Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 99-03-20

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

Saturday, March 20, 1999

Reshuffle speculation spot on

ALL THE papers got it right yesterday, accurately predicting who would be appointed to the cabinet to replace resigning ministers.

Most papers suggested President Clerides would be taking his time before announcing a full reshuffle and would, for the time being, be restricting himself to replacing departing Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides and Government spokesman Christos Stylianides.

There was no official announcement of the names of their replacements on Thursday, the papers reported, but the received wisdom was that Finance Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou would be making a sideways move to the Interior Ministry. Christodoulou's place would be taken by top accountant Takis Clerides and the new government spokesman would be journalist Costas Serezis.

The speculation proved accurate.

Reshuffle talk dominated the front pages yesterday, but Machi led with yet another defence "exposé" - Cyprus was to acquire an air force.

The paper stated that recent statements by President Clerides and the Greek government made it clear the decision to create an air force had been taken. The paper did not say what these revealing statements were, but said it had "information" from the Greek military command that continuous Turkish provocations in the Aegean and Cyprus had forced the decision to form a Cyprus-based squadron.

The fighter jets would be based at the Paphos air-base and would be named "Ikaros".

Nicosia and Athens had drawn up a three-part plan for providing air-cover for Cyprus, the paper stated.

Part 1 of the plan was to upgrade the infantry unit stationed in Paphos.

Part 2 involved Cyprus purchasing fighter jets, and part 3 would involve Greece providing air-borne radar monitoring of the region.

Machi said a "reliable government source" had informed them Cyprus was in the market for 20 Russian-made SU-30 jets.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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