By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
Since I’m on holiday,
I read dozens of articles yesterday and the day before yesterday…
Most of them in English…
There were some that I had difficulty understanding; I made use of artificial intelligence…
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English people are strange!
The Daily Telegraph published the news on its front page yesterday…
So what is it?
The bosses of the company that manages the sewerage system are facing two years in prison each because of the leakage detected into the seas and rivers!
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Same in TRNC!
There is a state and municipality in the TRNC that gives construction permits to thousands of buildings, villas, apartments, hotels without half a metre of sewerage!
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What do we do with the sewage?
We take it with a septic tanker and dump it in the plains!
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What else?
We drain it to the sea, darling!
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What I mean to say is that, thank God, these places have not been a British colony since 1960!
And again, thank God that the state called ‘TRNC’ is not a real state!
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If the British had not handed over the island in 1960, or if 1974 had not happened, our courts would have been jammed calculating who would be in prison and for how many years!
Thank God!
God has protected us!
Long live the TRNC!
The place where you were born and raised, and the solution
We are chatting with Cemal Yorulmaz, owner of Vouni King Hotel in Limnitis…
‘Our children, or grandchildren will solve the Cyprus problem much more easily,’ he said…
‘How?’ I asked…
He explained…
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‘After the checkpoints were opened, that is, after the crossings to the South started, we went to see our village in the South with my father and son…’
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‘My father first went to the house where he was born. I remembered my grandmother and grandfather sitting in the garden of that house… My father was caressing the collapsed garden wall and silently shedding tears…’
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‘Our own house, just behind that one, looked more solid. I stood in front of it… Poles of the pergola in the garden were there, but there was no vine… My mum used to make halloumi under that pergola. I imagined her, our family, everyone, the village… Then my son Kaya, who was 20 years old when we paid that visit, came to me and said, ‘Come on dad, what are we going to do in these ruins, let’s go, I’m bored’.’
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‘The new generations have no memories of, or ties to our old houses… It doesn’t matter whether we are talking about Greek, or Turkish Cypriots; for them, the land and property issue in particular, can be solved much more easily…’
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Cemal Yorulmaz is right…
However, although the emotional bond may no longer exist, the legal bond, i.e. the ownership of the property, has not changed…
And it won’t change with jingoist speeches either…
Nor will it change by listening to the mehter march from morning till night! [Editor’s note: Mehter music is performed by Ottoman style military marching bands during various celebrations and folkloric events]
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Property and land are, in my opinion, the most complicated issues…
Still, in the TRNC, Turkish banks do not even accept your property for mortgage if you do not have a Turkish Cypriot title deed…
There can still be a serious price gap between land with exchange title deeds, and land with Turkish Cypriot title deeds…
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This Cyprus issue is difficult!
Especially if there is no ‘desire for a solution’ left in anyone, it is even more difficult!
Or, let’s put it this way: ‘… if there are no Cypriots left who want a solution!…’
We couldn’t and we can’t run this country; it’s all about jingoism!
And the two-day holiday in Limnitis came to an end…
On the 5th of September, ‘Integration Day’… [Editor’s note: reference to ‘Limnitis Resistance and Integration Day’, the anniversary of the village’s integration with the northern territory in the aftermath of July 1974]
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We are returning home…
On the way back, all along the road, plastic bottles…
Rubbish…
Tree branches on the roads…
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There is also a checkpoint in Limnitis…
Limnitis is the last of the ‘inhabited’ villages in the west of the TRNC…
The five kilometre road from the village to the checkpoint is ‘super neglected’…
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The branches of the acacias – at many points – almost block the road…
And that makes it incredibly dangerous!
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Go to the Greek Cypriot side and it’s spotless…
Why can they do it and we can’t?
There is only one answer to this question; we are not able to manage – they are!
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I asked: ‘Is Lefke Municipality not doing it?’
They said, ‘It can’t’…
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I asked, ‘Don’t you have people to pick up the rubbish?’
There were some who even said, ‘It’s too hot!’
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Oh, you mean the trees between Limnitis and the checkpoint?
The Ministry of Public Works and Transport is responsible for them…
The Highways Department!
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Can’t they send a machine and cut the branches on the roadside that have become extremely dangerous?
They don’t give a damn!
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And yesterday, there was a ceremony in Limnitis…
Jingooooooooism…
Blooooood!
We spilllllllllllllled!
We won’t give it awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
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Now, bugger off!
Source: TRNC FOREVER! THANK GOD!
