UBP victory in the north
THE WEEK started with the ‘parliamentary’ elections in the north where hardliner Dervis Eroglu’s National Unity Party (UBP) garnered a majority 44 per cent of the vote. The win, although expected, set off alarm bells over the ongoing Cyprus talks. But before the rhetoric got too much out of hand Ankara warned it would not support any moves by UBP to weaken the hand of Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
“It is necessary to express our desire that the poll outcome supports the process already in place. We will not support any action that weakens the hand of (Talat), who started these negotiations,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyp Erdogan said in a televised weekly speech to members of his AK Party.
“It would be very wrong for the new government to end the negotiations or to continue the negotiations on a basis different than the one that has been followed so far,” Erdogan said. “The process must continue exactly as before”.
The UBP vote was a stinging defeat for the CTP and for Talat, who said on Tuesday the talks would not be affected.
Wired for sound
ON TUESDAY an unusual celebration was held in the village of Odou in Larnaca when residents of surrounding hamlets gathered to mark the arrival of broadband internet to the mountain community.
The residents celebrated their connection to the World Wide Web with a feast of souvla and other local dishes, followed by a series of traditional games.
Adults and children joined in the fun with Communications Minister Nicos Nicolaides. “It’s a big event for us, like when electricity came to our community 50 years ago,” said community leader Nicos Anastasiou.
Odou, like Kapedes, which was also connected to the internet on Tuesday, is one of the first of a series of remote villages to have access to broadband. The connection is part of a Communications Ministry initiative in co-operation with Hellas Sat to install a wireless broadband service to 153 remote villages throughout the island.
Greece offers support
GREEK Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis arrived on the island Wednesday for an official visit. In a joint news conference, he and President Demetris Christofias said they backed Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, but said that the neighbour with which they have been at loggerheads for years must first meet EU requirements for entry.
“We believe that a Turkey which will adopt European rules of behaviour … will be a Turkey much better for its citizens and the whole of the EU,” said Karamanlis. But “there is no blank cheque,” added Christofias.
Earlier in the day the Greek PM held separate meetings with the leaders of all political parties including AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou, DISY leader Nicos Anastasiades, EVROKO leader Demetris Syllouris and Green Party leader Ioanna Panayiotou. During his visit, Karamanlis also met Archbishop Chrysostomos II and the President of the House of Representatives Marios Garoyian, and addressed parliament.
Cloned baby edges closer
ANOTHER man in the news this week was controversial Cypriot-born fertility doctor Panayiotis Zavos who announced in London that he had cloned 14 human embryos and implanted 11 in the wombs of four women in what ultimately resulted in a failed attempt to produce the world’s first cloned baby.
Although none of the implantations led to a viable pregnancy, Zavos said it was only a matter of time before a cloned baby was born.
“There is absolutely no way that it will not happen. If we intensify our efforts we can have a cloned baby within a year or two, but I don’t know whether we can intensify our efforts to that extent:” Zavos told The Independent newspaper in an interview.
It is thought Zavos, who originally hails from occupied Trikomo, carried out his work at a secret laboratory in the Middle East. Human cloning is illegal in most countries, including Cyprus.
The news broke ahead the broadcast of a Discovery Channel programme ‘Human Cloning’. Documentary maker Peter Williams was given “unrestricted access” to Zavos’ work from 2003 as he attempted to clone a human being for the first time.
The four transfers reported in the documentary involved three married couples and a single woman. The patients came from Britain, the United States and an unspecified country in the Middle East. The four women volunteers were apparently not “ideal subjects” and so they all failed to become pregnant.
Cancer patients let down
THERE WAS bad news for women with breast cancer on Thursday when it was revealed that some patients cannot have breast reconstruction because the Health Ministry has failed to order the necessary products to go ahead with the surgery.
Women waiting for permanent implants following recent mastectomies were told that their surgeries will have to be postponed because the ministry has failed to order more silicone implants.
“By having delayed reconstruction women will have to wait about a year without a breast. It also means they will have to undergo an additional surgery, which could have been avoided. Instead of being able to place the expanders immediately after the mastectomy they will have to wait to start the expansion and reconstruction later,” said a Health Ministry official, who wished to remain unnamed.
Health Minister Christos Patsalides pledged to look into the matter.
Discussions over
THERE WAS also a bit of disappointing news on Thursday when it was revealed that CyBC had decided to temporarily pull the plug on a popular political show, ostensibly because of a programming reshuffle.
The show, To Sizitame, which is hosted by Erini Charalambidou, has ruffled more than a few feathers within the state-run broadcaster for deviating from ‘mainstream’ views on the Cyprus problem.
Charalambidou was told that her show was being integrated into the “run-up to the euro elections” theme, and that she should prepare for her next appearance. However, she was later informed that her show would come off the air until June 15, since there would be no slot for it.
According to Politis, ultimately CyBC bosses may be aiming to shut down the show permanently.
But CyBC manager Themis Themistocleous has denied anything Machiavellian lay behind the restructuring.
The show garnered the highest viewer ratings among all CyBC programmes in March. In one edition broadcast in late March, the show dealt with the period 1960-64. It also drew condemnation from a section of the print press with one paper expressing outrage and disgust that the state broadcaster had given a platform to “well-known supporters of the yes-vote” and arguing that such people should be prevented from poisoning people’s minds.
The long way round
PRACTICALLY on the eve of his visit to Cyprus on Friday, outspoken Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt described how the dreaded protocol of a Cyprus visit had him flummoxed over whom he would be meeting and how.
Before even setting foot on the island, Bildt, who is no stranger to controversy when it comes to Cyprus, said how the visit would go was so vague as to be “written in the stars”. The candid statement was posted on his personal blog.
Breaking from the traditional silence or the ‘diplomatic speak’ that usually precedes such visits, Bildt pointed out that “a game was being played out” before his visit, with hints being given to him as to who he should and should not meet, and the various implications of his decisions.
“Exactly how the visit is going to turn out and who I will be meeting seems to be written in the stars… But I am there to see and listen, and those who want to talk to me, I will listen attentively,” Bildt wrote in his blog.
B
ut there was no reference on the blog entry as to whether Bildt would be meeting Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat. It is well known in diplomatic circles that the government frowns on such visits.
In his blog ‘Alla Dessa Dagar’ Bildt also referred to the fact that getting to Nicosia was not an easy task.
He travelled with Turkey’s chief negotiator for EU accession Egemen Bagis from Stockholm to Istanbul and then had to take the long way round to Nicosia, he said.
