This week in history
THIS week last year, the government caved in to demands to stop issuing new “T” permits for hotel-owned people carriers after a convoy of taxis temporarily blocked the main road to Ercan airport in protest. No new licences for minibus-style vans that can carry up to nine passengers — ostensibly used by hotels and casinos to provide “VIP” shuttle services to and from the airport — would be granted pending an amendment to regulations, a statement from the Transport and Public Works Ministry said.
Also this week in 2017, neighbours in one of the highest streets in Bellapais said they had been marooned in their homes by pipeline-laying work which had also left them with little or no water for over a week. Villagers had been asked by Girne Mayor Nidai Güngördü to “show understanding” about the work to install new water mains in upper Bellapais, but residents in Mehtap Sokak said they had been virtually cut off.
This time in 2013, it was reported that crashes had claimed 189 lives in less than five years, according to then newly issued statistics that “shocked” road safety campaigners. The figures from the police and the Road Traffic Accident Prevention Association revealed there had been a total of 18,543 accidents since January 2009, in which 4,960 people were also injured. There were 37 road deaths that year alone.
This week in 2009, former TRNC president Mehmet Ali Talat warned Greek Cypriots that there was a limit to his patience with the peace talks going on at the time. His usually conciliatory tone was hardened during a visit to Girne American University. He reiterated that he was committed to achieving a solution, but admitted that the Greek Cypriot side had resorted to spoiling tactics to slow the pace of talks.
This time in 1998, a lion at Gazimağusa’s zoo was reported to be making a good recovery after undergoing a massive hernia operation in its cage. The unusual medical exercise, in addition to minor treatment on a bear, involved a British High Commission-arranged consultant from England, men from the Sovereign Base Areas, and a Turkish Cypriot veterinary surgeon.
Looking to overseas news archives, on this very day, October 13, 1992, the British government was planning to close a third of the nation’s deep coal mines, with the loss of 31,000 jobs. At its peak during World War II there had been more than one million miners working in 958 mines, a figure which steadily declined after post-war nationalisation.
On October 18, 1989, the communist leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, was forced to step down as leader of the country. The official reason for his departure was said to be “ill health”, but failure to deal with the tide of discontent sweeping the country and the party was thought to be the real reason.