Lightning strike shocks drivers – in response to government austerity measures a lightning strike was called on Wednesday and then unfounded rumours spread of another on Thursday, as reported in NCFP. Parliament employees also withdrew labour and delayed the government vote on a 60 day strike ban. On top of this the electricity workers’ union is threatening to strike unless trainees are taken on permanently instead of extending their training programme 6 months. Hasan Sunger, chairman of the Cyprus Turkish Employers’ Union, criticised unions “antagonistic attitude.”

Cancer is new fight for brave İsmail – Turkish citizen, İsmail, who received 10,000TL of donation for a prosthetic arm after a bakery accident, has been diagnosed with cancer. He is apparently not eligible for free local treatment but hopefully he will be able to receive treatment in Turkey but will have to wait a week to find out if this is possible. Further fundraising will take place with an event being arranged on 22nd August at Mos restaurant in Çatalköy.

Nadir wins bail - Asil Nadir has been granted bail by a British court and will return to the UK on 3rd September for a hearing regarding a £34m fraud case against him. The international arrest warrant against him has been revoked and he is now able to apply for a British passport enabling him to fly to Britain.

Greek Cypriots given €1.4m for land – the ECHR has awarded the money for 340,000 m² of land in the north. This ruling was made possible because the case was launched before the IPC was made the place for such cases.

Pet owners hit by hike - the collapse of CTA  means re-homing pets in the UK will now cost £4000,  “hundreds of pounds” more than charged previously.

All quiet as court pulls plug on disco – for now – owners of Onar Village have managed to close a disco located a few meters away.

Embargoed! returned a new committee and heard about the group’s progress to lift the isolation on North Cyprus at its Annual General Meeting on Monday 26 July. During a packed session at a central London venue, chair Fevzi Hussein informed members how the group continues “to punch above its weight”, undertaking a range of activities on limited human and financial resources. The group have travelled to Brussels and Warsaw to lobby dignitaries, hosted property seminars in the House of Lords and London School of Economics, helped secure punishment of Apoel Nicosia for racism, and contributed to biased British MP Andrew Dismore losing his Parliamentary seat.

Embargoed!’s committee and active members highlighted the key activities for the past 12 months. The group again presented at OSCE, an international human rights convention in Warsaw, which was attended by diplomats from 55 countries including the USA and Russia. The group’s comments about ‘Turkish Cypriots living under apartheid conditions’ were picked up and circulated by global anti-racism bodies and Embargoed! was invited to send a report about the issues faced, which have been included in the body’s annual report.

Following on from the massive interest in the Orams case, the group held a Solidarity Vigil outside the British High Court in November to lend support to the Oramses. In March, following the landmark Demopoulos Ruling which validated the North’s Immovable Property Commission (IPC), the group hosted property seminars in London where a prestigious panel from North Cyprus addressed members of the British Upper Chamber and ordinary citizens. The events ended with a call for South Cyprus to create a parallel IPC to help resolve property disputes fairly, while a Factsheet and the seminar presentations have been sent to British politicians and citizens concerned about the issue.

The group’s ongoing campaign to prevent hate crime resulted in it complaining to FIFA for the racist actions of Apoel Nicosia FC and its supporters against Chelsea in September. The club was punished with a €40,000 fine from FIFA in December. The organisation also campaigned against biased British MP Andrew Dismore at the UK General Elections in May, contacting 300 Turkish voters in his constituency. Mr Dismore lost his seat by 65 votes.

A more recent campaign the group has launched in conjunction with the UK and TRNC Cyprus Turkish Chambers of Commerce is ‘Trade Not Aid’. It included developing a Factsheet and a trip to Brussels to meet MEPs. The early responses to Embargoed! are that the bulk of British MEPs are ready to support direct trade with North Cyprus.

Embargoed! has launched E! TV, where regular short broadcasts covering the campaign will be aired via its new website, www.embargoed.org, which is being launched on 5 August 2010. E! TV has footage from Warsaw, the Orams Vigil, and an interview with the legendary Jesse Jackson.

