Russia: Hostage situation in a bank

Nicosia has proceeded to denounce Ankara’s move to impose ban on entry of Greek Cypriots in Turkey in a memorandum sent to Brussels and New York, requesting the EU and the UN to intervene.

Turkey, in its electronic visa system which went into operation last week, has deleted the Republic of Cyprus and as such passport holders can only choose their state of nationality as the “Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyrpus”.

For this reason, the Cypriot Foreign Ministry issued a statement asAlarm in Belgorod city in Russia when it became known that three people are holding four hostages in Zapadny bank’s branch.

According to sources, the kidnappers are asking for 700.000 dollars to release the hostages.

A day later, Russia’s central bank announced that it revoked  Zapadny’s bank license on account of falsifying their book records.

The motives of the perpetrators, though, remain unknown. However, a Russian website reports that one of the three hostage-takers is a 46 year-old customer of the bank.

According to the same sources, the bank manager, the treasurer and a janitor are also held hostage.
ing the citizens of the Republic not to travel to Turkey under these conditions.

The Cypriot government considers that this move by Turkey is a serious challenge and cannot degrade the “talks climate” despite whatever third parties may try to do.