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By Philip Chrysopoulos July 20, 2025 Turkish invasion of Cyprus 50 years since Nicosia was divided and separated by a buffer zone. Credit: Marco Fieber, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0/Flickr The day of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, July 20, 1974, was the day time stopped for Cyprus, a day of infamy when the course of the nation’s history changed forever. For Cypriots, the ongoing crime of the Turkish occupation of their beloved country seems as fresh at each anniversary as it was then. It was a day that no Cypriot and no Greek will indeed ever forget. The eerie sound of...

The Cyprus visit is a calculated effort to advance India's Mediterranean strategy by countering the Turkey-Pakistan alignment, they added. Cyprus's maritime connectivity and strategic location position it as a potential hub in the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC).With Cyprus set to hold the rotating presidency of the EU Council in 2026, PM Modi's visit -- the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 23 years -- paves the way for deeper India-EU collaboration during Cyprus's leadership term. This visit comes amid heightened Turkey-Pakistan solidarity, particularly following Turkey's support for Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.Cyprus, engaged in territorial disputes with Turkey, naturally...

Saddam Hussein's government provided senior Russian officials with oil rights worth millions of dollars under the oil-for-food program in an effort to lift U.N. sanctions against Iraq, according to a U.S. Senate Committee report released on Monday. The oil allocations were "compensation for support," Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The report, based on documents as well as interviews with Ramadan and Tareq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister, pointed to Alexander Voloshin, former chief of staff to President Vladimir Putin in the Russian Presidential Council, and ultranationalist parliamentarian Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Both men had...

* After its original discovery in 1885, an ancient statue sanctuary in Cyprus was subsequently covered in sand and lost to time yet again. * However, a recent archaeological effort rediscovered the sanctuary, and uncovered historical finds from the seventh century B.C. * Statue fragments found buried in the sand can now complete statues on display in museums in Cyprus and Canada. A team of German archaeologists recently uncovered an ancient statue sanctuary in Cyprus dedicated to Apollo. Known as Frangissa (due to its location in the remote Frangissa Valley), the site was originally discovered in 1885 but was subsequently...

The United States and Russia exchanged prisoners in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, as Washington and Moscow edge toward a diplomatic rapprochement. Russia released Ksenia Karelina, a U.S.-Russian dual national, who was found guilty in Russia for donating a small sum to a U.S.-based Ukrainian charity and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Karelina, a former ballet dancer, became a U.S. citizen in 2021 after marrying an American and moving to Los Angeles. In exchange, the U.S. freed Artur Petrov, a German-Russian dual citizen who was arrested in 2023 in Cyprus at the request of U.S. authorities for allegedly exporting...

Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina was released from Kremlin custody in a prisoner swap with the United States on Thursday morning. Karelina was freed in exchange for German-Russian Arthur Petrov at a swap in Abu Dhabi, the Wall Street Journal reported. “American Ksenia Karelina is on a plane back home to the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said. “She was wrongfully detained by Russia for over a year and President Trump secured her release. @POTUS will continue to work for the release of ALL Americans,” he added. The dual-citizen spa worker was accused of treason against the Russian government...

Exodus is a historical novel by Leon Uris regarding the founding of the State of Israel beginning in post-World War II. The movie EXODUS is a retelling of of the 1947 IMMIGRATION SHIP EXODUS and the main characters relationship to the birth of the new Jewish state. 1st Part: The movie begins on a ship filled with Jewish immigrants bound for Israel then were off-loaded in Cyprus. An Intelligence officer succeeds in getting them back on board their ship only then to have the harbor blocked by the British forces preventing them from entering Palestine. 2nd Part: The second part...

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION On March 25, 1821, fueled by the rallying cry, “Freedom or Death,” Greek revolutionaries began a war for independence against the Ottoman Empire. The hard-fought victory established a sovereign Greek state and a national homeland for Greece. On the 204th anniversary of Greek Independence Day, we honor this heroic fight for freedom, and the enduring democratic ideals that continue to inspire the world. America is inextricably tied to both ancient and modern Greece. We are tethered by history and tradition, the struggle for self-governance, emancipation, and rebirth. Our Founding...

On March 25, 1821, fueled by the rallying cry, “Freedom or Death,” Greek revolutionaries began a war for independence against the Ottoman Empire. The hard-fought victory established a sovereign Greek state and a national homeland for Greece. On the 204th anniversary of Greek Independence Day, we honor this heroic fight for freedom, and the enduring democratic ideals that continue to inspire the world. America is inextricably tied to both ancient and modern Greece. We are tethered by history and tradition, the struggle for self-governance, emancipation, and rebirth. Our Founding Fathers drew inspiration from Greek philosophers and statesmen to form the...

