Property Lawyers in Cyprus – Review – Turkish Protests – Completed on 4^th March2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Turkish Cypriots took to the streets again in a friendly protest but with anger in their hearts.

This was a planned protest to show Turkey and their Turkish Cypriot leader that they no longer want to be under Turkeys thumb, they no longer want to have to abide by Turkeys rules and they no longer want to live oppressed.

Turkey has imposed some unwanted budget cuts forcing over thirty thousand Turkish Cypriots to pull together and make a stand.

The measures forced on the Turkish Cypriots include Turkish government salary reductions, taxing pensions and reducing the non-taxable income limit by 7%.

These measures were agreed upon by the Turkish Cypriot leader and it is said that these cuts must be imposed otherwise the TRNC could face bankruptcy by the end of the year.

The Turkish Cypriots are also angry the government is not standing up to Turkey and agrees with all rules and regulations they impose!

The Turkish Cypriots do not want to be ruled anymore they want their lives back, they want to be independent and they also want a people’s government that is going to look out for its people.

These issues are a reoccurring story in several other countries at the moment and while the protests are friendly they are getting bigger and bigger and more and more Turkish Cypriots are jumping on board.

The Republic of Cyprus are still being blamed for these outbursts, albeit having whatsoever to do with these issues.

This is something that Turkey have done themselves and if Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya are anything to go by Turkish Cypriot Erdogan should really be looking at what his people are saying.

So what does this mean for Cyprus on a whole and how will this affect the Cyprus Political problem?

Tell us your thoughts we would love to hear from both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities?

PUBLISHED BY A&G KOUZALI LAW OFFICE ON 4^TH MARCH 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Legal Consultants in Paralimni – Studies – Tunisia Protests – Completed on 27^th February 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Tunisia is a beautiful North African country and very popular with thousands of tourists visiting each year.

However, Tunisia recently experienced protests by angry nationals who became frustrated with the iron rule of the president Zine-Al-Abidne Ben Ali.

One man imparticular set fire to him self after being banned from selling home grown food on the street, this was his only way of making money.

From this incident protests erupted relating to unemployment in the community. The protests continued to spread reaching the capital of Tunisia namely Tunis. This has always been a safe place to invest and holiday.

The protests however, proceeded to turn violent when police opened gun fire on the protestors in return no longer keeping the protests a peaceful one!

An estimated 80 people were killed in the wide spread protests.

What started as a peaceful protest about the lack of employment then turned in to a mountainous protest by angry and repressed nationals, protesting against political rights, police corruption and in basic terms the ever increasing slogan ‘rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer’. It is greatly believed that the president only really helped the rich and affluent in all his years of ruling.

The protestors stood their ground and wanted the president to step down and hand over his power to a governing body that support all classes.

The president took presidency in 1987 and in all his 24 years of ruling the economy has grown at a steady pace, but he stepped down on the 14^th January 2011 and left the country with his family and went to Saudi Arabia.

What started as a simple protest over economic issues exploded and ended a 24 year ruling…this goes to show the public are not backing down.

We are seeing this more and more, the public are angry at their states, some want political freedom, some want an end to police corruption and everyone wants support for all classes not just for the rich.

These are desperate times and if no one is listening or helping the people then desperate measures will ultimately prevail.

If your state and its leaders are not listening to its people can we really expect them to care for their government?

PUBLISHED BY A&G KOUZALI ON 27^TH FEBRUARY 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Property Lawyers in Cyprus – Review – Cyprus Title Deeds – Completed on 7^th March 2011 http://www.lawcyprus.org/

In a bid to try and combat the islands Town Planning and Title Deed issues a brand new Town Planning and Housing department is due for total restructure and development.

The actual new Town Planning and Housing main office in Nicosia will be a new development constructed to a very high modern standard and is said to be completed by the latter part of 2012.

The restructure of the Town Planning departments will see all departments throughout the island work with one main frame computer system.

This will help communication issues between the islands offices and quicken the procedures. It will avoid issues such as lost paperwork and communication error and delays between local and main offices just for example. Which are the most common problems and sometimes unavoidable when many offices are not working within the same main frame.

Complete and overall synchronization of the offices was top of the list to help combat Title Deed application issues and it is the only way to work in this era and should have been dealt with many years previous. Now you can go to any office in any part of the country and find out the status of your application or for any relevant information.

The Town and Planning website has also updated its website so that any individual can view the status of the Title Deed application. For this service visit www.moi.gov.cy

These are excellent steps forward for property purchasers, on the other hand there is still along way to go but at least some progression is evident!

The amendments to 5 bills created to initiate the Title Deed Reform are also now being addressed in parliament which saw previous delays due to the lack of preparation of the bills and certain disagreements between all parties.

The Town and Planning department are now committed to dealing with and finalizing Title Deed application within a one month period.

Finally progression is evident, it may not be immediate but it does look clearer for the future and more effort is being made. We really hope the government pulls their finger out now. As we said 2012 and 2013 are going to be the turn around years for Cyprus and we truly believe the island will revive itself so the government can not let us down.

