Fahri Zihni

The Christmas and New Year period is traditionally a time associated with peace, reconciliation and goodwill, but as Europe looks towards 2026, the prospects are shaped less by seasonal sentiment than ...

Are Cypriots sleepwalking into another tragedy, one that could match or even exceed those of 1963–64 and 1974, which resulted in so many deaths, displacements and destitution? In the south of the ...

The Turkish Cypriot community will go to the polls to elect a new leader on October 19. This is a hotly contested race between the current energetic centre-right leader, Ersin Tatar, ...

On August 8, 2025, in the gilded halls of the White House, a handshake between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev marked what many thought impossible – a declaration ...

Every year, on “national” days of celebration and remembrance, marked separately in the northern and southern Cyprus, politicians regurgitate dusty old speeches that portray the island as still defined by ...

On Wednesday night, I watched Gaza: Doctors Under Attack on UK television, Channel 4. It was a harrowing experience.  The Guardian describes the documentary succinctly “We are shown doctors doing their ...

In the 1980s, there was a joke doing the rounds among IT people like myself. The Cray supercomputer was asked the ultimate question: “Is there a god? Does it exist?” ...

Poor Maria Angela Holguin has once again been dragged into the political minefield that is Cyprus, reappointed as the UN secretary-general’s (UNSG) personal envoy. There was hesitation in announcing ...

In the UK, where there is no ban on the hijab for girls and women in public institutions including schools, we see an increasing number of successful, popular and respected ...

I have been writing many articles which look into the darker side of our humanity, and challenging relevant authorities to do better. As spring blossoms with its natural energy and ...

Tomorrow, Turkish Cypriot, Greek Cypriot, Turkish, Greek and British representatives will meet with the United Nations secretary-general in Geneva to discuss the Cyprus problem, for the umpteenth time, going back ...

Since his election as president, Donald Trump has made sweeping changes to US national policy, yet the most underreported and equally important issue has been the cuts to humanitarian aid ...

Unfortunately, make believe about 60 being the new 70, and 50 being the new 60, etc, just doesn’t work after a while. When the body starts sending us stern messages about its malfunction, ...

“I believe in Father Christmas” by Greg Lake is a song that’s played on the radio and in shops each Christmas all over the UK and in many other ...

According to Google maps, the Ledra Palace hotel in the buffer zone in Nicosia is a nine-minute drive from the Greek Cypriot leader’s workplace, and an eight-minute walk from ...

Today, GwikiLeaks issued transcripts of hundreds of pages of extraordinary secret conversations between Sonic Christofoolides and Resin Tartar, leaders of the two Cypress communities. These reveal a surprising level of ...

Earlier this month, the European Commission adopted the “2024 Annual Action Programme for the Turkish Cypriot community to facilitate Cyprus’ reunification and to support the socio-economic development of the community”. But 20 ...

Now that the bronze, silver and gold dust has settled, we can perhaps reflect on the Paris Olympics 2024.  The Olympic games are a gift to us all from the ancient ...

In December 2023, I wrote an article about the Israel-Palestine conflict which reflected many people’s abhorrence of the murder and abductions of innocent Israeli civilians when the Hamas militia launched ...

I am with Maria Angela Holguin, personal envoy of the UN secretary-general all the way with her almost poetic open letter to the people of Cyprus about the 60+ year old “...

Unficyp should have asked Turkey and UK to foot their bill as well as Cyprus and Greece By Fahri Zihni The United Nations (UN) has three key principles for its ...

The Annan experience was devastating for Turkish Cypriots. Who can blame them for being cynical about future talks? If we take August 1960 as the year of the shotgun wedding between ...

Nonsense to suggest Israel is fighting an existential war By Fahri Zihni The mediaeval Islamic cleric and wiseman Nasreddin Hodja’s fables and parables, which have evolved over centuries have ...

By Fahri Zihni It is now the 60th anniversary of the Turkish Cypriot community being subjected to social and economic embargoes. Yes, 60, not 50 years. These have been implemented through the ...