For the first time in its six year history, the group has also stepped into internal TRNC affairs, speaking out on the collapse of the national carrier Cyprus Turkish Airlines. It has set up an umbrella body, the CTA UK Action Group, to support affected UK staff and customers. 29 other organisations have signed up to this group. In addition, Embargoed! has pledged to act over the injustices faced by the Kulaksiz 5, a group of British residents who face losing their homes in Karsiyaka due to discrepancies in the TRNC’s land registry and banking systems. The group believes these two issues are pivotal to the TRNC’s international reputation and without a fair resolution, will hamper Embargoed!’s ability to lobby for the end of the isolation.

The full details of the group’s 2009-10 activities, as presented in the AGM, have been detailed in its Annual Report. The document will be available on the Resources section of the group’s new website, www.embargoed.org.

The group’s three new Executive Council members, Fevzi Hussein(Chair), Emel Djevdet (Secretary), and Cahit Akin (Treasurer), were all returned unopposed. It was decided that the Community Relations Officer role, previously held by Ismail Veli, would not be filled and instead the group would continue to be served by volunteers co-opted onto its Working Committees.

Tonight, Akfinans plumbed depths, I believed even they would not go to. It reinforced my suspicion that they are criminals trying to wear the cloak of respectability.

At about 7.00 pm. this evening I received a telephone call from my neighbour Bob, informing me that two cars were outside my house at Kulaksiz 5 in Karsiyaka. and the occupants were in my garden looking in through the windows.

Chris, my other half jumped in the car and rushed to Karsiyaka whilst I stayed to make phone calls to the police and other members of Kulaksiz 5 to enlist their support. I telephoned Lapta police just after 7.00 p.m. and please remember that because it is an itegral part of this story, they said they would go to my house in Karsiyaka.

When Chris arrived in Karsiyaka he found two cars, one an Hyundai and one a Citroen C1, I took the numbers of the cars so that this information could be used in the police investigation I expected to be launched. A child approximately 10 years old was standing on the wall and 3 men were coming over the wall as the gates were padlocked. When he asked them who they were and what they were doing on our property one answered that he was The Manager of Akfinans Bank Limited. I had no way of confirming this but when I discovered what they had done, I had no problem in believing what I’d been told. Chris then said, what are you doing here on our property, I want you to call the police, one then said I have already called the police to which Chris replied, lets wait for them then. At this point the Hyundai sped away and the Citroen drove his car at Chris at speed in such a way that it seemed to us that the driver intended to either injure him or even kill him. It was only Chris’s agility that saved him from serious injury or worse.

Inspection revealed that they had forced entry into the house and had removed and replaced the locks on the front and back doors. As they had no Eviction Order and I had not been informed of any legal judgement giving them the right to carry out this crime, they are in fact guilty of breaking and entering. The attack on Chris is also, in our eyes, attempted murder.

Haluk from Ada TV arrived and was appalled that the police had not arrived having been called over an hour and a half previously. He called them and insisted they came. Haluk filmed the changed locks and interviewed me on camera. I was in a state of complete shock, both at the crass behaviour of Akfinans Bank limited and the attempt on Chris’s life. Eventually the police arrived, they took some the details but did not even bother to get out of their vehicle.

Later I visited a friend who, when I said I had signed nothing but had made it clear to the police at the scene of the crime that I wished to press charges against Akfinans Bank, advised me to go to Girne Police Station which we did with a Turkish Cypriot friend. At Girne Police Station the officer got the details up on the computer screen – there was no mention of the attempt to run Chris over. He informed us that we would have to go to Lapta Police Station on Monday to ‘correct’ the police report.

The support given to us at the scene of the crime by our neighbours Dave and Marion who were also witnesses to both crimes was immense. The police did not interview them.

Everywhere you go in North Cyprus petrol stations have long queues of motorists taken in by a rumour that a strike will close them down until Monday when the official strike starts. This unfounded rumour is resulting in petrol stations closing down because they have run out of petrol because of the panic buying. This in turn fuels the rumour and so on. I wonder if Stephen Day, in Cyprus Today on Saturday, will blame Cyprus44 for this rumour?

