alex Mita

DISSIDENT voices yesterday warned President Clerides against "betraying" Cyprus by signing a Cyprus settlement in Copenhagen this week, saying Cyprus' EU accession would be overshadowed by any compromise on the Cyprus problem.

On Tuesday night, DIKO deputy Marios Matsakis warned at a demonstration outside the Presidential Palace that if Greek Cypriot delegates signed anything "they had better not come back" from Copenhagen as they would be traitors.

"It is treason, they are selling their country," he told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

"What we have shed blood for in the past, they are now giving away. They will sign a solution to the Cyprus problem in Copenhagen and we have to try and get our citizens to resist."

Matsakis heaped praise on Tuesday night's protest outside the Presidential Palace, saying the attendance of around 300 people was enough to give a clear indication on how Greek Cypriots felt about the plan. He rebuffed any suggestion that 300 people were not representative of the Greek Cypriot majority.

"A few hundred people outside the Presidential Palace, is a very good indication that there is strong resistance against this treason," he said.

"There were 1,000-2,000 people in the pouring rain last Sunday at Eleftheria Square, there were 4,000 people at the Eleftheria stadium a few weeks ago. These are big numbers for Cyprus."

Some 10,000 Turkish Cypriots attended a similar protest in the north earlier on Tuesday.

Matsakis warned of dire consequences if a solution was signed in Copenhagen.

"First of all such a move is totally unconstitutional," he said. "Clerides doesn't represent the Greek Cypriot part and the National Council has no constitutional status."

Matsakis hinted that some of the party leaders had been forced to accompany the President. "They were put in a very difficult situation. But they went there to assist him on the issue of Cyprus' accession to the EU and not to negotiate the plan. The only people willing to discuss the Annan plan are Anastassiades and Vassiliou," he claimed.

"Now they are going to throw the plan in front of them and they will have no other choice. Clerides took them with him to share the blame and the guilt."

Matsakis said that accepting the plan as a basis for negotiations was a trap that would lead to other traps.

"I said it straight away. Accepting the Annan plan as a basis for negotiations was the first trap" he said. "The second trap was for the National Council to go with him and the third will be to trap the people of Cyprus by the wording of the question in the referendum planned for March 30."

Green party deputy George Perdikis, who decided late last night not to accompany the President to Copenhagen, said Clerides would be travelling with a signed paper already in his briefcase.

"The Greek Cypriot side is going to Copenhagen to sign the Annan plan," he said. "We are now left with no way out since no other scenarios or tactics to avert the plan were studied at the National Council."

Perdikis said times were critical and that this was not the time for political walkabouts in Copenhagen. "I can tell you that apart from two parties, the rest are going to Copenhagen against their will if we consider that their initial argument was that their presence was not required," he added.

Perdikis said the only point left for negotiation in Copenhagen was the map. "Bearing this in mind, we can only expect a negative outcome, because we are not forceful enough."

A statement by New Horizons yesterday expressed the party's discontent with the plan submitted by UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan and the 'blackmailing' procedure put before the people.

"The presence of New Horizons in Copenhagen would serve no cause because we will not be a party to the dissolution of the Republic of Cyprus, nor shall we be accomplices in the burial of the Greek Cypriot people," the statement said.

"In Copenhagen, we should achieve Cyprus' accession to the European Union without a previous Annan solution or a commitment to that solution."

[05] Turkish poll shows broad opposition to Annan plan

AN OPINION poll carried out in the occupied north by pro-Denktash newspaper Volkan and published yesterday suggests the vast majority of Turkish Cypriots oppose the UN settlement plan for Cyprus. Over 900 people from both rural and urban areas of the occupied north were interviewed for the survey.

Asked whether they "entirely approved" of the Annan plan, 69.5 per cent said they did not, saying it would create problems in the future. Only six per cent approved completely, while 18.5 per cent approved partially.

Regarding the return of Greek Cypriots to areas under Turkish Cypriot administration, 73 per cent did not approve of the conditions for their return, saying it would create problems in the future. Nine per cent approved, while 10 per cent approved partially.

Asked for their reaction to the plan's approach to the return of the Greek Cypriots to their former homes, 67 per cent said they were worried and did not approve, 10 per cent approved and 15 per cent approved partially.

Around 61 per cent said they disapproved of the maps attached to the solution. Eleven per cent approved and 19 per cent partially approved; 2.3 per cent approved the ratio submitted but not the places to be given.

The results of the Volkan survey contrast with a poll carried out by an opposition newspaper in the north earlier this month. The results showed that a slim majority of Turkish Cypriots would vote for a settlement under the Annan plan.

[06] Does anyone know who's running the country?

By Jean Christou

WITH the entire Greek Cypriot leadership in Copenhagen yesterday, who is left to run the country?

When the president is out of the country, the responsibility usually passes to the President of the House. But Demetris Christofias is accompanying the president in his capacity as leader of opposition powerhouse AKEL. So who's in charge?

A phone call to the Foreign Ministry was not very enlightening. The call was passed to three different people, none of whom appeared to know who was in charge. Turning to some colleagues in the background, one of the women who answered the phone could be heard saying she thought it was "that other old man.the member of parliament."

