TRNC News Today 20^th August 2015

Cabinet discussed what can be done about the increase in foreign exchange rates

Council of Ministers convened under the presidency of Prime Minister Ömer Kalyoncu yesterday. Prime Minister Kalyoncu made a statement to the press before the meeting and said that although they cannot be able to do anything against the increase in foreign currency rates they will discuss what can be done for that. Noting that the increase in foreign currency rates is related with the changes in the world conjuncture and the political instability in Turkey, Kalyoncu said: “We are not in a position to change this”.

Indicating that there are some arguments in the public as “how is it possible that the cost of living is determined to be lower while the foreign currency rates are increasing” Kalyoncu said “the increase in the foreign currency rates is not connected with us, determination of the minimum wage and the increase in foreign currency rates came across at the same time. We will discuss what can be done however we do not have much to do. The main problem is borrowing with the foreign currency; citizens are buying houses or cars with foreign currency”.

Taner Yıldız: “We want Cyprus to have electric power produced by private sector”

The Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey Taner Yildiz said: “We want Cyprus to have electricity produced by the private sector”. Yıldız indicated that an appropriate master plan was prepared for the whole of Cyprus for 3-4 years. Being a guest of the Diplomacy Reporters Association (DMD) Yıldız made assessments on various issues and answered the questions of journalists about the electricity prices in Cyprus.

Yıldız said that in the case of implementation of these plans, prices of the electricity in Cyprus will drop to one-third. Yıldız stated that as public they disagreed on the issue of laying electric cables to Cyprus and said that a sustainable project is needed to be actualized for 30 or 50 years for the electricity in Cyprus.

Üstel announces candidacy for UBP leadership

UBP Kyrenia Minister of Parliament Ünal Üstel has announced that he will stand as a candidate for leadership in the upcoming UBP congress on 31 October. Üstel made the announcement yesterday in a press conference at the Golden Tulip Hotel.

He said that his aim was to make the UBP a first choice amongst the people once more and with his past experiences in the party help to produce solutions for the chronic issues in the country.

Aim of CMP is to decrease failure rate of excavations

It is claimed that the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) is continuing its studies towards decreasing the failure rate of the excavations. It is stated that the committee will seriously revise and assess the information they have and will classify the suspended regions for excavations. The Committee on Missing Persons started a new excavation in Kızılbaş area aiming to find the remains of around 45 missing Greek Cypriots. The Committee wants to decrease the failure rate of the excavations after the failure of the excavations in the region of Kızılay-Kızılbaş. The current excavations will take place in the military zone and it is a hopeful case due to the coincidence of both the Greek Cypriot witness and the Turkish Cypriot sources.

A mild earthquake in Cyprus

There was an earthquake which rattled in the North-West of Cyprus yesterday at 00.58.

According to the Geological Survey Department, the earthquake’s epicenter was the sea area of Cyprus, 149 kms North-West of Lefke Earthquake Station and it was recorded 4.0 on the Richter scale.

Cyprus Mail

“Our View: AKEL unwavering in its anti-West fanaticism”

“HAVING bickered about most issues relating to a Cyprus settlement, including property, voting rights and the continuation of the Cyprus Republic the political parties have decided to revisit the issue of guarantees.

Admittedly, the matter was put on the agenda by Phileleftheros, which decided to run a story on whether the parties would agree to NATO providing the guarantees and security of the new state.

This was a hypothetical question, as there has been no agreement on the issue of guarantees by the two leaders and it is understood the matter would be discussed at the end of the procedure at a meeting in which the guarantor powers would participate. For now, the debate is academic and has no practical value other than to cause disagreements in the pro-settlement camp, made up of AKEL and DISY.

In this respect the newspaper report was successful in that it quoted the AKEL Cyprus talks expert, Toumazos Tsielepis as saying, “if we end up there (NATO guarantees) the Left will vote against the settlement.” This was hardly a surprise coming from the satellite party of the former Soviet Union. Former president Christofias, who has never hidden his blind loyalty to Moscow, expressed the same dogmatic view in a newspaper interview not very long ago. Cyprus’ communists nurse a pathological hatred for NATO, dating back to the Cold War era when their party blindly obeyed the Kremlin’s diktats. For AKEL, NATO was a force of reaction and fascism, in contrast to the progressive Soviet Union which promoted socialism and democracy; it was also declared responsible for the ‘Turkish invasion’ by AKEL. And now that NATO is at odds with the Russian Federation, AKEL has another reason to demonize it. So if the two leaders reach an agreement and the Turkish side agrees to give up its guarantor rights on the condition that these were ceded to NATO, would the communists vote against a settlement? That they are even discussing such a possibility is absurd. Would they really prefer Turkey to guarantee the agreement, or are they doing Moscow’s bidding. Russia is the only country that would oppose such an arrangement as it would have no influence in a federal Cyprus that was part of the NATO security system. Is it conceivable that AKEL would vote against a settlement because it would not serve the interests of Russia?

Anything is possible in Cyprus in which the anti-West sentiments imposed by the communists since the time of the Cold War remain as strong and widespread as they were back then. Cyprus might be a member of the EU which relies on NATO for its security, but anti-West fanaticism is unwavering.” (Cyprus Mail)