Turkish Cypriot businessmen cut off bi-communal ties – paper

TURKISH Cypriot businessmen are cutting off ties with their Greek Cypriot colleagues in retaliation over the Ocalan affair, it was reported yesterday.

The move follows the announcement in Istanbul last week by businessman Rahmi Koc, chairman of the Turkish-Greek Business Council, that his group would cancel all trade ties with Greece. Koc is also involved in US envoy Richard Holbrooke’s Brussels group initiative for business contacts between Greece, Turkey and the two sides in Cyprus.

CyBC yesterday quoted the Hurriyet Kibris newspaper as reporting the Turkish Cypriot businessmen had decided to fall in line with their mainland colleagues.

According to the newspaper, Turkish Cypriot entrepreneur Gunay Egez said businessmen would be meeting in the north this week to further discuss the issue.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.