While former convicted felon Hunter Biden enjoys a luxurious vacation in South Africa, with round-the-clock Secret Service protection paid for by the taxpayer, the first whistleblower to report Biden corruption is being brutalized in a Cyprus jail cell. Gal Luft, the Israeli-American professor who told the FBI in 2019 that Hunter and his uncle Jim Biden were paid millions by a Chinese company while Joe Biden was VP, has been in a bleak Cypriot jail for six months awaiting extradition over what he says are politically motivated charges carried over from the Biden Department of Justice. Luft was set to...

In Canada's most populous province Ontario today an election...Ford's Progressive Conservatives the projected winners... Israel's military out with an internal report concerning the Hamas attack of October 7th... North Korea says it conducted cruise missile tests off its west coast this week... The US Justice Department releasing files related to...Jeffrey Epstein...called the 'first phase'...more material still in the hands of the FBI... "everything was calculated, everything was planned" Those words from Calin Georgescu Romanian populist presidential candidate...taken into custody yesterday...six charges announced against him... At the White House and exchange between Vice-President JD Vance and visiting British Prime Minister... US...

Athens: Turkey’s fiercest rival Greece is now equipped with Rafale fighter jets. The Hellenic Air Force has officially completed the acquisition of 24 Rafale fighter jets. Greece received the last Rafale aircraft at Tanagra Air Base on 9 January. .....

Ancient Cypriot writing was found on a wall dating from the 6th century BC at an archeological dig in Palaepaphos, the department of antiquities said on Wednesday...The 2024 excavation continued to focus on a monument north of a 186m monumental wall shaped like a P at the same site and which faces the sea.It had been thought it was part of a fortification and functioned as a defensive tower but the latest round of excavations points to it being unconnected and probably devotional.[emphasis added] Previous excavations have shown that the site was founded on a layer of the Late Cypriot...

Denktas emerges as peacemaker. President Rauf Denktas of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) has launched a genuine peace offensive which may well be a turning point in the Cyprus impasse. Both Denktas and his Greek Cypriot counterpart Glafcos Clerides realize that if they do not take the initiative and "do something" soon, the problems that have been plaguing the island may eventually mushroom into a major international crisis that may push Turkey and Greece into confrontation, and no one wants this. The two leaders will meet next week face to face in frank discussions for the future of ...

Last week the young Greek Cypriots were the guests of 32nd Day. We heard very interesting things. Today, during the 32nd Day program on CNN Turk at five past 10 p.m., you will be hearing from the young Turkish Cypriots. You will be astonished. You will hear the kind of remarks you do not expect at all. Maybe you · will get angry. However, do not forget that all these have been said in sincerity Tonight we will hear the kind of words we do not like at all. Maybe we will get angry, and we will accuse those who ...

What have I done to be placed on the sanctions list of the Russian Foreign Ministry, alongside several distinguished historians of eastern Europe? My normal hunting ground (not the right word for a maritime historian) is the Mediterranean and the oceans beyond. But maybe Russia’s mandarins know that I am now writing about the Black Sea. Since the reign of Peter the Great in the 18th century, Russia has seen the Black Sea as a vital gateway to the wider world. The Ottoman sultans blocked Russian attempts to reach warmer waters via Istanbul. Russian ships bound for intended conquests had...

In February 2023, Israeli-American journalist Gal Luft published an extraordinary post on X revealing the Biden family’s alleged ties to Chinese military intelligence. Since then, Luft has been arrested, released and rearrested. Meanwhile, the bombshell allegations were never investigated.

Erdogan said in July that Turkey would extend an invitation to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "any time" for possible talks to restore relations between the two neighbors. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Islamic countries should form an alliance against what he called "the growing threat of expansionism" from Israel. He made the comment after describing what Palestinian and Turkish officials said was the killing by Israeli troops of a Turkish-American woman taking part in a protest on Friday against settlement expansion in the West Bank. "The only step that will stop Israeli arrogance, Israeli banditry, and Israeli state...

"The return of Crimea to Ukraine is a requirement of international law." Erdoğan said in his video address that Turkey has always been opposed to Russia's annexation of Crimea. He decried the persecution of Crimea's ethnic Tatars since 2014. Erdoğan added: "Our sincere wish is for the war to end with a fair and lasting peace based on Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence." In October 2020, the Turkish leader said during a joint press briefing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that his country would never recognize the annexation of Crimea. "We have and always will support Ukraine's sovereignty and...

For 50 years, Cyprus has been split in two by a military border, the constant reminder of a deadly conflict that has never been resolved. The island, visited by more than a million Brits each year, is famed for its crystal clear waters, pristine beaches and rich culture, but the tiny country in the Mediterranean has a bloody history which provokes strong emotion to this day. "We are lost souls," Greek Cypriot Mario Pischiris says. He was just a boy when war broke out in Cyprus on 20 July, 1974 - exactly 50 years ago. He was forced to flee...