We will continue to push for the Title Deed reform and carry on all the handwork and effort our office has put in to this issue.

PUBLISHED BY Cyprus Property Lawyers A&G KOUZALI LAW OFFICE ON 7^TH MARCH 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Lawyers in Cyprus – Review – Eastern Middle Protests – Completed – 2^nd March 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Cyprus tourism is set to sour this summer due to the recent unrest and protest in the Middle Eastern countries.

Many tour operators who usually offer these North African/Arab countries as a holiday destination are now recommending Cyprus along with a few other chosen countries as alternative to these restless states that are experiencing the protests.

Russia for example is just one of the countries where many holidays have been cancelled due to the unrest, which means not only are we already expecting millions of Russian tourists this year but we will also extra on top of this.

Cyprus tour operators are seeing up to a 30% rise in holiday makers due to the unrest!

The UK tourism market appears to be stable which can be seen as a positive as last year saw a significant drop and the UK tour operators are actually not offering Cyprus as an alternative holiday destination, which means the UK holiday makers are coming here of their own choice and not because of the protesting…this is a good sign.

It would be wrong to say we are happy about the rise in tourism due to the surrounding circumstances of the rise, but yes it will help the Cyprus economy.

On the other hand with the protests spreading like wild fire this could easily affect the whole of the Mediterranean at any given time putting us on the danger zone list.

For those of you who are looking to book your holiday abroad the Cyprus Government has issued warnings not to travel to the following places:-

Egypt

Tunisia

Libya

Sudan

Yemen

Bahrain

Morocco

Algeria

You may even think even want to think about holidaying at home in sunny Cyprus this year!

PUBLISHED BY A&G KOUZALI LAW OFFICE ON 1^ST MARCH 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Paralimni Legal Consultants – Review – Protests – Completed on 26^th February 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

After the African protests came the Tunisia protests, then came the Egyptian protests from these it has escalated to

• Bahrain
• Libya
• Yemen
• Iraqi

Some protests violent, some peaceful but all want the same thing

• Political freedom
• Clean police forces
• Equal support for all classes

Several presidents have stepped down after decades of ruling and re-elections are taking place to find a peoples government. Not a president who can buy his presidency!

The world is tired, frustrated and oppressed and they are making a stand and in some cases certainly being heard.

We here in Cyprus are seeing the Turkish Cypriots also making their voices heard, albeit slightly different circumstances but still the same none the less, oppression, poverty, political freedom.

The Egyptians recently took part in a celebration march with over one million people taking to the streets rejoicing in the fact that there long ruling president has now stepped down and a new peoples president is to soon be elected.

All of the above issues must be addressed and quickly as anti government movements as we have seen here in all these places are becoming stronger and this course of action is spreading like wild fire.

PUBLISHED BY A&G KOUZALI LAW OFFICE ON 26^TH FEBRUARY 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Paralimni Lawyers – Review – Protests – Completed on 4^th March 2010. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Anti-Government protests have completely escalated in the country of Libya causing concern for major civil war. What begun as friendly protest has now become very violent?

After the unrest in Egypt and Tunisia many other countries are now following the same pattern with many of the countries nationals coming together to make sure their voices are heard.

President Gaddafi however, has not taken lightly to the protests and has no intentions of giving up his 41 years ruling over the country, unlike the presidents the presidents in Tunisia and Egypt who have stepped down.

There have been reports of shootings and bombings by the Libyan government and foreign countries are now getting ready to intervene, but they have been warned not to get involved in Libya’s current situation as the Libyan forces will defend themselves!!!

President Gaddafi obviously wants to handle this as he sees fit no matter of the consequences to the Libyan people, believing he has enough support to put a stop to the civil unrest.

The death toll in Libya is reported to be 300 and rising.  The situation is looking very bleak.  Over 300 Cypriot workers and other EU nationals based in Libya had been transported out of the country as their safety was being put in jeopardy.

This was also the case in Egypt and Tunisia infact all the countries which are now experiencing civil unrest at the moment has seen to it that all Cypriot and EU nationals were evacuated to safety and our airports have been on constant high alert ready to receive the grief stricken locals.

The governments are fully ware that continuous unemployment, along with religious and political repression after so many years will in no doubt take its toll and lead to civil unrest, maybe even civil was so why sit on these issues for so long unaddressed?

What are these governments doing if not looking after their countries people …all of them not just the rich!

We of course have our issues in Cyprus of which we are sure the government will hopefully, after so much uproar in nearby countries, be looking at a lot more closely.

We will no doubt see a huge rise in people coming to Cyprus to get away from their unstable country.  Tourism is already on the rise so it may be only a matter before commercial and residential investment is on the rise with Cyprus having so much on the table to offer these people.

Well….we can only hope this is what we will see and not the opposite to follow suit!

PUBLISHED BY A&G KOUZALI LAW OFFICE ON 4^TH MARCH 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Cyprus Property Lawyers – Review – Iraq protests and investments – Completed on 7^th March 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Just when we thought things were looking up for Iraq people, civil protests have broken out which really could jeopardise this countries future.

