Greek Press

ALITHIA: “How Tassos gave away the Karpas peninsula”. The issue of the return of the Karpas peninsula under Greek Cypriot administration was kept quiet because if it was made public it would result in more Greek Cypriots voting yes in the referendum, something which President Tassos Papadopoulos didn’t want to happen, the paper reports. People were led to believe that the issue was dropped because of Turkey’s refusal to negotiate.

HARAVGHI: “Talat: ‘if you postpone the referenda you should postpone accession’”. Turkish Cypriot ‘Prime Minister’ Mehmet Ali Talat said in Brussels on Wednesday that if there was a postponement of the referenda then the island’s accession should also be postponed until they were carried out. Talat said the Annan plan had been known for two years and that everybody knew its contents.

SIMERINI: “AKEL’s 64.8% ‘no’”. THE AKEL general assembly decided to go against the Annan plan by adopting a suggestion made by the central committee to postpone the referenda, otherwise threatening to reject the plan. After a secret ballot at the end of the assembly, 64.8 per cent of AKEL members voted for the proposal and 34.4 per cent voted against. According to the paper, AKEL will now begin a nationwide campaign to reject the Annan plan.

MACHI: “Nicosia hospital has ‘grown old’”. The Nicosia General Hospital on Wednesday celebrated 65 years since Sir Richmond Palmer, Governor of Cyprus, laid the founding stone in 1932, but the hospital is ageing fast. Experts told the House Watchdog Committee that the construction of the new hospital will be completed in September, but admitted that it would not be operational until March 2005 due to delays in tenders for medical equipment.

POLITIS: “Glafcos the key man for DISY decision”. The DISY leadership, spearheaded by founder and former President Glafcos Clerides, was yesterday expected to decide on whether to reject or support the Annan plan in the upcoming referendum on April 24. DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades is determined to convince party members to vote yes, and according to the paper, he will insist on a ‘yes’ until the end.

PHILELEFTHEROS: “US seeking way to postpone referenda”. Washington is attempting to put together a formula that would result in a postponement of the referenda on April 24, but without the possibility of new negotiations to be carried out. The US are attempting at least to postpone the referendum on the Greek Cypriot side while the Turkish Cypriots go ahead and vote.

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.