Cyprus-Forum.com

[KELEBEK]

I think its only fair to have a poll over how many Greek Pontian settlers there are in the South. I have read contradicting reports, some saying 35,000, some 100,000.

For those of you unaware, Pontians in the South are blamed by locals for rising crime and drugs related burglaries.

read this article:
The escalating drugs problem in South Cyprus has been highlighted by the police chief of Paphos, who says his force is struggling with a crime wave.The following article;



Drug Crime Shatters Paphos Peace
By Alex Mita
(archive article - Sunday, October 5, 2003)

PAPHOS has recently become a popular tourist attraction, a haven for expatriates seeking to retire in a warm and friendly Mediterranean climate. A place where the revs of their frantic metropolitan lives can be wound down into a slow relaxed hum.

But the calm of the sleepy resort has in the past year been shattered by a soaring crime rate, with drug trafficking hitting the coastal city hard, leaving the understaffed, overworked local police force reeling.
In an interview with the Sunday Mail, Divisional Commander Stavros Konniotis said the sale of hard drugs in Paphos had reached dangerous levels, and was also the main cause of other crimes, such as burglaries and thefts.

Konniotis said an influx of immigrants into Paphos had resulted in a sudden increase in crime, and although the city was not considered to have a high level of crime compared to Larnaca or Limassol, the situation was becoming increasingly more difficult.

Crime may still be lower than in other towns, but for the public, the danger is real. A survey last month found that fear of crime was highest among residents of Paphos, 42 per cent of whom were afraid they might fall a victim of crime – compared to a national average of 28 per cent.

“The biggest problem right now is Paphos is drugs,” Konnitis said. “The trafficking of hard drugs like cocaine and heroin has increased in the past year.

“And of course other crimes stem from drug use, like burglaries and thefts. People break into houses to steal so that they can get money for their next fix.”

Konniotis said locals for now seemed mostly immune from the growing drugs problem, which he said involved mostly foreigners and tourists, but said police were woefully understaffed to tackle the growing problem, pointing gout that the diversion of resources to other sectors, like traffic, made crime fighting an uphill struggle for police.

“Unfortunately we are understaffed,” he said.
“We have the same number of staff we had 10 years ago, but in the past 10 years crime has skyrocketed and we are finding it hard to cope, we need more staff to be able to deal with the drugs and with the traffic and all other fields of law enforcement.

“We do have a drugs problem and what we are fighting is the tip of the iceberg.
“Drugs problems become social problems after years of abuse and what we are witnessing today began many years ago,” Konniotis said.

“And unfortunately with the opening of the checkpoints we expect the problem to get worse.”
Paphos’ large Greek Pontian population has often been blamed for the rise in crime, but Konniotis said their problem was mainly a social issue of integration.

“I keep saying it all the time: theirs is an increasing social problem that will reach explosive levels at some point,” he said.

“I am sorry to say that none of the local government services have shown special interest in the Pontians. They expect everything to be done by the police.”

Konniotis added crime involving Pontians was mostly committed within the community.
The police chief said the main problem with Pontians was adjusting to the Paphos community.
“The locals do not have a problem with them, there is no xenophobia,” he insisted. “There is more prejudice in the UK and France than Cyprus,” Konniotis said.

And he blamed the media for blowing incidents out of proportion, creating an issue out of nothing.
“The slightest incident, like a fight between two or three Greek Pontians, is treated as a mass riot with headlines screaming ‘Homeric clashes in Paphos’, ‘Night of terror in Kato Paphos’, which is just ridiculous,” Konniotis said.

“These headlines give the wrong idea about our city, when in fact it is one of the safest tourist destinations in the world.”

But the Paphos police chief admitted it was difficult for Pontians to adjust. “There are lots of them, they have created their own ghettos and they are more in touch with themselves than with the locals,” he said.
“They sort of isolated themselves from our society, they are in a foreign country and so financially they work to get as much money as possible but on the other hand there are families that cannot survive on their income and so may resort to crime.”

Konniotis added Pontians also found it hard to co-operate with the local authorities and were very mistrustful of the police and hospitals.

“They generally do not trust anyone outside their community. There is a general feeling of distrust when it comes to the local authorities, because they were persecuted almost all their lives.

“If one of them gets arrested for a criminal offence like drunk driving, or even if he is not arrested and he comes to the police station to file a complaint, his whole family (we’re talking 10-20 people) will gather outside the police station demanding to get in to see if he is OK and to wait for him until he is finished,” he said.

“If one of them is taken to hospital, the same thing happens, they gather outside the hospital and wait day and night to hear what has happened. They are a people that have been through a lot and they have built walls around them that will be difficult to break.”

Konniotis said the government had to initiate a process to regain their trust.
“It would be nice to include them in our festivities like, for instance Kataklysmos,” Konniotis said.
“We have locals dancing and singing there. Why can’t we include them as well? They could be a part of it by performing traditional dances. They have their own club so I think that would be a step in the right direction.

“Also other services have to get more involved, like the Welfare Department and social services.”
But despite the increase in crime, Konniotis said Paphos remained one of the safest destinations in the world for tourists.

“Tourists come here because it’s safe,” he said.
“We do have a drugs problem, but if they stay away from trouble like drugs and all that, then trouble will not come to them.”

[boulio]

i think it is 30,000 but the rest are actually russians:

http://cmn-web.netymology.net/EN/article/14342

[brother]

60,000+ is what a gc friend told me.

[MicAtCyp]

Piratis please allow me post a copy of a past post of yours for our ignorant friends here

Greece 17,459 26.94%
Un.Kingdon 11,870 18.31%
Russia 4,952 7.64%
SriLanka 4,939 7.62%
Philippines 3,245 5.01%
Bulgaria 2,411 3.72%
Romania 1,778 2.74%
Syria 1,424 2.20%
India 1,313 2.03%
Ukraine 1,259 1.94%
Yugoslavia 1,190 1.84%
Othercountries 12,971 20.01%
64,811 100.00%

[brother]

micatcyp why must you be so arrogant, if you want to show something do it without patronising everyone.

[boulio]

what is he posting?

[brother]

Figures he believes to be accurate of all foriegn nationals in south.

[-mikkie2-]

Why is MicAtCyp being patronising?

The fact remains, the people in the south ARE NOT CITIZENS AND THEY DO NOT VOTE!

They are either nationals of EU countries, which have the right of freedom of movement throught the EU, or nationals of other countries that require visas.

If we have to deal with complete idiots that don't seem to understand basic fundamentals there is no hope! By all means argue your case but use proper means to make your arguments, not on baseless hearsay or gossip or complete distortions.

It seems to me that we now have more TC is the forum which is good, but I am seeing one person making statements and every TC jumping up and agreeing without question.

There is no objective argument at the moment, its just who can shout loudest. I for one will take some time out from here because I just don't have the time to keep up with the volume of threads and posts flying around.

[brother]

mikkie he is arrogant because he states that not knowing makes you a caveman hence his comment:

"Piratis please allow me post a copy of a past post of yours for our ignorant friends here"

Does he think we have a big book at home called 'all the official figures of cyprus' or something.

[erolz]

Why is MicAtCyp being patronising?

The fact remains, the people in the south ARE NOT CITIZENS AND THEY DO NOT VOTE!

So as you point out the above figures do not include all the additional 'non cypriots' that have been granted RoC citizemship since 74. So the numbers of both groups of non cypriots living in the RoC (either citizens or not) is higher than just these numbers. Are their offical numbers for how many people have been granted RoC citizenship since 74 (and where they cam from originaly)?
[/quote]