Conspiracy theories and the Cyprus problem

Hermes Solomon writing in his column in the Cyprus Mail, says that according to an unnamed source, Cyprus has already been sold, and the DISY-DIKO government has accepted a solution to the Cyprus issue.

He claims that he secret facts behind the scene are that the UK, the US and Israel knew about the existence of hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean since 1968, but due to the unsettled situation in the region, they held back from exploiting them.

The US and its Jewish lobby, the Cypriot foreign minister at the time, Nicos Rolandis, the foreign ministers of Greece, Theodoros Pangalos and George Papandreou, recommended a combined exploitation with Turkey, whose terms were ‘unrealistic’.


During the governments of Costas Karamanlis and Tassos Papadopoulos, the US ambassadors in Athens and Nicosia revived the subject with Turkish terms adjusted and incorporated. Karamanlis rejected the format and Papadopoulos refused to respond. Instead, he began secret negotiations, first with Israel and then with Egypt, all three accepting the ratification of an agreement for the delineation of the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).
The refusal by Tassos Papadopoulos to accept the Annan Plan infuriated the Americans who no longer trusted him to use the agreement on the EEZ in accordance with their plans and shelved its final ratification.

With the election of Christofias, the US supported a bi-zonal federation and exerted pressure on Turkey. They encouraged Nobel Energy and Israel to form an alliance with Cyprus so that the process of exploitation, implementing their plans, would become a reality.

The Christofias government suspected US intentions and with the encouragement of Israel began to approach other energy giants – especially those of Russia, China, France and Italy.

Turkey reacted, seeing matters moving beyond her control. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan met with George Soros in Davos in 2009 who advised Turkey to form a pact with Greece, Israel and Cyprus, by submitting to ‘serious concessions’ over the Cyprus problem in exchange for participation in the ‘hydrocarbon game’.

George Soros then arranged secret meetings between Erdogan, Papandreou and Merkel, who agreed with his plan, and during a second meeting of the three, they invited Anastasiades into the fold.

At this meeting it was decided that Germany must keep Greece financially afloat and Turkey would help if necessary.

George Soros would undermine the Cyprus economy to the degree that its financial survival would appear impossible, negatively influencing rating agencies and discouraging any investment in Cyprus. This done, Anastasiades would be assured of an election victory by intensifying his opposition and nullifying any attempt by Christofias to strengthen the economy.

In December 2012, a new meeting took place between Soros, Erdogan, Merkel and Samaras, this time in Berlin, where it was decided the election of Anastasiades would bring about a programmed collapse of the economy and enforcement of strict austerity measures, which in themselves would demoralise the people, who would succumb peaceably and accept any forthcoming Cyprob solution.

Anastasiades would sign a choking memorandum before any ‘limited’ financial help was afforded to Cyprus, the Central Bank intentionally obscuring actual economic data and magnifying deficits to levels causing fright and insecurity.

This would be followed by talks for a quick closure of the Cyprus issue, which would provide for indirect suzerainty of Turkey and Greece; limited rearrangement and compensations relating to the property issue, acceptance of a bi-zonal bi-communal federation with a weak central government controlled from Brussels, departure of the Greek and Turkish troops, disarming and disbanding of the National Guard and assumption of responsibility for security of the island by a European force, which would comprise Turkish, Greek and EU troops.

After signing the solution agreement and acceptance of Turkey into the EU-fold, Greece, Federal Cyprus, and Turkey, would sign an agreement of Friendship and Cooperation for the exploitation of the natural and mineral wealth in the areas under their jurisdiction in a manner and participation that would be defined in the agreement according to the following share-out, Turkey 40 per cent, Greece 30 per cent, Cyprus 20 per cent and the EU 10 per cent to cover expenses for security and guaranteeing the solution.

With the ratification of these agreements, Turkey would undertake, as a gesture of goodwill, to pay 50 per cent of the memorandum debt, and the other 50 per cent would be defrayed by the EU as a gesture of solidarity to the newly formed state.

The three allied countries – Turkey, Cyprus, and Greece and supervised by the European Union – would commonly finance the construction of the pipeline to transport hydrocarbons from all points of extraction, through Turkey to Europe; Israel would be invited to actively participate in this project.

