Recognition of ‘Macedonia’: what does it mean for Cyprus?
By Jean Christou

THERE was a mixed reaction yesterday from Greek Cypriot politicians about the implications for Cyprus of America’s recognition of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) under the name ‘Republic of Macedonia’.

Although President Tassos Papadopoulos said on Friday on his return to the island from Brussels that there was no similarity between the two situations, opposition DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades warned that nothing should be taken for granted.

“The USA do not appear to have any scruples when it comes to applying what they believe,” said Anastassiades after a party meeting yesterday. “They are a superpower, they decide and they execute, and are indifferent even to their friends such as Greece.”
The DISY leader said the US attitude was “a powerful message that strengthens the view that we should find ways to unite Cyprus as soon as possible”.

“What we need to evaluate is the new four-year term of President George Bush and its implications for Europe,” he said.

“It is also a message to Europe that is the second superpower and will need to acquire a common foreign and defence policy and it is also a powerful message that should be taken up by the small and weak countries.”

Responding to growing speculation that the US was actively trying to promote the recognition of the ‘TRNC’ and increasing reports that it plans at least to fly an aircraft ‘symbolically’ into Tymbou in the north, Anastassiades said he believed that for now the US would limit itself to the latter.

“But if the Cyprus question is left unsolved, the recognition of the pseudostate cannot be excluded,” he warned.

Papadapoulos said late on Friday there was no similarity between the two situations. He said there were clear statements on the part of the US and the EU that the ‘TRNC’ would never be recognised.

“'None of the EU member states can recognise the illegal regime since we have signed the Accession Treaty with each one of them, according to which the whole of Cyprus became a member of the EU but the implementation of the acquis has been suspended in the areas occupied by Turkish troops,” Papadopoulos said.

Socialist EDEK leader Yiannakis Omirou also said there was no connection between the two as Cyprus was protected by UN resolutions and international law, which would not be ignored by the US.

“Such a connection cannot exist because the case of Cyprus is the product of illegality based on international law,” said Omirou. “I would consider it unthinkable for the USA to undermine the international legal order.”

Omirou also excluded the possibility of direct flights to the north, and not only for political reasons.

“It is unthinkable for clearly practical reasons to have direct flights between the US and the psedutostate based on the geographic location,” he said.

“Here for so many years the USA did not have any air connections with the Cyprus Republic for the same reasons.”

CYPRUS MAIL 07/11/04

Union urges Turkish Cypriot builders to sign up
By Simon Bahceli

WITH estimates varying from four to eight thousand, no one really knows how many Turkish Cypriots cross the Green Line daily to work in the south. One thing is known, however: only around 1,000 have signed up as members of the Pan Cyprian Federation of Labourers (PEO), while thousands work “on the black” without insurance or any protection whatsoever.

Union leader Pambis Kiritsis says he believes the number of Turkish Cypriots, working mostly in the construction industry, number around 4,000, and that with only a thousand registered, exploitation is rife.

Kiritsis is adamant that union membership is the only way in which Turkish Cypriot workers will be afforded the same rights as their Greek Cypriot counterparts.
“Those in the union don’t get paid less than Greek Cypriots, they are insured and their provident funds are paid. I hope that the 3,000 who are not registered with us come and become members.”

He says the story is very different for those who are not signed up, with workers being underpaid and afforded no protection, rights or job security.

Talking with Turkish Cypriot construction workers returning home after work, it emerged that there were a number of valid reasons why many Turkish Cypriots have not joined the union or registered with the Labour Office.

“If you are willing to work uninsured, there is plenty of work,” Mehmet, a man in his twenties told me. “If you want you’re rights you are less likely to be employed.”

Ahmet Cavush, a 52-year-old construction worker agreed: “They don’t want to insure us. That’s the reason why they are so keen to employ us; it’s cheaper for them.”

Part of the problem, it seems, stems from a lack of action by the government and unions to ensure that employers insure their staff.

“We complained to the union that our bosses refused to pay our insurance. The union men came to our workplace and took our statements, but nothing came of it,” Melih, a construction worker in his thirties said.

Most of the workers I spoke to were convinced there was little or no control by the authorities over who was working where.

Injury is not uncommon in the construction industry, and if an uninsured worker is hurt employers can be held responsible. The Turkish Cypriot workers say, however, there are ways in which bosses overcome such problems.
“One man on our site got stabbed in the chest by an iron spike. He wasn’t insured so the boss wouldn’t allow him to go to hospital. They just patched him up on the site and sent him back to the north,” Melih says.

