Four months before Cyprus takes up the EU’s rotating presidency, tensions are increasing on and around the island. While this is partially to do to with a last-ditch attempt by the UN to speed up progress on the peace talks for the reunification of the island, which has ruffled a few feathers, it is far more a consequence of ongoing Greek Cypriot gas exploitation efforts and the linked upgrading of ties with Israel.

Energy reserves in the Levant Basin, which are estimated to be some 122 trillion cubic feet of gas and some 1.7 billion barrels of oil, could make Cyprus energy self-sufficient while transforming Israel into an energy exporter. These developments have annoyed both Turkey and Lebanon, which claim they also have rights to these rich reserves, further destabilizing an already volatile region.

Following the visit of Israeli President Shimon Peres to Cyprus some three months ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Cyprus last week, and it was the first time an Israeli prime minister has visited the island. Historically, the Greek Cypriots have had a very cautious approach towards developing closer ties with a country that shared such close military ties with Turkey. However, since Turkey fell out with Israel, Tel Aviv has moved to warm up relations with both Greece and Cyprus, with which it is now building up ties in a number of different sectors. The top priority is energy including the possibility of a joint pipeline to export gas to Europe and Asia, although this has not yet been agreed to by the Greek Cypriots.[...] Read more in Cyprus Now

Τέλος ο Χριστόφιας για το ΑΚΕΛ; Δεν θα είναι ξανά υποψήφιος του κομμουνιστικού κόμματος θα το αξίωμα του Προέδρου της Δημοκρατίας;

Αυτό θα φανεί σε λίγους μήνες. Η επιρροή που έχει ο πρώην ΓΓ του κόμματος, είναι ισχυρή και ενισχύθηκε από τις μεθοδεύσεις του να εκλεγεί ο εκλεκτός του, Άντρος Κυπριανού στη θέση του ΓΓ και αρκετοί από την αυλή του ως βουλευτές. Ωστόσο, δεν μπορεί να μη ληφθεί υπόψη, ότι υπάρχουν εσωτερικές δημοσκοπήσεις του κόμματος, που δείχνουν ότι ο Χριστόφιας δεν είναι εκλέξιμος, δηλαδή αν είναι υποψήφος για επανεκλογή δεν έχει πιθανότητες να κερδίσει.

Οι λόγοι βεβαίως είναι προφανείς: Οι τεράστιες πολιτικές και προσωπικές ευθύνες που έχει για την τραγωδία της 11ης Ιουλίου 2011, η παταγώδης αποτυχία της οικονομικής πολιτικής της διακυβέρνησης του και οι βαρύτατες συνέπειες επί των πολιτών, η φασιστική νοοτροπία της διακυβέρνησης, οι διώξεις, το ρουσφέτι και η αναξιοκρατία και φυσικά το ξεπούλημα πάγιων θέσεων αρχών της Ε/κ πλευράς στο κυπριακό. Τα ανώτατα ηγετικά κλιμάκια του ΑΚΕΛ πρέπει σε σύντομο χρονικό διάστημα να αποφασίσουν αν θα προχωρήσουν με υποψήφιο μια προβληματική πολιτικά προσωπικότητα, όπως αυτή του Χριστόφια, με τον κίνδυνο να χάσουν να είναι παραπάνω από ορατός ή αν θα κάνουν άλλες επιλογές. Ένα από τα σενάρια, είναι να εξευρεθεί υποψήφιος μέσα από τις τάξεις του ΑΚΕΛ. Αυτό το σενάριο συγκεντρώνει τις λιγότερες πιθανότητες υλοποίησης, καθώς κόμματα όπως το ΔΗΚΟ και η ΕΔΕΚ δεν θα ξεγελαστούν με ενός τέτοιου είδους υποψηφιότητα και δεν θα τη στηρίξουν. Ακόμα και στελέχη των δύο αυτών κομμάτων, που θεωρούνται φίλα προσκείμενα στο ΑΚΕΛ, δεν θα μπορέσουν επιχειρηματολογήσουν υπέρ μιας τέτοιας υποψηφιότητας, γιατί θα αποκαλυφθούν. Ακριβώς τα ίδια με τα πιο πάνω ισχύουν για το σενάριο να εξευρεθεί υποψήφιος τύπου Βασιλείου, δηλαδή ένας άσχετος με τα πολιτικά και κομματικά τεκταινόμενα. Κόμματα και ψηφοφόροι δεν πρόκειται να ξεγελαστούν εύκολα. Το άλλο σενάριο είναι να «κρυφτεί» το ΑΚΕΛ πίσω από μια άλλη κομματική υποψηφιότητα και αν χάσει ο υποψήφιος να μην θεωρηθεί απευθείας ήττα. Αν κερδίσει, το ΑΚΕΛ θα συμμετέχει και πάλι στη διακυβέρνηση του τόπου. Το πιο πάνω σενάριο μπορεί να υλοποιηθεί μόνο με στήριξη από το ΑΚΕΛ υποψήφιου, είτε από το ΔΗΚΟ, είτε από την ΕΔΕΚ.[...] Read more in Cyprus Now

[...] Read more in Cyprus Now

In a recent BBC news story, Paul Mason painted a stark picture of a collapsing Greek society and the average Greek’s growing grave doubts about the failed political system. We found this report very much to the point. Our only footnote was that the situation “on the ground” in Greece is actually a lot worse (only the other day, for example, a BBC TV crew was accosted by Greek bystanders when it began video capturing the evacuation from the gutter of a dead homeless man by paramedics, while soup kitchens proliferate and garbage scavengers now wear jackets and ties.)

