Cyprus-Forum.com

[cannedmoose]

Ken Livingstone bars ‘TRNC’ ads in London

MAYOR of London Ken Livingstone has banned all tourism advertising of the ‘TRNC’ from the city’s buses, tube trains and other public places under his jurisdiction, reports said yesterday.

According to the reports from London, Livingstone has also been turning down requests from tourism representatives of the Turkish Cypriots and their advertising agency for a meeting to discuss revising the decision taken late last month.

The decision was taken on the basis that the advertisements could cause offence to a large segment of the population. There are around 200,000 Greek Cypriots living in London. The Turkish Cypriot advertisers were notified with an official letter from Livingstone’s office, saying the decision had not been taken lightly.

The Cyprus Tourism Organisation yesterday declined to comment on whether the government had had a hand in lobbying for such a decision.

Turkish Cypriot official sources said they were looking into the development to ascertain the full facts

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Any London readers out there?... Who's this Livingstone bloke?

He's the Mayor of London and has been for the past few years. He was previously a VERY left-wing member of the Labour Party and ran the Greater London Council during the early 1980s until it was abolished under Margaret Thatcher (who saw it as a challenge to her authority).

He then became a Member of Parliament in Brent East and remained on the left-fringes of the Labour Party, becoming increasingly unpopular when Tony Blair took over and remodelled the party.

In 2000 he became even more unpopular when he stood against Labour's official candidate for the London Mayor post and beat him decisively (Labour was assumed to be a shoe-in). As a result, he was dismissed from the party for a number of years and has only just been let in.

He's a very controversial figure, one of those either love him or hate him types. Personally I think he's a great politician, whether you agree with his views or not, he actually says what he thinks and pretty much stands by what he believes in. He also seems to genuinely give a toss about the people he represents, rare in the UK system these days.

Anyway, you can read all about him here...

http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/mayorbiog.jsp

[brother]

Britain slams London authority for ban on Turkish Cypriot ads
By Simon Bahceli


THE British government yesterday slammed Transport for London (TfL) – the body that administers London’s buses and tube trains – after it announced a ban on advertisements for Turkish Cypriot tourism, saying the move flew in the face of UK policy to lift the economic isolation of the north.

“The UK government remains committed to ending the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots and will continue to support efforts to this end,” a High Commission spokesman told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

The TfL says it has banned advertising for the Turkish Cypriot tourism industry because Greek Cypriots living in London might find it “insulting”.

The British High Commission yesterday sought to distance itself from the TfL decision, telling the Cyprus Mail, “Transport for London reports directly to the Greater London Authority, and not to the government.”

The UK government’s criticism of the move came after the TfL rejected a request for the continuation of a campaign advertising holidays in the north in the face of Greek Cypriot objections over the campaign.

“The government is aware of the decision made by the TfL as a result of protests made by local councilors and interest groups,” the High Commission spokesman said. His statement flew in the face of a TfL claim that it had “received no complaints from Greek Cypriots” and that the move was purely a “policy decision”.

The TfL defended its decision yesterday, telling the Cyprus Mail that accepting the advertising “would have been considered a breach of a TfL policy, which seeks to avoid causing offence to any section of society”.

Turkish Cypriot Hoteliers Association (KITOB) general secretary Huseyin Aktig reacted angrily to the ban yesterday, telling the Mail, “This is pure discrimination. They may be seeking to not insult Greek Cypriots, but they are insulting us”.

He added an invitation for TfL and advertising standards monitors in the UK to address “lies” propagated by Greek Cypriot tour operators claiming the north was “inaccessible”.
“There are laws about telling lies in advertising. In every brochure produced by the Greek Cypriots the north is described as inaccessible. This is a lie. Around 500,000 people come here each year, and for the last two years, thousands have been crossing between the north and south,” he said.

Turkish Cypriot London Representative Namik Korman was also critical of TfL’s decision to ban advertising for the north.

“They say Greek Cypriots would be offended by the ads, but I told them if that were the case, why don’t they take into account the 200,000 Turkish Cypriots living in London who will be offended by this ban?”

Korhan added that the decision to ban ads demonstrated a misunderstanding by the TfL that many in both Cypriot communities were seeking to “bridge the gap” by reducing economic disparities between the south and the poorer north.

“Unfortunately some in the London Greek Cypriot community complained, and this is what the TfL went with,” he said.

Aktig believes, however, that opposition to Turkish Cypriot advertising could stem from Greek Cypriot resentment of a recent boom in the north’s fledgling tourism industry.
“Over the past four years there has been a decline in bookings to the south,” he said.
“We, on the other hand, are already 70 per cent booked up for next summer”.

Whether or not the ban will stand depends on the outcome of an appeal being lodged by the north Cyprus tourism board, the TfL spokesman said.

[Agios Amvrosios]

When does the British Presidency end?

Did the Brits do anything for a solution of the problem?

