Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 99-01-09

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

Saturday, January 09, 1999

Greece supplying vast amounts of arms

DISY Deputy Antonis Karras grabbed the front-page headlines yesterday with his claims that millions of pounds worth of Greek weapons systems had been brought to the island.

Machi heralded the deputy's revelations as proof that the decision not to bring the S-300 missiles did not mean the Common Defence Dogma military pact with Greece was weakened.

Alithia reported that Karras' revelations had caused a storm of reaction from other deputies present at Thursday's session of the House defence committee. The paper also stated that Russia's ambassador to Nicosia, Giorgi Muratov, had made it clear that arranging for the missiles to go to Crete instead of Cyprus was not going to be a simple matter.

Phileleftheros stated that Karras had, in making his statements, violated an agreement for a media blackout on defence issues.

The paper said Karras had excused this violation by saying he wanted to prove Greece was not just pocketing the S-300s without doing anything for Cyprus in return.

All the papers also reported on the real cost of the Russian missiles, as revealed by House defence committee chairman Takis Hadjidemetriou during the same session. Ninety per cent of the cost had been paid to Moscow and the full price would be $224 million, Hadjidemetriou said.

Philelephtheros also carried an interview with father Efrem, the abbot of Vatopedhi, the Mount Athos monastery whose elder, Iosif, has been charged, by the Bishop of Paphos, with molesting nuns during his stay in Paphos 17 years ago.

The Holy Synod of the Cyprus Church has upheld the Bishop's lurid claims.

Efrem states in the interview that the decision of the Cyprus Church saddened him. He had hoped the synod would have called Bishop Chrysostomos of Paphos to order.

The abbot labelled sister Christofora, the nun said to have spilled the beans on Iosif's alleged misdemeanours to Chrysostomos, "demonic." Efrem said Christofora had made her allegations against Iosif because the elder had turfed her out of Ayii Anargyri convent in Paphos.

The abbot said Chrysostomos swallowed the nun's claims because he was "inexperienced concerning temptations."

The Paphos diocese should show gratitude to Vatopedhi because thousands of the Paphos faithful visited the Greek monastery every year and returned home "spiritually reborn," Efrem added.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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