New water sources being sought
25.08.2006
Water shortages in Kyrenia area
The Kyrenia Municipality warned the public to be more careful about their water usage as there is a shortage of water in the Karaoglanoglu, Edremit and Karaman districts. Kyrenia Municipality executives stated that the water shortage in the area was due to an electrical malfunction in the drinkable water wells in the district and that maintenance was still continuing. Following the completion of the maintenance it is expected that there will be a temporary shortage as empty tanks refill and the resources are unable at first to cope.
Search for new sources
New wells are being dug in the Besparmak Mountains in search of new sources for Kyrenia as the number of buildings and inhabitants increase as existing 8 water wells are becoming insufficient. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Kyrenia Municipality have also started to dig for a new well in the St.Hilarion Mountains.
Following on the increasing number of inhabitants and construction in Kyrenia water usage has reached enormous amounts and in addition to this two of the wells in the Ciklos area at the entrance of Kyrenia have dried up and are out of use at present. There are new wells being dug to reach sources to provide additional water for the Kyrenia district which, according to officials, will take 40 days to dig which will be followed by 45 days to cover the installation of electrical power cabling and storage tanks and finally the water could be circulating in the Kyrenia District.
Difficult work
Ozkan Murat, the Minister of Internal Affairs, visited and inspected the well digs last week and stated that trying to resource the water from underground and make it available for use by the public was very difficult work that required long shifts therefore water should be held as a valuable commodity by everyone. He said; "Forming the platform took about 2 months and now the team has been working for 24 hours everyday for 40 days. The responsibility carried by this team is of great importance," and added that the water will be in circulation within approximately 45 days. The Minister mentioned the forthcoming works related to water acquisition that will take place during the winter time, and stated that an alternative water source was the sea and the sea-water treatment system located in Bafra would be operational as of October with an initial capacity of 2 thousand cubic metres which will in time be increased to 8 thousand tons which will provide the water supply for Bafra, Yeni Iskele and the surrounding villages.
New targets
Sumer Aygin, Mayor of Kyrenia Municipality, said that as the investment and projects they apply continue to grow they plan to solve Kyrenia's water shortage problem and enable the inhabitants of Kyrenia to live without a shortage problem. He stated that, with the support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Turkish Republic, they had managed to overcome the shortage for 2004-2005 but as the district gets more crowded day by day they could only supply water every 4-5 days in some parts of Kyrenia in the summer of 2006 which was an important problem for Kyrenia, a major tourist destination in Northern Cyprus.
Hasan Vahip holds a cocktail party to thank for Orams’ support
25.08.2006
Hasan Vahip, whose law firm is defending the Orams in the United Kingdom, held a cocktail party last Saturday at his villa in Karakum to thank supporters of the Orams' case in North Cyprus. Various members of the North Cyprus media and people from the legal scene of the North attended the party to receive information about the defence staged at the British High Court in the previous weeks and to exchange views about the future of the case. Hasan Vahip and his partner Bitu Bhala thanked those participating after the party.
Vahip told the Cyprus Observer that 17,000 pages were put together by the seventeen strong legal team in order to support their side's arguments. He said that the involvement of a talented barrister of Cherie Booth's experience also contributed vastly to the case. Vahip also noted that it is expected that the British High Court in London will announce its verdict between October 10 and 15.
The Orams' case is perhaps the most controversial property case that has come up in North Cyprus in that it could effect the future of a huge number of British residents' properties in North Cyprus. The Orams were first taken to a South Cyprus court for building a property on land once owned by a Greek Cypriot. After the judgment in the South was made against the Orams the case was taken to the British High Court for registration and implementation within the UK, as the Southern authorities could not implement the South Cyprus court's judgement in the North.
Crossings with different motives
25.08.2006
Cypriot consumer tendencies
A report in the Greek Cypriot Politis Newspaper yesterday stated that the South's credit card company JCC Payments had analysed the expenditures of both the Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriots when they cross to the other side of the island. It has been found that the Turkish Cypriots that cross over to the South mainly engage in food shopping while the Greek Cypriots that cross to the North were said to engage in gambling at the gaming establishments and the casinos.
Politis claimed that opening the borders once again had created an economy that supports the limited expenditure for things that each side has been deprived of, and that the reason that Cypriots cross the borders every day was to look for the things that are not present in their home-side.
According to the news, the results of the analysis by JCC Payments show that the money spent both by the Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriots were distributed as such:
"The choices of the Turkish Cypriots in the South are mainly stores, supermarkets, confection stores, home white goods, retail trade and such. While Turkish Cypriots buy basic needs, the Greek Cypriots, who seem to have enough of these, cross to the North for entertainment purposes (as the authorities have confirmed that they mainly visit casinos).
In the month of July the first four types of stores where Turkish Cypriots shopped are; supermarkets: where they spent C£98, 430, underwear: where they spent C£84, 560, retail stores: where they spent C£76, 924 and household equipment stores: where they spent C£42, 316. The expenditures of Greek Cypriots are as follows: for entertainment they spent C£173,125: for hotels they spent C£122, 299: for airways they spent C£1,587.
In the first 7 months of 2006 an amount of C£3.7 million in the South was charged to Turkish Cypriot credit cards and C£2.2 million to Greek Cypriot credit cards in the North and Turkey."
Religious Education debate continues
25.08.2006
Discussions between the Teachers' Union and the clerics regarding Religious Education continue as police investigate the clerics who are organising religious education groups in mosques as such courses are against the law. Calling young children to the police station to take statements has created a certain uneasiness for the parents of these children.
Clerics protest
In response to the Teachers' protests last week the clerics held a protest on Saturday, August 19 when their TRNC Religious Workers Union (Din-Gor-Sen) and the Religious Workers Association made a public statement against the previous Cyprus Turkish Teachers' Union (KTOS) protest and told the crowds that religious education was not against any law and that KTOS had misinterpreted their actions. During the protest one banner read 'I want to learn my religion' and 'Religious Education is the birth right of the individual', the group of 50 protesters walked to the Teachers' Union building and left a black wreath.
New move by teachers
Two days after the Religious Workers protest the Teachers' Union organised another protest and took the black wreath placed in front of their building and placed it in front of the Ministry of Education Building.
On Monday Teachers' Union members walked to the Ministry carrying banners that read "Secularism is the character of the Turkish Cypriots" and "The places for education are the schools" adding that they did not deserve the black wreath that was left in front of their building last Saturday and the right place for it was the Ministry of National Education and Culture building and Minister Canan Oztoprak.