We would have thought the Iraqi people would be rejoicing at this moment in time due to a 30 year period of war coming to a complete stop. But this is not the case!

Protestors are once again as in previous reports from Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya taking to the streets in order to remove yet another government official.

The 30 year long war has seen Iraq demolished with barely adequate living conditions and unemployment inevitably at an all time high.  It has been reported that electric is only supplied for a few hours of the day and corruption is very strife!

While they have no political grievances, economic issues are forerunners for the protests!

While we understand the nature of the protests and the urgency we also wonder if they are only hurting the country more.

Now the war is over so to speak and military troops are set to leave Iraq has been a hot topic of conversation for new development and world wide investment.

All the states in Iraq have prepared there lists for new development wanting for worldwide tenders to be put forward so why begin such forward so why begin  such unrest now.

We wonder if the protests will endanger such progression taking place and stop investment interest from coming forward.

Realistically you have to wonder if this country will ever see peace or even if they want peace?

Everyone would like to see the Iraq people experience a new rebuilt country and economy.  Everyone wants to see the Iraq people be able to live a comfortable life with good jobs at least give this a chance to happen.

At the same time we do not live in such conditions so who are we to say what the Iraqi people are experiencing.

Tell us you’re thought on the matter we would welcome any views from our readers.

PUBLISHED BY A&G KOUZALI LAW OFFICE ON 7^TH MARCH 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Property lawyers in Cyprus – review – Iraq Investment – completed on 26th February 2011 http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Iraq is the new country on the block for investment!  For over 30 years this country has seen nothing but war and death.  This is now over and all militaries are getting ready to leave and for those that remain life can only get better.

The war has left nothing but devastation and now it is time after 30 solid years of war to rebuild this country bigger and better than ever before.

Iraq is actually a sitting gold mine being one of the biggest oil producers in the world.  Now it is time for the Iraqi Nationals to take full advantage of this!

One Cypriot Company has already secured a huge deal to build 30,000 houses, hospitals, schools and mosques.  They have also put in a tender for restoring Sadam Husseins palace (Iraq’s previous president) and turning it in to a tourist complex.

Investment opportunities in Iraq are endless as there is nothing left in the country.  Therefore, residential and commercial investment is desperately needed from world-wide investors.

Iraqi Nationals are living in derelict houses and poverty what more can we say! The need for residential housing and commercial and industrial investment is very high.  Grants are being given to the Iraqis for housing and more jobs are becoming available. But a whole new country starting from scratch is what we are looking at here.

It could be said that these investors are making money from the very sad devastation and death these people have experienced for so long.  However, for the remaining nationals it is very important to recuperate there economy, bring in foreign investment and rebuild there country and help them build a brand new life, and to be fair after all this time they deserve this!

Each of the 18 states in Iraq are preparing lists for future projects of which world wide investors will be welcomed to put forward there tenders.

We really wish the best for the Iraqi Nationals, they more than deserve a new life and we are going to hear many good and positive things about this country for a long time to come.

PUBLISHED BY A&G KOUZALI LAW OFFICE ON 26TH FEBRUARY 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Lawyers in Paralimni – Review – Utility Bills – Completed 8^th March 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/

Once again the issue of utility bills are in the tabloids.   Consumers are being charged extortionate rates for electricity bills and not the entire electric bill is for the use of electric.

We are also paying for the lack of effort from the government towards the European Unions sanction on carbon emission targets and other renewable energy taxes!

We did say the public would foot the bill for these fines and that is exactly what has happened.

Cyta is also under scrutiny again for there high land line charges and have been asked by the government to reduce these charges.  If this fails to happen they will only be cutting off there noses to spite their face as many homes will cancel their contracts which already being seen more and more of late.

It will not be long before the water bills also rise we expect and this will just be the icing on the cake.

2 people sharing a 2 bed apartment are receiving electric bills of approximately €200.00, this is approximately €25.00 a week.

What has happened here? This is unacceptable!  The UK is not even that expensive and that’s saying something as the UK is renowned its high utility bills.

These are government related departments and the government must 100% address these issues, now more than ever!

We have seen a rise in petrol, food, medicines, and electric but we haven’t seen a rise in salaries!

Are we also heading for civil action here? How much more will the public take?

We can however praise the government for there consistency to address the pensions and salaries of governmental staff, which is also mentioned in the tabloids again and is being taken seriously.

And so it should be given that they receive 3 x pension allowances and also get promoted near there retirement time just to increase the amount of pension they receive.  This is ludacis and should be against the law! So we for one will be happy when this issue is finalized.

With parts of the world seeing so much civil unrest it is definitely time to start looking out for the people, especially the less fortunate ones!

Tell us your views on this issue we would like to hear from our readers.

PUBLISHED BY A&G KOUZALI LAW OFFICE ON 8^TH MARCH 2011. http://www.lawcyprus.org/