Another said his boss paid for private treatment for a colleague injured while at work rather than take him to the state hospital, which would have asked to see insurance documents.

Despite these clear cases of exploitation, most Turkish Cypriots crossing the Green Line every day say they will continue to do so as long as the disparity between wages in the north and south remain so wide.

“I was working for myself in the north employing 12 men, but I earn more here working for someone else,” Ahmet Cavush said.

Most agree that working in the south brings between double and three times the money one can earn north of the Green Line.

But many are aware they are earning considerably less than their Greek Cypriot counterparts.

“Of course, the money we get here is better than in the north, but if I was living here there is no way I’d get by on my salary,” said Murat, a road-digger in his twenties.
Perhaps the worst thing about not being registered and insured is that workers do not know how long their jobs will last.

“We don’t know from one week to the next whether we’ll have work. At the moment there is plenty of work, but a while back the boss said there would be nothing for a week and we had to stay at home surviving on savings,” said Hasan, a 35-year-old construction worker.

These testimonies all add weight to PEO’s message that only through union membership will Turkish Cypriot workers be protected from exploitation and unnecessary risk. However, it is also blatantly obvious that it is the relative cheapness of unregistered Turkish Cypriot labour that creates the demand.

The only unionised worker I came across at the Ledra Palace checkpoint was Ergun Mito, a construction worker in his forties. He said he had been working in the south since crossings opened in April, 2003.

“I’m a member of the union, which means that I am insured and get paid the same as a Greek Cypriot. My job is secure, and even if I get laid off I’m protected.”

CYPRUS MAIL 07/11/04

Can we really boast a state of law?
By Loucas Charalambous

AT THE START of the year, Salih Boyaci was taken to a court in northern Nicosia, charged with securing an illegal loan from a bank, of which, he and members of his family were the main shareholders. Significant amounts of money had been loaned to other Boyaci-owned companies, which failed to pay off their debts to the bank. This put at risk the deposits that ordinary people had with the bank.

The court acquitted Boyaci, because it had doubts about certain aspects of the case. But the Attorney-general ? readers might not be aware that there is an Attorney-general in pseudo-state of northern Cyprus, one who has balls ? appealed against the verdict. The result was that the appeal court sentenced Boyaci to five years imprisonment. After his sentence, Boyaci, who was experiencing health problems, asked for permission to go to Ankara for treatment.

At the time, everyone thought that he would never serve his sentence. He went to Ankara, received his treatment and returned to Cyprus at the beginning of the summer. You know where he is now? He is back in prison, serving his sentence. And do you know who Salih Boyaci is? He is the father-in-law of Serdar Denktash, son of the ?president? of the pseudo-state, Rauf. Serdar, who is married to Boyaci?s daughter, is the ?foreign minister? of the pseudo-state.

It was recently reported that Serdar?s family was involved in an altercation at a restaurant in northern Nicosia, after which Serdar passed out and had to be taken to hospital. Just before he fainted, Serdar?s son was heard, angrily asking his father the following: ?How is it possible that my one grandfather is president, my father is foreign minister and my other grandfather is in prison??

Let us now cross the dividing line into our state, the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus, member-state of the EU and the UN. On November 14, 2002, the then Attorney-general gave instructions to the Chief of Police to carry out an investigation into Tassos Papadopoulos? law office, in connection with a case of misleading two Courts, use of forged documents and obstruction of justice. Two offshore companies were involved in the case ? Beogradska Banka d.d. and Antexol, which our current president had set up and been a director of. Two years have passed since then. I have twice challenged the current Attorney-general, Solon Nikitas, to tell us what had happened with the investigation. He has not replied nor will he, no matter how many times we ask him.

On April 23, 2004, President Papadopoulos was briefed about the allegations made by a policeman, under investigation, against the deputy of his party, Marios Matsakis. The policeman alleged that Matsakis had asked him for £10,000 in order to change his testimony in the case in which he would have given testimony as an expert witness. After the briefing, Papadopoulos had consultations with Nikitas; nobody knows what they said to each other. Several months later, the president claimed that he had referred the case to the Attorney-general.

