CYPRUS’S FOREIGN minister Marcos Kyprianou yesterday submitted his resignation in the wake of the July 11th explosion at a naval base that killed 13 people and devastated the republic’s main power station.
Mr Kyprianou said he had asked President Demetris Christofias to relieve him “of all” his duties. The defence minister and commander of the national guard stood down last week following the republic’s worst peacetime disaster.
Mr Kyprianou’s departure could constitute a major blow to the government, a partnership between the left-wing Akel and centre-right Democratic Party, Diko. The son of a former president, Mr Kyprianou is the leading Diko figure in the cabinet.
Turkish energy minister Taner Yildiz said in Ankara the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state had begun supplying the republic with 16 megawatts of power at night and 20 megawatts during the day.
He revealed his ministry had prepared a master plan for the Turkish Cypriot north which could, by 2023, supply power for the whole of the island. This is unlikely to be accepted by Greek Cypriots before reunification of the island, divided since Turkey occupied the north in 1974.
The Turkish gesture is seen as reciprocation for free power provided to Turkish Cypriots from 1963-1996 and in 2006 when their power plant – which came online in 2000 – broke down. Israel has already shipped to Cyprus 10 small generators with a combined capacity of 10 megawatts to ensure power for industries.
Greece has promised generators with a total capacity of 90-120 megawatts.
Before the explosion, the Vassiliko facility had a 640 megawatt capacity. Its output, along with that of two other plants, had met the high summer demand for air conditioning, when temperatures rise to more than 40 degrees.
European Union experts have arrived on the island to assess the health and safety situation, and damage to the economy. Cyprus could apply to the union’s solidarity fund normally tapped for natural disasters. The case would require 10 weeks of investigation before being studied by the European Commission, which would make a proposal to the European parliament and Council.
Cyprus’s case is weak, however, because the electricity crisis has been caused by the government’s failure to ship or store safely 98 containers of explosives seized in 2009 from a Russian freighter en route from Iran to Syria.
A 2007 Security Council resolution bars Iran from trading in arms and materiel.