#EDONews (Bulletin - March 2018)

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he martyrs of Greek-Turkish friendship, Dervis Ali Kavazoglou and Costas Mishaoules, are honored for yet another year by EDON and Cyprus’s Popular movement. The two comrades was murdered on 11th of April of 1965, by the far-right Turkish-Cypriot extremist organization called TMT.

Their assassination is a symbol for the rapprochement of the two communities in Cyprus. The policy of rapprochement was given birth by EDON and the Popular Movement of Cyprus, through the social and ideological origins of the two communities. EDON continues to struggle for the achievement of a peaceful federal solution to the Cyprus problem for a state with a single and only sovereignty, citizenship and international personality, with the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people being secured.

Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, together we will walk on the road towards the reunification of our island as long as its needed. As worthy descendants of Dervis Ali Kavazoglou and Costas Mishaoules, we will continue to walk the path that they carved for a free and reunified Cyprus. 53 years after their sacrifice, their assassination is our flag under of which we struggle.

We call upon the youth of Cyprus, the youth that does not compromise with the occupation, fascism and the division of our country to participate massively in the big march, on Saturday 31st of March, from Pera Chorio village towards the grave of Dervis Ali Kavazoglou in Dali village.

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he built of six luxury resorts in the area of the “Sea Caves” of Peyeia’s Municipality caused intense reactions by EDON, environmental organizations and the public opinion.

In the beginning of 2008 when Tassos Papadopoulos was still in the government, with an Individual Administrative Act signed by the then Minister of the Interior Christos Patsalidis, the Coastal Residence Zone was extended.

The expansion of the Coastal Residence Zone was done without the Strategic Environmental Impact Assessment, in violation of national and Community legislation.

In addition, the planning permit for the construction of these residents and the granting of environmental approval was done without the assessment of an Environmental Impact Assessment Study.

At the same time, the town planning authority and the Mayor of Peyeia repeat that the lawful procedure for the issuance of building permits was followed, followed by other applications for building permits covering dozens of villas and eight-storey five-star hotel against which the current Minister, Kostas Kadis is positive.

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Environmental organizations and citizens are putting strong pressure on the authorities, and they also require direct intervention by the European Commission responsible for the environment.

In particular, with the participation of EDON, a protest took place outside the Presidential Palace on 28th of February and within the development block on 4th of March, requiring the immediate discontinuation of the construction work of the project and its submission to a Comprehensive Assessment of the Effects on the species fauna and flora defining the Natura 2000 areas Akamas peninsula.

As EDON, we are opposed to the violation of environmental legislation by the government and the continued support of capital and big businessmen. Another huge example is what is planned for Akamas. We emphasize that when evaluating each project, account should be taken of the conservation objectives of the natural habitats and wildlife of the area, the importance of which is outweighing the economic costs involved in the consideration of alternatives.

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he government once again reaffirm their ideological direction. Various state structures for infant and early childcare, instead of being refurbished and used for the needs of vulnerable social groups and society in general, are handed over to the Archdiocese.

Our supposed cosmacy state, considering the infant and infant care facilities as a burden on the annual budget, delivers such infrastructure to the Archbishop to convert them to religious schools.

The government helps to the implementation of Church’s goals of interfering with Education and schooling. This relationship apparently has not emerged lately. These decisions for school management by the Church, statements by President Anastasiades to the Archbishop’s praise, the return of VAT to the Church, and other similar acts from 2012 raise questions.

Why those in power not to spoil the sake the Archbishop? Is it why they are redeeming the support of Archbishop to Anastasiades in the recent presidential elections?

As EDON, we strongly disagree with the decision to transfer such structures to the Archbishop. We believe that in a secular state, even a bourgeois one, the State owes not only to maintain but also to create even more such public infrastructures to secure all vulnerable social groups and to educate future generations in the context of multiculturalism, freedom of religion and diversity.

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n 20th of January 2018, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced the launch of landbased military operations in Afrin, an area on the north of Syria on the borders of Turkey and controlled by the Kurds, on the pretext of “the fight against terrorism”. An attack aimed, of course, on the creation of a security zone at the Turkish-Syrian border and on the creation of fait accompli and their tooling to exert pressure on the diplomatic level.

Turkish aggression targets Syrian Kurds who have declared their autonomy in the region, seeing them a lasting threat to Turkey itself, where millions of Kurds live and dream of a free Kurdistan.

NATO also benefits from Turkey’s intervention in Afrin, fearing the expansion of Russian influence. The reasoning, simple: if Turkey controls Afrin, it will create an area that will not be controlled by Assad, who has a close relationship with Russia.

The upsurge in Turkish aggression in Syria, coupled with what followed in the Aegean Sea and the arrest of the two Greek soldiers in Evros, underline the need for our country to get rid of occupying troops and Turkish presence in Cyprus.

Obstruction of research drilling in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone by Turkey is not irrelevant to stagnation in the Cyprus problem. At the same time, however, developments are also indicative of the ending of the illusions raised by the Government for the defense of the EEZ and the Republic of Cyprus, assisted by strategic partners (USA, EU, Israel), without of course ignoring the fact that the Turkey has the primary responsibility for what is happening in the Cypriot EEZ. As EDON, we think it is now clear that initiatives should be taken to resume negotiations from the point where they were ended, as the Secretary-General of the UN calls for last September’s report to which neither side has responded. As a consequence, in positions of principle, without regressions and acrobatics, we should seek to reopen the dialogue, since, of course, precede the ending of Turkey’s challenges to the Cyprus EEZ.