Cyprus needs to rebrand so that smears won’t stick say analysts

A number of studies have noted recently that Cyprus needs to improve its reputation and its brand.

That kind of improvement takes time, involves ongoing reforms and the gradual emergence of Cyprus as a financial and economic centre in the Levant sees it working to improve the island’s reputation.

But, as Cyprus’ reputation improves, it is always possible to dig up issues from the past and to try to smear the island today with mistakes from long ago.

“That is what is happening with the current ‘Cyprus Papers’ campaign by Al Jazeera,” Giorgos Kentas, associate professor of International Politics and Governance at the University of Nicosia, told the Cyprus Mail.

“The current Cypriot investment programme has been carefully reformed with an eye to ensuring that candidates measure up to compliance standards. It is a fundamental pillar of the Cyprus economy, and it should be allowed to continue now that it has been tightened in criteria.”

But, in the past, he acknowledged, there was a failure to manage risks efficiently, and there were instances on non-compliance.

“These past mistakes are being hauled out and used, for political reasons, to hurt Cyprus’ reputation. This is why Cyprus needs a rebranding. The government must make the effort to communicate the great changes that have taken place here.”

To be sure, some still oppose these programmes. Sofronis Clerides, a professor of economics at the University of Cyprus, gave an interview to Politis radio on Tuesday suggesting that the programme should be scrapped. But he did not suggest how the state could replace the revenue that would be lost. One would have expected from an economist to suggest alternatives or at least new ideas.

There are 20 countries in Europe with similar programmes. Cyprus has a programme which has recently been improved and can improve further. What we need are productive and forward-looking ideas and not damning comments which can harm the economy and the country.

 Al Jazeera tries it on once more – Fact Check

Such an attempt was made on Tuesday evening when the smear campaign engaged by Qatar and Turkey through the state-controlled medium Al Jazeera broke down against reality.

In a desperate attempt to salvage the campaign, Al Jazeera’s ‘investigative journalist’ Deborah Davies gave an interview to Sigma-Live, which is filled with misinformation.

First, Davies claimed that she has “thousands of names” of either criminal or politically exposed persons who have invested for citizenship in Cyprus. In fact, only 1,471 documents were illegally copied from the Cyprus Parliament and leaked – that is hardly ‘thousands’.

Then, Davies claimed that “there is still huge confusion and gap in the law” that governs these naturalisations. In fact, the law has been tightened to address nearly every criticism brought by EU authorities and organisations like Global Witness.

Davies then referred to the “ongoing problems in the past 18 months”. What these problems are, she did not say, and other critics cite only one instance of questionable naturalisation during that period (which we will address below).

Davies went on to state that “we started our investigation when we got 2,500 names months ago.” Again, that number is wrong. What’s more, Al Jazeera could only begin its ‘investigation’ after the leak of documents on June 3.

“Basically, I see a lot of reactions for Cyprus,” Davies concludes. We haven’t seen any.

Transparency International makes strange claim 

 Transparency International is normally a reliable and independent source of information, but it has taken up the Al Jazeera smears uncritically.

It cited Russian Gazprom official Nikolay Gornovskiy, one of those named by the leaked documents, as being “on Russia’s wanted list for corruption”, and yet he received a Cyprus passport even after the reformed programme was instituted in 2019.

What Transparency International did not say speaks volumes. Gornovskiy received his citizenship on June 3, 2019. But he would have applied for it at least six months before, and possibly earlier than that. So that, while his application was being processed, the reforms had not yet been implemented.

It is unusual for TI to be so sloppy, and we hope they will correct the error.

The fact that the UK has refused to extradite Gornovskiy was, of course, a matter that Al Jazeera opted to totally ignore. There are scores of other cases in the same boat. Should Cyprus have been expected to take this into account when considering him for citizenship? Should Cyprus have considered those pursued by all the tainted regimes, like those of Iran, Syria, or the oligarchies of central Asia?