WE HAVE been unable to establish who had the resoundingly ridiculous idea for Friday’s meaningless meeting about Syria that was held at Limassol’s Le Meridien, in order to congratulate him. I guess that it was just another pathetic attempt by our government to present Kyproulla as a player in the international diplomatic scene.
It had some usefulness as the public was given a chance to see what our Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou looks like without a jacket and tie. Other than that, there did not seem to be much point for the meeting to which Mediterranean and Balkan EU member-states were invited.
The Israeli FM Avigdor Lieberman was invited to make up the numbers and raise the profile of this non-event, as he was here on natural gas business, having arrived a day earlier.
Spain, Italy and Romania were also invited, but they declined to attend. Apparently, Italy had initially given a positive response but pulled out when it became obvious that the meeting would be a bit of a waste of time.
Greece grudgingly sent its FM, because it feels a duty to support our fun diplomatic initiatives, while Malta, never turns down an invitation to international meetings at which its FM might be allowed to speak. Bulgaria sent its deputy foreign minister.
There was no agenda and no minutes were kept. Marcos informed us, however, that there was an exchange of views “on all matters of mutual interest, regional and international, and of course focus on developments in our area, which directly affect our countries”.
In the end the conference followed the Cyprob talks’ format, Marcos revealing that “we do not aim at arriving at specific decisions”.
MEANWHILE, we are still waiting for our government, which always takes stands on principle, to publicly condemn the actions of the murderous Assad regime, something it has failed to do so far.
There is no real danger of the comrade president doing anything of the sort as he enjoys very warm relations with President Assad. So much so, that when he visited last year, he said he was closer to Syria than to Greece. He never clarified whether he was talking geographically or ethnically.
But since his friend Bashar al-Assad started murdering his citizens the comrade has kept silent. He has adopted the same fence-sitting policy on Syria as his close ally Russia which, according to the comrade, always follows a foreign policy based on high principles.
A totalitarian regime killing its citizens because they are demanding democratic rights does not justify a principled stand.
OUR EU partners, in contrast, always allow their interests to determine their policies, which is why our government has been at pains to stop them imposing harsh punishment on the Syrian regime.
On Friday EU countries agreed to impose a broad range of sanctions on Syria. According to the EU Observer, the measures would include “a travel ban and asset freeze on members of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime considered responsible for the crackdown. EU countries also agreed to stop arms exports and exports of non-lethal equipment which can be used for internal repression.”
Cyprus played a significant role in limiting the severity of the sanctions, according to the EU Observer, which reported the following:
“An EU diplomat said France, Germany and the UK wanted to impose the most far-reaching sanctions, including a block on ‘the big money’ – the €1.3 billion worth of European Investment Bank (EIB) funds slated for infrastructure projects. Denmark, Poland and most northern EU countries were in the hawkish camp. But Cyprus led opposition among southern EU countries to the EIB step.”
Why has the comrade decided to stand up to the EU’s big boys on sanctions? Is he doing it because he wants to help his friend, the Syrian dictator, or is he doing a favour to Moscow, in exchange or Russian support at the UN?
Whatever his reasons, after his vociferous opposition to the bombing of Libya, Cyprus is developing a reputation as the EU’s staunchest defender of ruthless, totalitarian, Arab regimes.
TEN DAYS ago the Turkish Cypriot press reported that National Guardsmen were “gathering along the border” and “getting ready for war”. The source of the story was Dervis Eroglu who had allegedly misinterpreted some comments made by comrade Tof during a routine Easter visit to an army camp.
If Eroglu knew anything about us he would realised there would be no war on Easter weekend, because National Guard officers would demand triple overtime pay to fight on a holiday and the government could not afford to pay them.
A WEEK later, Simerini’s front page banner headline announced “Attila in paroxysm”. Its report, quoting the National Guard General Staff, said that the “occupation army is in full, offensive battle formation directed towards the free areas”.
It added that “Turkish tanks, fully equipped for war, yesterday (Thursday) moved in the broader Skylloura and Ayios Ermolaos area.” Only when you read a bit more did it become obvious that we were not exactly on the brink of war. The Turks were not preparing to attack us but were carrying out military exercises.
Simerini’s intrepid reporter said it was astonishing that the Turks had not closed the roads, allowing visiting Greek Cypriots to watch the exercises. “Military observers noted that this was part of the planning, so that passers-by would realise the might of Turkish military presence.” A more accurate headline for the story would have been “Journalist in paroxysm”, after discovering that Turkish troops hold exercises.
SO THE governor of the Central Bank Athanasios Orphanides wanted to sell our gold reserves, after all. The president’s henchmen at AKEL released the minutes of the 2007 meeting at which the decision was taken, as part of government’s ongoing governor-bashing campaign.
It was a classic case of Akelite misinformation, because it omitted to mention that the money from the sale of 50 per cent of the gold reserves would have been re-invested in other capital assets and would not have been pocketed by the Gov and CB employees.
But it appears that the comrades have a rather short memory when it comes to the attempts to sell the CB gold.
Averof Neophytou’s claim that the president had tried to sell the gold, was a lie said government spokesman Stef-Stef on Thursday. “The president never dealt with the gold nor did the government have any intention to sell it.”
But on June 13, 2008, speaking about the gold he had said: “Through the sale of the gold the government aims to pay off part of the public debt… We set a basic policy line, that the amount that would arise would be used for the drastic reduction of the public debt.”
THE NON-STOP public bashing of Orphanides illustrates what warped minds are currently running our patticha plantation. The government led by the comrade president keep taking pot shots at him because he has been urging it to take measures that would stop the economy’s course towards bankruptcy.
But they have never said a single bad word about the man whose arrogant intransigence is guaranteed to lead the state to bankruptcy. Miserable PASYDY boss Glafcos Hadjiklamouris’ trenchant militancy will bankrupt the state but our Akelite rulers bend over backwards to keep him sweet and happy, because he is a union man.
Hadjimourmouris and his parasites are the biggest threat to our economy’s future, but the pea-brained comrades are attacking the guy who wants to prevent economic disaster, because he is not a union man. And in the dictatorship of the idiots this is the only thing that counts.
FUNNY how despite the government’s much-touted reduction of the number of civil servants by one thousand last year, the number of civil servants has increased by over one thousand in 2010. According to the latest statistical information published by the government the number of civil servants in 2009 were 54,304. In 2010, despite being reduced by 1,000 members, there were 55,445 on the payroll, according to our Stats Service. Imagine how many there would be if the government had not cut a thousand positions.
WE WOULD like to wish all our proletarian friends and union bosses, excluding Hadjimourmouris, a happy May Day. We hope their collective efforts to stop the employment of EU citizens, who have been taking Cypriot jobs, will be successful. Workers of Cyprus unite and kick the foreigners out. And remember that if all else fails you can always ask ELAM for help.
