TRNC News Today 8th October

2014

Greek side has decided to withdraw from negotiations

The Greek Cypriot side has decided to withdraw from the negotiations after Greek Cypriot leader Anastasiades reached a consensus with the Greek Cypriot political parties. It will be recalled that the Greek Cypriot side took the decision to start and continue natural gas explorations unilaterally and rejected the Turkish Cypriot side’s proposal of setting up a joint committee on hydrocarbons.

Greek Cypriot leader Anastasiades who left the negotiation table some time ago upon getting angry with the proposals put forward by the Turkish Cypriot side this time withdrew from the negotiations claiming Turkish activities within the so called exclusive economic zone of South Cyprus violated their sovereignty.

President Dervis Eroğlu in his statement yesterday said the decision of the Greek Cypriot side to withdraw from the negotiations is wrong and added: “With this attitude the Greek Cypriot side has once again revealed they are not sincere in their efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus problem through negotiations.”

On the other hand, Foreign Minister Nami at a television interview said the leaving negotiation table wouldn’t solve any problem.

Record Flights at Ercan Airport

Flights between the airports in Turkey and Ercan Airport have broken a record during the recent Bayram holiday.

A total of 104 air flights were realized yesterday and a total of 15,000 passengers were carried.

During the 4-day Bayram period a total of 438 flights were realized and services have been rendered to 51,210 passengers.

These figures also have broken the record in the history of Ercan Airport.

A funeral gang in which priests and metropolitan bishops get involved is revealed in South Cyprus

Greek Cypriot daily Simerini reported that a gang that handles funerals in which priests and metropolitan bishops are also involved came into existence in South Cyprus.

The newspaper reported that some metropolitan bishops obtain monthly incomes from private funeral houses where they provide services to families by performing funeral ceremonies personally or by subcontracting the ceremonies.

The newspaper pointed out that the priests have telephone conversations with the owners of the funeral by stating that the burial procedures will be made by the related department of the church and they bargain about the price with the families.

According to the news, contracts at prices up to 1,060 Euros are made with the owners of the funeral for the whole procedure including the funeral from the house and burying.