A redirection from the Foreign Ministry to the House of Representatives was also fruitless, as the Mail was pointed towards the Presidential Palace, where our call was left on hold for ten minutes while someone tried to find out who was at the helm, again without success. The woman at the Palace promised to call back.

She did so after 10 minutes, having consulted with the House, and declared that the man at the helm for the next few days would be former EDEK leader Vassos Lyssarides, at 82 just a year younger than President Glafcos Clerides.

A return call to the House confirmed what the Palace had said, adding that DIKO deputy Aristos Chrysostomou would serve as acting House President. However, they were unable to say on what grounds Lyssarides would become acting President of the Republic.

But further investigation by the Mail revealed that with the President, and the President of the House both abroad, next in line to be acting President is the doyen of House.

Lyssarides, who became head of the socialist movement EDEK in 1969, resigned from the party leadership last year, shortly after it had revamped its image and changed its name to KISOS. Lyssarides, who won a seat in the last parliamentary elections in May 2001, was made honorary chairman of the party for life. The title allows him to represent KISOS in the Socialist International and at meetings abroad, and has also allowed him to be head of the party's team working on the Cyprus Problem and the EU and to attend meetings of the National Council together with his successor Yiannakis Omirou.

[07] Police prepare stringent security for Israeli game

By Stefanos Evripidou

POLICE announced yesterday that security measures for the UEFA cup tie between Maccabi Haifa and AEK Athens at the Nicosia GSP stadium today would be similar to those taken at the previous Maccabi match against Manchester United.

The violence in the Middle East has prevented Maccabi from playing European home ties in Israel, although this did not deter the Haifa team from beating United 3-0 at the GSP stadium in Nicosia last October in front of 20,000 fans.

The lure of Manchester United aroused huge interest from Israeli fans and locals alike, prompting security operations involving 1,000 officers, hundreds of metres of barbed wire, police dogs and patrolling helicopters. A police official said yesterday that around 100 Maccabi fans were expected for today's match and an equally small group of Greek fans. Security measures will be based on the measures of the previous UEFA match but will be finalised on the day, depending on the number of people expected to turn up, she said.

The second leg of the third round of the UEFA cup kicks off at 8pm. Maccabi lost the first leg in Athens 4-0.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Alecos Shambos said yesterday he expected an Israeli delegation to come to Cyprus to discuss airport security issues after concerns were raised by Israel last week; the minister said he hoped to reach an understanding on practical arrangements, while respecting the jurisdiction of each country to respond effectively in cases of terrorist activities.

"It is a fundamental principle that every country has an obligation to ensure effective security in its own country, especially now," he said. The minister added that Cyprus already adopted rigorous security measures that were put into effect each time a plane arrived or departed from the airport, including patrol boats on sea, mobile patrols and anti-terrorist units on the ground.

A government source told the Cyprus Mail that legally armed Embassy officials were currently given permission to be present at the airport during checks and safety procedures for Israeli flights. But the government wants them to comply with police procedures when there, the source said, in order to ensure discreetness and avoid provocative behaviour in passenger waiting halls and around the airport.

[08] Copenhagen hopes send shares soaring

By Jean Christou

THE POSSIBILITY of Cyprus getting the final green light for EU membership this week and hopes of a solution to the Cyprus problem have caused share prices to surge over the past two days.

Yesterday there was no stopping the index, which opened two points higher than Tuesday's 111-point close and kept moving to close at 113.9 points, an increase of 2.95 per cent. The FTSE/CySE index added 2.88 per cent to 457.8 points but the biggest gainers yesterday were not necessarily blue chips, as investors turned towards new possibilities for the economy in the event of a settlement.

The construction sector jumped a massive 7.33 per cent, as investors seemed to anticipate a building boom in the wake of any Cyprus agreement. The financial sector also saw a substantial 5.8 per cent rise while fisheries were up 4.45 per cent. Only tourism ended in the red with a drop of 0.02 per cent.

Banks were as usual the mainstay of the index, grapping the three top traded slots, which added 2.64 to the sector.

Bank of Cyprus added six cents to close at �1.78, Laiki rose five cents to �1.50 and Hellenic closed unchanged at 88 cents.

According to the xak.com web analyst the possibility of an imminent deal on Cyprus has seen "investors rushing to position themselves in a market that could literally ignite amid crucial developments".

"It appears that the question now is not if a solution will be found but when. Investors are well aware of the developments and have welcomed them through heavy bidding," he said.

"If all goes to schedule by Christmas time Cyprus will have locked a place in the EU family and a deal will have been signed to solve the Cyprus problem. What more could investors ask from Santa Claus?"

Gainers outran losers yesterday with 72 stocks on the way up compared to only 20 decliners and 54 titles that ended unchanged.

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

Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 02-12-12

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

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

Thursday, December 12, 2002

CONTENTS

[01] What's new about the new plan?

[02] Sombre Clerides sets off for Copenhagen

[03] Credit card transactions to be halted from midnight on Friday

[04] 'Signing the plan would be betrayal'

[05] Turkish poll shows broad opposition to Annan plan

[06] Does anyone know who's running the country?

[07] Police prepare stringent security for Israeli game

[08] Copenhagen hopes send shares soaring

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