It was never going to be easy for the Greek Cypriots being in an EU run by the Mr Kalamouin & friends but all in all
things went smoother than I thought for us.

- What do Turkish Cypriots think?

What next?
my prediction 25 years of jack shit- status quo

[macketterry]

When does the British Presidency end?

Did the Brits do anything for a solution of the problem?

It was never going to be easy for the Greek Cypriots being in an EU run by the Mr Kalamouin & friends but all in all
things went smoother than I thought for us.

- What do Turkish Cypriots think?

What next?
my prediction 25 years of jack shit- status quo

The UK sat on the fence.
The international community is now totally bored with the so-called Cyprus Problem. Their interest ended in April 2004. As far as the rest of the world is concerned as long as nobody is getting shot everything's okay.

Prediction: consolidation of the current situation helped by a few futile dead-end legal cases on both sides.
I disagree - more like 225 years of Jack Shit

[Agios Amvrosios]

Ha ha hathis bloke reckons that the UK sat on the fence.

I do not see the outcome of Loizidou with her handsome cash and prizes including 1.2 million and the restitution of her property rights as being a dead end.

92 % of land in the occupied north is subject to this judgment. The dead and buried annan plan(RIP 24 April) was worse than a dead end it was a 6 lane motorway to oblivion. It purported to set up compensation bonds. Bro nobody wants that shit!

What am I going to do with compensation bonds of negligable value that I can't cash in for 15 years maybe by then the market will be flooded and I will be able to buy a nuclear war head to blow up the fence?.
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Kaboom

[macketterry]

Ha ha hathis bloke reckons that the UK sat on the fence.

I do not see the outcome of Loizidou with her handsome cash and prizes including 1.2 million and the restitution of her property rights as being a dead end.

92 % of land in the occupied north is subject to this judgment. The dead and buried annan plan(RIP 24 April) was worse than a dead end it was a 6 lane motorway to oblivion. It purported to set up compensation bonds. Bro nobody wants that shit!

What am I going to do with compensation bonds of negligable value that I can't cash in for 15 years maybe by then the market will be flooded and I will be able to buy a nuclear war head to blow up the fence?.
.
.
.
..
Kaboom

So did the direct trade/flights come as promised by the UK? No. Did the aid get through? No. Did the UK do anything unilaterally to help the TCs? No.

Re bonds - now that you have voted down the Annan Plan what are you going do with 100% of fuck all?

If 50% to 75% of Greek Cypriots receiving their property back with compensation for the rest and removal of the Turkish Army is your version of oblivion then you are either very stupid or actually prefer to pretend to want a solution so that you can play victim for another 32 years.

[lysi]

The british and us government will always support turkey and the occupation of cyprus .
The cyprus goverment are to scared to stand up to britain, usa or any other country, they are weak and should be ashamed of themselves.

[Agios Amvrosios]

Makcetery. Are you one of these property speculators who got burnt or something.

We can afford to loose the compensation bonds . No loss at all. You don't actually get it. Under the Annan plan We think we had nothing to loose. NU-thing. Do you understand nothing . And we were even expected to vote for the instituionalisation of ethnic cleansing by these people.

We can afford to wait to get judgments in the European Court of Human Rights if we really want to.

you can't try a to force feed someone shit and then complain if they throw up all over the place.

[macketterry]

Makcetery. Are you one of these property speculators who got burnt or something.

We can afford to loose the compensation bonds . No loss at all. You don't actually get it. Under the Annan plan We think we had nothing to loose. NU-thing. Do you understand nothing . And we were even expected to vote for the instituionalisation of ethnic cleansing by these people.

We can afford to wait to get judgments in the European Court of Human Rights if we really want to.

you can't try a to force feed someone shit and then complain if they throw up all over the place.

Clearly for you it is an all-or-nothing approach. You would rather get nothing than a lot.

50% to 75% of GC would have got their land back and for some there would have been some compensation. Also the Turkish Army would leave and future generations of Cypriots could have lived in a more healthy environment in a unified country with a line drawn under the past. But you would forego all of that because unless you bend the Turkish Cypriots to your view of how things should be a solution has no value.

Thanks for the clarification. You are on a road to nowhere.

[Agios Amvrosios]

Ok so we are expected to negotiate on ethnic cleansing. Some issues are simply are not negotiable. Ethnic cleansing cannot simply be dealt with by the remedy of monetary compensation.

This is not a matter which anyother modern democratic European country is asked to horsetrade on. Negotiating on ethnic cleansing is an abomonation from the dark ages.

And you will probably say that property speculators purchased refugee land in 'good faith as well. These people took a gamble on the institutionalisation of ethnic cleansing and lost. There is only one certain way that property speculators can legally buy land in the occupied north and that is by purchasing land which makes up the 8% owned by Turkish Cypriots.

Another problem is that the Annan Plan did not in fact provide firm details of the withdrawal of Turkish Troops.