The Platform of Unions in North Cyprus have announced that there will be a general strike and a rally on Monday, August 2nd, between the hours of 07.30 and 14.00.  The rally will take place in front of the TRNC Parliament and is in response to the economic measures package prepared by the government. Members of four trade unions have already started an overtime ban at sea ports and Ercan airport and are suggesting that as a result of their action current entries and exits into North Cyprus were illegal.

These unions have alleged that they have not been paid for overtime for three months and Mehmet Özkardaş, leader of the Cyprus Turkish State Civil Servants’ Trade Union (KTAMS), is quoted in Cyprus Today (28/7/2010) as saying “they would actively try to stop vessels leaving GaziMağusa and Girne ports”. Nurses and midwives, also alleging that their overtime has not been paid, have apparently stated that they will only do emergency work outside of their normal working hours.

What the unions are complaining about are the government’s austerity measures partly brought about by Turkey saying that it is no longer prepared to continue funding salaries which are higher than the minimum wage in Turkey. The measures the North Cyprus government are putting in place include the removal of the system of paying a 13th month salary and an end to summer working hours. They are also intending to raise several taxes which will mean increased prices for petrol, electricity, alcohol, importing cars and many other things. They are also suggesting increases in income tax and for the first time they intend to tax pensioners’ income.  Allowing the CTA to fail was the first indication of the government’s resolve to control spending.

It looks like a “summer of discontent” is inevitable but unless the unions can come up with an alternative strategy to balance the North Cyprus government budget then it is a small price to pay for putting the TRNC on a sound economic footing for probably the first time.

My Nanny and Granddad have rescued two olive trees. There used to be a company who rescued olive trees which were being destroyed because so many new houses, roads and swimming pools were being built. Sadly, the company has finished now. An estimated 200 olive trees a week were being chopped down and destroyed in 2005. Olive trees are protected in North Cyprus so it seems strange that so many have disappeared.

Olive trees are very hardy and drought, disease and fire resistant and they can live for a very long time. The root system is very strong and capable of rebuilding the tree even if the above ground trunk is destroyed.

Olive trees are very useful. The three main parts of an olive tree are olives (as food), its wood (good for burning) and olive leaves used in antibiotics or anti-ageing cream. The leaves have been used medically for hundreds of years. They are commonly used for fighting flu and colds, yeast infections and viral infections. They have been used to help fight cancer in mice.

From the Timesonline : ”Boil two quarts of water, then place 10g of olive leaves (alone or mixed with other herbs/teas) in an infuser or directly into the boiling water. Immediately reduce the heat to a high simmer and allow the tea to brew for about 15 minutes. Stir the tea occasionally, then strain to drink and/or refrigerate. The tea should be a medium amber colour with a slightly bitter taste. To combat a specific ailment, sip the refrigerated or reheated tea and consume the entire two quarts over the course of three days.”

Olive leaf extracts can be used as liquid concentrate, dried leaves, powder form or capsules. You can even make soap or skin cream by mixing olive oil and olive leave extract. According to the Wikipedia, olive leaf extracts can lower blood pressure and blood sugar levels.

Each year, usually in October, there is an olive festival in Zeytinlik (zeytin is the Turkish word for olive). This village used to be the centre of olive oil production in the past.  If you collect olives from your trees you can take them to the olive oil factory and they will press them for you and give you the olive oil.

The olive branch symbolises peace and goodwill. Hopefully the rate at which they are disappearing in Cyprus does not mean that peace and goodwill will also disappear from the island!

It may have taken them 24hrs to respond to a complaint but when they did, not only was the speed back to 1Mb but a most pleasant helpdesk agent supplied the kind of high quality customer service that is even difficult to find in the UK. A clearly British Extend employee told me that from now on, if I had a problem, I was to contact the helpdesk directly. I had the distinct feeling that there was now a new system in place.

After having all the misinformation corrected, I now feel confident that Extend Broadband is the ISP to use. This is not only because of the good service I received personally but it is also in the light of the very few complaints received on the Cyprus44 threads and on the NCFP comments section. Usually, if a company is getting it wrong, these two sources would be flooded with complaints and this was not the true in Extend’s case. Well done! Praise where praise is due.