Thus far Anastasiades has been elected president, the Cyprus economy has been annihilated, Turkey has re-opened chapters for its EU entry, Greece is being kept afloat by German geld, Noble is drilling a second hole and huge deposits will be verified by October, the Cyprus government and hoi polloi are toothless, while our Central Bank governor refuses to remove capital controls, which means that he, in conjunction with a complicit troika and the European Central Bank, rule the island’s decimated banks and financial services sector.

Predicted vast quantities of eastern Mediterranean gas have brought the hornets humming around this banana republic, which is now, more than ever, at the mercy of third party interests.

And you thought gas would save us, did you? Well, think again. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, 7 series BMW, chauffeur, bodyguards, secure income, pensions and perks unless you belong to the island’s ‘elite’, who between them and the troika have turned this half republic into an alms-house for the ordinary citizen.

Fiona Mullen, Director of Sapienta Economics, in an opinion piece in the Cyprus Mail, says the recent article by Hermes Solomon makes a number of assumptions that need challenging, “especially because they have the effect of pushing a solution of the Cyprus problem further out of reach”.

First, the idea that some foreign powers plotted to undermine the Cyprus economy ignores the facts, she says. “I have been covering the Cyprus economy now for around 12 years. We did not need George Soros to undermine it. A finance minister, two bank CEOs, a bunch of supervisors (all the way up to Basel II) and a former president did it all by themselves, even before the Eurogroup finished us off”.

Second, most of this ‘plot’ by foreign powers is simply what one might reasonably expect from any solution to the Cyprus problem.
Turkey has a massive deficit on trade in energy so any resolution of the Cyprus problem will of course involve gas.
Also you don’t need foreign powers to persuade companies with deeper pockets than Noble to get involved in regional gas cooperation. A great deal more investment in gas would be unlocked if Greece-Cyprus-Turkey-Israel could cooperate on exploration and exploitation. If you disagree, ask yourself why Blocks 1, 4, 5, 6 & 7 – around 40% of the 13 blocks – will never be licensed? Answer - because Turkey will shoot over this particular area which it claims overlaps its continental shelf. Why are the really big players Exxon-Shell-BP absent from Cyprus and Israel? Answer - because they are in Turkey + Lebanon.


Third, she says, Anastasiades has already talked about smaller central government. It makes perfect sense when both sides are broke and don’t trust each other an inch after not governing together for 50 years.

Fourth, the ECHR has already massively reduced Greek Cypriot compensation, see the Loizou – not to be confused with the Loizidou – case, in which the claimants for over 100 individual properties were awarded on average only 15% of the amount they claimed.

Fifth, as an EU and Eurozone member the Republic of Cyprus is already run from Frankfurt/Brussels.


The main barrier to exploring the EastMed’s gas, she says, was the technology required to drill several thousand kilometres below sea level followed by several thousand km of salt layer, not some decision by foreign powers.

Also, Noble’s find may be massive compared with the domestic consumption of less than a million people but it is only around 2% of annual EU consumption (Russia supplies 25%).

And, as the Taksim Square protests enter their third week, Turkey looks a lot further away from – and a lot less interested in – EU
membership than ever. How does that fit into the plot, especially when Erdogan says foreign powers are plotting against him?


As the ‘foreign plotters’ learned to their horror in the rejection of the Annan Plan on 24 April 2004 and the rejection by parliament of the haircut on small depositors on 19 March 2014, Cypriots do not respond well when they think they are being pushed around.

Although many now regret parliament’s vote, it had widespread support at the time, not so much because Cypriots did not want to lose 6.75% of their bank deposits, but because they knew that, with only half a bailout and some very unusual and ‘exceptional’ terms, they were being treated more harshly than the other eurozone members, who got a full bailout and a lot less propaganda besides.

Finally, these foreign plot stories give these often chaotic powers and their muddle along policies far too much credence.

Ms Mullen concludes by saying that the main reason she dislikes foreign conspiracy stories that do not even add up is because they rob Cypriots of the power and courage to shape their own future.
The economic crisis, she adds, does present an opportunity to solve the Cyprus problem, but only if it offers a clear path out of the economic crisis.