in Cyprus Today – 6/2/2010

Room in Place for two more? – Talat makes new call for seats in Europe. He  has renewed Turkish Cypriot demands for direct representation in the  European Parliament. Direct representation would mean the TRNC getting two seats in the European Parliament, which set aside four seats for Greek Cypriots and two for the Turkish Cypriots following the ROC’s membership in 2004.

Hundreds facing axe at national flag carrier – Workers at CTA are “on the verge of an uprising” amid fears nearly half face the sack. Members of the Airline Workers Union wanted to start industrial action yesterday morning from 4.00am, but the Council of Ministers ruled strike action out at the cash strapped airline for 60 days.”All other workers at state offices were paid on 29th January” said Mr Ercoban (AWU general secretary). “We have only got half our salaries and the second part has still not been paid. Our pensions and Provident Fund have not been paid for ages and workers and their families could not get proper services at hospitals because their certificates were not stamped”.

Up, Up and Away with CTA – Carrier flying the flag for TRNC is ’safest in town’ beating off 17 rival airlines. In spite of being  $80 million in debt, CTA has been named the safest airline flying from Turkey to European destinations after a series of “very stringent” spot inspections.

TRNC: On Orams, we’ll put this House in order – A Parliamentary blame game has begun over the failure of Linda and David Orams to win their landmark property case. Three of the main Turkish Cypriot political parties voted in favour of setting up a committee during a debate on the case on Thursday to investigate what went wrong. *There has been a suggestion that the land belongs to Evkaf,  a Turkish Cypriot foundation, as title deeds apparently were lost before 1935. However as the ECJ has ruled in favour of Mr Apostolides claim to the land, it is not known whether the new facts will have any bearing on the judgements.

First President hitting out over probe into flag – Founding TRNC President Rauf Denktas has hit out at the European Commission’s probe into the environmental impact of the TRNC and Turkish flags emblazoned on the southern slopes of the Five Finger Mountains. Mr Denktas said the area being talked about would stay in the TRNC irrespective of any Cyprus solution and that the flags should be left alone. “We invite the EU to respect the reality and not live in a dream  world”.

Forum founder suffers stroke as million hits destroy his creation – The founder of a TRNC web forum suffered a stroke within hours of his creation being destroyed in a massive cyber attack. Nigel Watson was admitted to Lefkosa State Hospital  after www.northcyprusforum.net was taken down by an estimated one million malicious “hits”. Nigel “I won’t be beaten though. As soon as I’m fit to go home, I will be relaunching and updating this website. Editors (NCFP): Get well soon Nigel.

Nothing – Behind smiles and handshakes, leading politicians of North Cyprus believe UN chief Ban Ki-Moon’s visit achieved…………Nothing