Alper Ali Riza

Infringements highlighted by the EU over sale of golden passports may not be solid in law By Alper Ali Riza The golden passports scandal is a misnomer. A passport is ...

It was Labour’s prime minister Harold Wilson who coined the phrase, a week is a long time in politics. He was UK prime minister from 1964 to 1970 and then again ...

Eurovision is a shadow of its former self and that’s before we get to the UK entry By Alper Ali Riza For the UK to lose a Eurovision contest ...

Something must be done to right the wrong done to the Palestinians The Gaza Strip in Palestine is probably the worst defended territory in the world. It is under the ...

A whiff of corruption hangs over public life in Britain By Alper Ali Riza Former British prime minister Gordon Brown was absolutely right to observe last week that public office ...

Turkish Cypriots have a legitimate complaint they have not received equal attention from the EU’s institutions To square the circle is an impossibility in geometry but in politics it ...

It was well known that common ground was beyond the reach of the protagonists at the 5+1 conference on Cyprus. It was a fool’s errand, but it went ahead regardless ...

President Erdogan’s comments raise important issues concerning the independence of the judiciary and a conflict between Turkey’s responsibility for securing human rights in the north By Alper Ali ...

By Alper Ali Riza In Mark Twain’s story The Prince and the Pauper, a boy crown prince switches roles with a pauper of the same age and appearance to ...

Not since the 1930s and World War II have states arrogated to themselves such wide powers impinging on human rights and fundamental freedoms as they did in 2020-21. Governments contemplating ...

It was TS Eliot who wrote “April is the cruelest month… mixing memory and desire…” in his most famous poem The Wasteland, but it is also what many of our ...

But Turkey’s tightrope diplomacy may have its uses By Alper Ali Riza Love or loathe them, you have to hand it to the Turks when it comes to tightrope ...

It was nationally too sensitive to let the European Commission procure vaccines for EU states To protect from the virus or from the vaccine, that was the question in Europe ...

But it’s become a perfect storm for the head of the Commonwealth In their interview with the celebrity TV host Oprah Winfrey Prince Harry and Meghan complained they were ...

Elena is in love with a wide boy and just needs her mama to tell her what to do By Alper Ali Riza ‘El Diablo’ is a pop song by ...

The set of ideas attributed to the UK are different from the community power-sharing system that failed miserably in 1963 There is no UK blueprint for a Cyprus settlement. It was ...

Next week, on Wednesday February 24, I shall be flying the federal flag at the second panel webinar organised by the UK-based Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations. My take is very ...

By Alper Ali Riza Good riddance to 2020, the year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac. Welcome to the year of the Ox and hopefully a universal pan corona vaccine. ...

NOT many people know that Chrysostomos is one of Mozart’s many names. His full name is Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. The current Archbishop of Cyprus is also a ...

A distinction without difference? Is there a difference between a two-state solution and ‘TRNC’ recognition? A webinar organised by the Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations last week addressed this impossible ...

By Alper Ali Riza Inauguration Day in the US is the living embodiment of the American constitution, which I proffered as a model for Cyprus last week. A model is ...

An electoral college adapted to Cyprus would allow a political dynamic between Greek and Turkish Cypriots to develop The UN Secretary-General complained there is no agreement on the model for ...

The storming of Capitol Hill in Washington on January 6, 2021 was no storming of the Bastille of 1789. It was no storming of the Winter Palace in Petrograd in 1917 either. It changed ...

The long and winding road, as the Beatles song says, began a long-long time ago By Alper Ali Riza URSULA Von Der Leyen, the European Commission President, found the right ...