Cyprus🇨🇾🇪🇺

while Erdoğan was in Istanbul hosting Ukraine peace talks and signing defence pacts with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, his military was sending drones over Greek waters to surveil a French research vessel laying an electricity cable. the cable is the Greece-Cyprus electricity interconnector. a routine infrastructure project. conducted in Greek and Cypriot territorial waters, under UNCLOS, the same international law framework every country in the world recognizes. Turkey’s response: issued a counter-NAVTEX declaring the operations unauthorized. demanded that Greece and Cyprus request Turkish permission before conducting surveys in their own waters. sent an AKINCI or ANKA drone from Dalaman naval base to monitor the vessel, switching its tracker on and off to avoid continuous monitoring. Greece’s answer was straightforward. UNCLOS does not require alternative interpretations. the vessel departs as scheduled. this is the other Erdoğan that the peace summit coverage does not show. the same week he positions himself as the indispensable global mediator, his government is claiming sovereignty over Greek and Cypriot continental shelf in direct violation of international law, harassing infrastructure projects with military drones, and issuing unilateral maritime decrees to the UN that no other country recognizes. western leaders keep flying to Istanbul because they need him at the table. Greece and Cyprus are living with what that table looks like from the other side.

The 26.000.000.000€ real estate scam most people never heard of. A country that doesn't exist is selling properties worth millions to foreigners. And the people selling them are going to prison for it. I'm talking about the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", also known as North Cyprus. You've maybe never heard of it or seen its flag. There isn't even an emoji for it. But people in Cyprus see it on a daily basis. It's painted on a mountain, lit up every night facing the Greek Cypriot side. Yet the flag & country behind it do not officially exist. Only 1 country in the world recognizes it: Turkey. Why am I telling you this? Because I've been living in Cyprus for almost 8 years & I see a lot of investors believing they found cheap sea-view properties in the EU. But here's the dark truth: In 1974, a coup backed by Greece's military tried to unite Cyprus with Greece. 5 days later, Turkey invaded. Turkey took over a third of the island. Approx. 160.000 Greek Cypriots fled south & tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots moved north. Endless homes, land & hotels were left behind a new border splitting Cyprus into a Greek & Turkish side. In 1983 the North declared itself a country. However, the UN called it "legally invalid" the same year. Those are not opinions. All of this comes straight from official sources. 52 years later, the island is still split: > Nicosia is the last divided capital in Europe > You can only fly to the North via Turkey > UN soldiers have been guarding the border since 1964 > Varosha is one of the most famous ghost cities in the world > Technically it's EU territory, but EU law doesn't apply there And this is where it gets interesting. Greek Cypriots never sold their land. Legally, they still own most of it. However, developers build luxury apartments on it & sell them to foreigners. Many Brits, Russians, Germans & Israelis think they found a gold mine with cheap sea views, payment plans & guaranteed rental income, not realizing they're buying land that might legally belong to someone else. Sure, they get a title deed. But from a land registry that officially doesn't exist. All that land is worth approx. 26.000.000.000€. This is the estimate of the North itself. However, their government paid the real owners only approx. 776M€. Less than 3%. That's why the Republic of Cyprus (🇨🇾) is now literally hunting the sellers down: > An Israeli developer got 5 years in prison for 40 plots worth approx. 39M€ > 2 Hungarian women got 2.5 years & 15 months for advertising houses online > An Ukrainian agent got 2.5 years in June this year > A Lithuanian agent got arrested at Nice airport with an EU arrest warrant > 4 Turkish developers get arrested the moment they land anywhere in the EU And buyers aren't safe either. A British couple built their dream villa on Greek Cypriot land. Only for a court to order them to demolish it & give the land back. The EU's highest court backed it & a UK court enforced it. But don't get me wrong. This is not about politics. I'm writing this to protect potential investors. The "scam" I'm talking about is not about the people living in the North. Turkish Cypriots lost their homes too & they suffer from this just as much. This is about the developers & agents selling land that legally belongs to someone else. And sadly, the EU has done very little about it. Even though Cyprus has been an EU member since 2004. @fidias0, a friend & member of the EU Parliament, has raised it many times but it barely gets any attention in Brussels. I'm speaking as a German foreigner who moved to this beautiful island & respects everyone living here. I'd love to see a unified, peaceful Cyprus one day. And I'm doing my best to contribute to that.