Alper Ali Riza

They are a small price to pay for incorruptible democracy that allows them to prosper Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are rare birds. They are big beasts politically, but flawed ...

If it is a war crime, it has strong echoes of Britain’s bombing of Rhur valley in WWII For unreconstructed Anglophiles like myself Dambusters was a heroic British operation ...

Whenever something goes seriously wrong in democracies, governments appoint judicial inquiries to investigate and report. They are often an expedient smokescreen geared to fend off blame and diffuse criticism. Politicians ...

The fuss in the British press over the interior minister was a storm in a teacup By Alper Ali Riza As every observer of corruption in public life knows, it ...

The idea that assisting in the death of the terminally ill is tantamount to murder is morally repugnant Crime and punishment is about prohibited intentional acts that deserve to be ...

Today’s elections are a chance for mild-mannered, modest Kemal Kilicdaroglu to take over There is earthquake diplomacy and there is earthquake democracy. Earthquake diplomacy is when diplomatic relations between ...

The coronation of King Charles III on May 6, 2023 was a public celebration of his succession to the throne but it also symbolised the demise of the crown to the next ...

Cyprus is condemned by history and geopolitics to be a hub of one kind or another. It is a tightrope role that Cypriots negotiate pragmatically and with gusto. Nice to ...

Russians love to litigate in England and the legal profession in London loves Russian litigation as it is extremely lucrative By Alper Ali Riza After the Soviet Union collapsed an ...

In Northern Ireland with a problem similar to the Cyprob, the referendum question on the Good Friday Agreement was much simpler Last week President Nikos Christodoulides told a conference in ...

Last week I was taken to task in the comments section for suggesting a referendum as a ladder for all parties to climb down in the political crisis in Israel ...

Netanyahu’s proposals would change the way Supreme Court judges are appointed in favour of political control Some of the best judges in the UK and elsewhere are Jewish. Yet ...

He has apologised for misleading Parliament but claims that he did not do so intentionally or recklessly Representative democracy requires a free press and a well-honed Parliament. A free press ...

Time was when Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, travelled to European capitals as and when he pleased and was received there as a serious and rational diplomat and, like ...

There is no easy answer to the irregular arrival of refugees on the shores of Europe along the Mediterranean Sea and those of Britain in the Channel, and the UK ...

Ireland and Cyprus have many things in common except one. Whereas membership of the EU helped rather than hindered the peace process in Northern Ireland, the opposite happened in Cyprus. ...

The problem is how to reconcile on one hand respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine and on the other Russia’s historical, demographic and security claims By Alper Ali ...

Every newly elected president is entitled to a fair wind without being pounced on by the fourth estate. So congratulations are in order and good luck to Nikos Christodoulides on ...

Many of the buildings that collapsed were poorly built to satisfy the greed of shyster developers The cluster of earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria last Monday were bound to ...

Precise language and a sense of history would have prevented war in Ukraine In the second episode of the TV programme Putin Vs The West in which western leaders talk ...

Many are being left to guess Nikos Christodoulides’ stance on the Cyprus issue A friend of mine with an interest in the Cyprob asked what I thought of the three ...

Farewell to my friend George (Kokos) Demetriades By Alper Ali Riza George Demetriades formerly of Nicosia, latterly of East Finchley, north London, stalwart of the London Greek community, of Gray’...

UK government is wrong to argue health workers cannot go on strike There are many rights in employment and industrial relations law that are not fundamental human rights, but the ...

Advisory opinions do not bind states but it is an exercise of soft power The UN General Assembly signalled its decision to challenge Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians the ...