Here's some current news on the rebranding issue with regard to the very prickly relationship between the government and the victims' families. This from today's Cyprus Mail online edition.
Minister denies ‘ironic letter’ to Helios relatives
By John Leonidou
THE HELIOS Victims Relatives Committee yesterday accused Communications Minister Haris Thrasou of not taking them seriously.
The head of the committee, Nicolas Yiasoumis, insisted yesterday that correct procedures were not followed by the Civil Aviation Department, which is under the authority of the Ministry of Communications, in the decision to allow Helios Airways to change the airline name to ajet.
Thrasou yesterday defended Civil Aviation, saying it was not even his department which allowed the name change and that their anger should be directed elsewhere.
Clearly annoyed, Yiasoumis told state radio: “We would like to know what these procedures were exactly so we can put an end, once and for all, to this situation and see the exact truth behind what happened.
“We were surprised to see that the Minister, in his letter sent to us, was being ironic to the committee and its advisers, saying we had not given the Ministry our own people to look into the matter,” said Yiasoumis.
He added he would request that the legal opinion of the Attorney-general on the matter be made public, so his committee could see “what has been followed by the book and what has not been followed by the book.”
“Why was the Ministry requesting that we should send our own people to review if the procedure was followed correctly?” said Yiasoumis.
“Is the Ministry itself unable to carry out and interpret international regulations on matters like these? The Attorney-general himself had said that this matter was clearly a matter for Civil Aviation and the Minister is telling us that we should be turning our views to the Attorney-general. Does the Minister think that the Helios Relatives Committee is a ‘ping-pong’ ball that can bounced from one end to the other and be mocked?
“There are certain matters and events that have happened which are troubling us and we call on the Ministry to tell us exactly what the Attorney-general said.”
Thrasou replied that he had been informed by Civil Aviation that the instructions of the Attorney-general had been followed correctly.
He added he would make public all the correspondence between himself, the Attorney-general and the Civil Aviation department. He then called on the relatives committee to inform him in which areas they believed the correct procedures had not been followed.
“I have been informed by Civil Aviation that the correct procedures have been followed but that the legal advisers of the relatives’ committee disagree with that assumption. Is it ironic for me to ask what areas they do not agree with? If they say that some procedures are not being conducted properly then tell us which areas they are.
“Is it instead correct to go on the air and slam the changing of the name, which was not even done by us but by another state service? Even the Civil Aviation has not yet approved the name change and is still reviewing the request for the changing of the name in order for the appropriate licences to be granted. No such approval has been given yet.”
The state service which allowed the name change was the Registrar of Companies, which comes under the Commerce Ministry, which did so after first checking with Attorney-general Petros Clerides.
Clerides said yesterday he had absolutely no problems giving his legal opinion to the relatives’ committee. He added that the main issue should not be the change of the airline name but whether air safety has been compromised by the name change.
“I will give my legal opinion to them and I have no problem with that. The legal services have nothing to hide”, said Clerides.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2006