The continuing assault by the troika upon Greek society at large remains unabated; you only have to witness the latest round of the game of chicken between the German paymasters and the Papademos government, itself resting on unconstitutional grounds. The Greek middle class — or, at least, what Greeks believed was the ‘middle class’ — is moribund. The less fortunate have sunk deeper; their standard of living has been reduced to that of the 1950s in a country with some of the highest prices in 21st century Europe. Their total demise is only a matter of time. All those who have even the slightest opportunity to escape abroad do so without second thought. Others, with better chances of emigrating, are already gone. Soon, Greece will be a cracked shell containing only those desperados who have nowhere to go; those heroic enough to believe they must fight to the end; and the throngs of illegal immigrants trapped inside Greek borders. This is certainly not the human capital that could push the country into revival.

Something that would have been called a “wild fantasy” only five years ago is rapidly becoming an emerging apocalyptic reality: Greece is being reduced by Germany and the lenders into a failed state by means of repeated “bailout” and “rescue” plans designed exclusively to sustain lender interests without the slightest care for averting the destruction of the present and future of the Greek people. Already, the Greece game has turned chaotic.[...] Read more in Cyprus Now

[...] Read more in Cyprus Now

Special Dispatch: In the birthplace of democracy, self-determination has lost out to economic dictats from abroad. And, as ever, it’s the poor who suffer the most.

Greeks expect to agree a deal with the Eurozone leaders tomorrow that will cede much of their country’s independence. Greece will become an economic – and to a large extent a political – colony of Germany and its allies. Berlin will have a say in everything from the choice of prime minister to the types of medicines dispensed by pharmacies.

In return for €230bn, made up of €130bn in fresh loans and €100bn in write-downs on privately held Greek government bonds, Greece is relieved from its immediate debt burden. But the money does not go to the Greek government, still less to the Greek people. It simply leaves them to live off the money they earn.

For all the television pictures of rioting protesters, clouds of tear gas and burning buildings in central Athens over the last week, a striking feature of the political landscape is the lack of resistance to the German terms. The Greek political elite sound and look stunned, grudgingly surrendering to the demands of the Troika (EU, IMF and European Central Bank), but bereft of ideas about what else to do.[...] Read more in Cyprus Now

NICOSIA: On the resort island of Cyprus, whose stricken economy is closely linked to Greece, residents and politicians are nervously watching the crisis unfolding in Athens but hoping that a giant offshore gas discovery will save them.

In December, US firm Noble Energy said it had discovered gas reserves of up to eight trillion cubic feet (225 billion cubic metres) beneath the seabed south of Cyprus, which has an estimated value of 100 billion euros ($131 billion).

“And it is just the beginning,” said hydrocarbons expert Pierre Godec.

The reservoir, named Aphrodite after the Greek goddess, born according to legend in Cyprus waters, is situated some 40 kilometres (24 miles) from Israel’s Leviathan and Tamar fields, also discovered by Noble and Israel’s Delek Energy.[...] Read more in Cyprus Now

BURAK BEKDİL
burak.bekdil@hurriyet.com.tr

As I sat and wrote these lines with the background music of Rossini’s 1820 opera “Maometto II,” the release of the Turkish film “Fetih 1453” (Conquest 1453) was only a day and a half away, scheduled to premiere in Turkey at 2:53 p.m. (14:53) on Feb. 16. The film’s trailer opens with an (alleged) attribution to the Prophet Muhammad: “Verily you shall conquer Constantinople. What a wonderful leader will he be, and what a wonderful army will that army be!”

The opera’s eponymous subject Sultan Mehmed II (Mehmed the Conqueror), son of Sultan Murad II and Valide Sultan Mara Brankovic, was only 21 years old when he conquered Constantinople on May 29, 1453. (Apparently the film’s producers could not wait a few months more for a more sensational release at 14:53 on May 29.)

Mehmed II was too keen on shariah, and he considered it an Islamic duty to overthrow the Byzantines by conquering Constantinople. Ironically, he had a blood lineage to the Byzantine imperial family – his predecessor, Sultan Orhan I, had married a Byzantine princess, and Mehmed II may have claimed descent from John Tzelepes Komnenos, a grandchild of Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.
Even more ironically, the sultan was also known for the religious tolerance with which he treated his subjects, especially among the conquered Christians. His oath “firman” – which he issued to protect Bosnian Franciscans when he conquered that territory in 1463 – is considered the oldest document on religious freedoms.[...] Read more in Cyprus Now