Humanitarian aid to the enclaved resumes

The dispatch of humanitarian aid to the enclaved living in the Turkish occupied north of Cyprus resumed on Thursday morning, following a decision by north to revoke an earlier decision it had taken in October last year to impose a levy.

Presidential Commissioner Photis Photiou told CNA that three trucks of the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in Cyprus (UNFICYP), after loading humanitarian aid from the government stores, crossed to the north at the Ledra Palace checkpoint without any problems.

He said the same procedure would be repeated Friday for the Maronite villages.

The Turkish Cypriot side decided to impose a levy last October. The government had made clear that it would not, under any circumstances, pay such a levy. Last month, the ‘council of ministers’ in the north decided to revoke the decision.

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.