Turkish Cypriots protest move by Greek Cypriot to build house in North Cyprus

On Sunday we brought you a report about a Greek Cypriot man who returned to build his house in the north part of Cyprus saying he has nothing to be afraid of.... But all is currently not well as Turkish Cypriots in the area protests the move.

 

Nicolas Skourides, 78 who is building a house in Kozanköy where he used to live before 1974, said he want to realise his dream.

 

But villagers in Kozanköy say they will petition to stop Nicolas Skourides from building the house on his pre-1974 land which was returned to him under a settlement through the IPC (Immovable Property Commission)– but insist they would oppose the construction, whoever was behind it.

On Friday last week according to report by Cyprus Today, police were called to calm angry scenes after diggers moved in to start work on Skourides’ ‘dream house’, on a near-one-donum plot, where his family’s home once stood. 

Though he was not present at the time, adds the report.

According to the report the village muhtar Hatice Besiktepeli, who came from Paphos to settle in the village said:

The land adjoins a newly built house and also has a dirt road running through it to other properties.

They put in markers for the construction of a big house that will almost touch the neighbouring house, and it completely takes in the dirt road. This has made the residents angry… the house is being built wrongly, and the authorities are to blame. They don’t regulate constructions, she said.

Mrs Besiktepeli said that after last Friday’s protest, which resulted in the Lapta municipality officials being called in, the work had been halted because there is no building permit. She added that villagers’ reactions had been wrongly portrayed as anti-Greek Cypriot.

This is not true. It would have been the same had it been a Turkish Cypriot person doing this, she said.

Lapta mayor Fuat Namsoy has confirmed that construction had been stopped because of the lack of a permit. He said however, that an application had been made and “procedure is being followed”.