Panic at the pumps - another price rise, which could make South cheaper. Apparently prices are 2.10TL (89p)/l for 95 octane, 2.14TL (91p) for 98 and 1.87TL (79p) for diesel. Taxi drivers and bus companies have threatened to strike unless the government rethinks this price rise and there is also concern that there has been no increase in the minimum wage to cover these increases.

Enclave attacks admitted – Greek Colonel Mihalis Yorgitis is reported as admitting that Turkish Cypriot civilian enclaves were targeted in 1974, specifically Gönyeli. This evidence was given in a testimony to the parliament in Athens. He said that instead of attacking Turkish troops on July 20th he was told instead to attack the village and that this “had no military logic.” This meant that Turkey was allowed to land in Cyprus “without any effective resistance.”

Fire came close to ruining my home - story of the Karşiyka fire

Launch party for the new BRS social club - for BRS members

New jobs with carriers for most pilots - most of the 55 CTA pilots have found jobs with other carriers. 137 CTA employees who were told to take up other roles within Cyprus Aviation Services at Ercan have been offered 1550TL pm instead of the 2800TL they were previously earning. They are not sure if they have in fact been sacked.

Blame game goes on as probe is rejected - apparently the CTA collapse resulted in 800 people losing their jobs.

“Resign” call over invoice - Transportation Minister, Hamza Ersan Saner, insists that the government has not paid anything to Atlasjet as part of the CTA transfer deal. DP leader Sedar Denktaş asked if he would resign if he could prove otherwise, Saner, said “yes” and then Denktaş produced an invoice but not a receipt for $244,400. Saner insisted that without proof the money had been received his statement that no money had been paid would stand.

I received an email from “Dons” which indicates that others should avoid misunderstanding a Turkcell deal which appears to offer 200 free phone calls to other Turkcell phones. Apparently what is actually on offer is 200 calls over a 7 day period for 100 credits, a generous deal if it was made clear what you are being offered! Mind you, can’t seem to find any evidence that the offer still stands.

"BEWARE Turkcell and their 'generous' offers. You'd think when they
text you saying that they will give you 200 free phone calls for a
week to other Turkcell phones that they will not take your 100 credits
that you pay for as part of the deal!! The wording in their text is
misleading or at best ambiguous. So I text back 200 to their number
thinking I was going to benefit from their so called freebie only to
find that when I phone an elderly relative in England I have no
credits! I phone customer services who tell me that I only have
credits to phone within TRNC and only to Turkcell customers and only
for 1 week. I explain that I thought I was taking advantage of a
reward for topping up and that the text does not make it clear that
the 200 credits are in exchange for the 100 credits I had bought, I
tell them I don't want their 'reward', to remove it and to give me
back my credits so that I can phone my relatives in England. I got
nowhere. Now I'm stuck with useless credits in my phone with 4 days
remaining and Turkcell's refusal to accept that their wording is
misleading. No goodwill gesture and no return of my credits. I've lost
nearly £10 worth of phone calls because of their 'generous reward'."

I know Malcolm is fed up with the issue but I personally find it odd that a test of his internet connection, supposedly 1024kb (1Mb), shows a download speed of 256kb. Previously the speed was 512kb, as confirmed by Extend’s database, but now suddenly the speed has dropped to make it almost unusable for running the newspaper. A phonecall  resulted in an emphatic statement that Malcolm’s internet connection was now set at 1Mb but all tests in the last 24hrs have resulted in a consistent 256kb. Extend has been told of the problem so let’s see how good their customer service is by publishing regular speed tests to see if they deliver the promised speed or, to be fair, anywhere near it.

Malcolm informs me that the best test is a 10Mb file download from a site recommended by an Extend associate, for visual confirmation I’ll use the facility available on www.speedtest.net where I’ll download a file from an Ankara server 200 miles away in Turkey and test the speed. I’ve used the image taken of the 5am (28/7/2010) test as the header for this article. I’ll add regular images to the comments and Malcolm will place a link to them on a Cyprus44 thread