One thing we do know. On April 30, the Attorney-general sent a letter about the case to the Chief of Police. On July 18, I urged him to make this letter public. He never did, nor do I expect him to do so in the future. Because if he does, people will understand who was involved in the cover-up of the Matsakis case with the result that on June 13 he was elected a Euro-MP.

Dear readers, I have one simple question to ask: which is the real pseudo-state in Cyprus? Put your hand on your heart and give an answer. Despite being a member of the Greek Cypriot community, I have no problem saying this ? it is not the north. There might be corruption in the north but there is the rule of law, a requirement of EU membership. Even the father-in-law of the son of the ?president? goes to prison. I have no problem saying this, but equality before the law seems to be pursued more in the north than in the Republic.

Before May 1, I had repeatedly written that the EU would be making a big mistake in letting our state into the Union. Ours is a banana republic that has nothing to do with European political values and practices. I have a good mind to send a copy of this article to the European Commission. Perhaps it would help them understand, even so late in the day, their mistake.

Cyprus Mail NOVEMBER 2004

Frozen out’: Greek Cypriot battles to have documentary on 1974 killings aired
By Simon Bahceli

CYPRIOT filmmaker and writer Antonis Angastiniotis says the media has effectively banned a film he made portraying the mass killing of Turkish Cypriots in the villages of Aloa, Maratha and Sandalari in 1974.

“We claim European standards, European principles, European laws, but the TV channels didn’t even ask to look at the film,” Angastiniotis told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

“Not even the Cyprus News Agency, which monitors all the news coming out of Turkey and the north, mentioned that all the media, the Turkish-language organs were reporting on my film,” he added.

So far, Angastiniotis’ film has only been shown in the Turkish Cypriot north. But he says his target audience is not Turkish Cypriots but Greek Cypriots.

“All Turkish Cypriots know what happened in these villages. It’s the Greek Cypriots who don’t.”

Angastiniotis’ 30-minute film, titled The Voice of Blood, gives a detailed account of how dozens of Turkish Cypriot women and children of the three villages were killed and thrown into mass graves by Greek Cypriots from neighbouring villages in the period between the two Turkish invasions in 1974. It includes extensive footage and interviews with survivors of the attacks.

The filmmaker believes that despite Cyprus’ European and democratic credentials, it still has problems coming to terms with its past.

“Let’s face it: truth is truth. As a state you have to be able to face your faults, your mistakes, your history,” Angastiniotis says.

Worse still, he believes there is an unhealthy attitude in the country that prevents people from airing their views if they are out of line with government policy.

“There is terror. Some people even believe there is a list of who said ‘yes’ and who said ‘no’ in the referendum.”

Angastiniotis is frustrated at the problems he has had getting his film aired.

“The media is being controlled. There is no other way of putting it,” he said, adding Sigma had strong connections with the Presidential Palace, CyBC was a state channel, the Church influenced Mega and Antenna had likewise backed the ‘no’ campaign.
Angastiniotis describes his project as “something I had to do”.

“If I didn’t do this I couldn’t sleep at night, and if they want to stop me making films on this subject, they will have to shoot me”.

He adds, however, that he is not trying to paint the Turkish Cypriots as victim and the Greek Cypriots as perpetrators.

“I never said the Turks did not commit war crimes. They did. But I am responsible for the Greek side. I hope a Turkish Cypriot has the guts to do what I have done and make a film about Turkish atrocities,” he explains.

The film is the culmination of several years of collecting data from archives and from chatting with locals in coffeeshops. It was completed in August this year.

He says he was inspired to make it when he realised there was a gap in the knowledge of his generation about the recent history of the island – especially regarding the events of 1963 and 64, which he believes are brushed over by Greek Cypriot interpretations of history.

But the film focuses on three villages on the plain between Nicosia and Famagusta and what happened there when the men of the village were being held in prisoner-of-war camps in Limassol and the Turkish invasion was underway.

“The Greek Cypriots of the neighbouring villages, along with army personnel attacked the village. They shot the children, the mothers and the old people left in villages”
“For me it became a nightmare because all these years I had been convinced that everything we had done was right.”

Speaking on behalf of CyBC television, Andros Pavlides told the Cyprus Mail he would like to see the film to assess whether it was suitable for broadcast, but that he had had “too little time” to do so. A spokesman for Sigma also said he had not seen the film because of time constraints.

All other channels denied knowledge of the film or the filmmaker, despite Angastiniotis’ insistence that he written to them all telling them of it.

Cyprus Mail NOVEMBER 2004