Yearbook 2010
Cyprus. The conflict between the parties on the shared
island remained unsolved. In the Turkish Cypriot
presidential election in April, Derviş Eroğlu, the head of
government and leader of the right-wing National Unity Party
(UBP), won. He appointed newly appointed UBP leader İrsen
K邦ç邦k, who previously held several ministerial posts, as new
prime minister, and in May K邦ç邦k formed a new Turkish
Cypriot government. Eroğlu did not want to see a united
Cyprus but continued the negotiations his representative
Mehmet Ali Talat conducted with Cyprus President Dimitris
Christofias since 2008.
According to
COUNTRYAAH, Eroğlu and Christofias met on a number of occasions but
no breakthroughs were reported. The talks concerned topics
such as security, power sharing and property. The latter
issue became particularly sensitive since 21 Turkish
Cypriots, who abandoned their homes in southern Cyprus in
the wake of the 1963 riots, in July applied to the European
Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to recover their property. The
court had previously in several cases ruled that Greek
Cypriots were entitled to property they surrendered in
Northern Cyprus in connection with the Turkish invasion of
1974. The Socialist Party EDEK, which was the minor party in
the recognized Cypriot coalition government, left the
government in February against what It was believed that
Christophia's far-reaching concessions were too far-reaching
in the negotiations.
The remains of President Tassos Papadopoulos, who had
been stolen from his tomb in Nicosia in December 2009, were
found buried in March in another cemetery in the city. Three
men were arrested on suspicion of being behind the crime,
which according to police was an attempt to extort money
from Papadopoulo's relatives.
Book publisher and media magnate Andis Hadjicostis was
shot dead on January 11 outside his home in Nicosia. Four
people, including a well-known female news presenter, were
brought to trial for the murder.
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