Democratic Rally Party

The three front-runners vying for the presidency of ethnically split Cyprus wound down their campaigns Friday, putting pronouncements of their leadership credentials ahead of issues two days before the election.

Amid tension in the Eastern Mediterranean fueled by Turkey's continuing provocations, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has assured the head of Cyprus' ruling Democratic Rally party Averof Neofytou that Greece stands by the ethnically-split island.

Voters in ethnically divided Cyprus have elected a Turkish Cypriot to the European Parliament for the first time since the island nation joined the 28-member bloc in 2004.

A day after ExxonMobil announced a significant natural gas deposit discovery off Cyprus, the ethnically split country's parliament approved the establishment of an investment fund for any future hydrocarbon proceeds.

The presidential elections in Greek Cyprus are ever more interesting for various reasons. Three camps have already formed.

Greek Cypriot politicians staged a very heated verbal exchange in the House of Representatives over reports that ruling Democratic Rally Party (DISI) Chairman Averof Neophytou visited the presidential office in northern Cyprus to discuss ways of overcoming the deadlock in the Cyprus talks during a BBQ with President Mustafa Akıncı.

On the last day of March the Greek Cypriot House of Representatives will vote on a draft sponsored by the ruling Democratic Rally Party (DISI) to authorize the Education Ministry to decide on the days to be marked in secondary schools. The draft, which cleared the education committee last week, aims at leaving behind a controversy over a recent law that ordered the commemoration of a 1950 plebi

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akıncı was on front pages and TV screens last week with his continuing optimism. He was stressing that he believed it was still possible to resume the Cyprus talks and strike a deal by the end of April or May provided the Greek Cypriot side steps back from a law to mark the anniversary of the 1950 "enosis" (union with Greece) plebiscite.

Greek Cypriots demonstrated hypocrisy once again this week when the House of Representatives voted to mandate schoolchildren to commemorate the 1950 "enosis" or "union with Greece" plebiscite, which was suggested by the socialist Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) and supported by the Cyprus Church. The draft was sponsored by the marginal National Popular Front (ELAM), which was objecte

Many people were puzzled when Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu and Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavu?o?lu separately met in Istanbul with Andreas Kyprianou, the secretary-general of the Greek Cypriot Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL). Particularly, the very fact that the meeting came immediately after a landmark trilateral meeting of the two Cypriot leaders with the U.N.