This week in history
THIS week last year, a government report was to determine if Esentepe Municipality would face a second fine for illegally dumping rubbish in a continuouslysmouldering tip. Esentepe village was full of thick, acrid smoke in what was described as “the worst atmospheric pollution” since the fire began in May of the previous year. Residents feared another blaze but the smoke was said to be thinning out. Mayor Cemal Erdoğan said that no rubbish was being dumped at the tip, despite claims by residents to the contrary.
Also this week in 2017, motorists were being warned to expect more traffic chaos in central Girne for weeks to come as work to lay new sewers and widen roads was set to continue. Drivers fought for pole position on the Hirondelle roundabout during rush hour as four lanes of eastbound traffic jostled for access to Semih Sancar Caddesi and a diversion to the Turkish Quarter.
This week in 2013, an attack that damaged an 18th century mosque undergoing emergency restoration in South Cyprus brought condemnation from both sides of the “Green Line.” Vandals demolished parts of two walls at the mosque in Denia, near South Nicosia, also delivering a blow to bi-communal efforts to save the island’s cultural and religious heritage. Restoration of the mosque had begun only that month as part of emergency measures at several sites around the island that were in particularly poor condition.
This week in 2009, it was revealed that two leading legal brains warned Rauf Denktaş in September 1974 not to give any title deeds for land in North Cyprus except to Turkish Cypriot refugees from the South. AttorneyGeneral Oktay Feridun and Necati Münir Ertekün, head of the Supreme Court, voiced concerns about the property conundrum following the division of Cyprus after the Turkish military intervention that year. They warned Mr Denktaş, then president of the Cyprus Turkish Autonomous State and previously president of the Turkish Communal Chamber in the Republic of Cyprus, that the property rights of people who had left North Cyprus following the arrival of the Turkish military would not change.
This week in 1998, the TRNC faced becoming “the mini-Las Vegas of the Mediterranean” as 79 casinos in Turkey were preparing to say “no more bets” following a key decision by the country’s Constitutional Court to ban them. As a result, Turkey’s gamblingstarved punters were expected to mass in the TRNC where casinos were legal.
On this very day, January 20 1961, Democrat John F Kennedy was sworn in as the youngest-ever president of the United States. President Kennedy was a Harvard graduate and war hero. The 43year-old Roman Catholic was inaugurated as the 35th president on a snow-covered Capitol Hill in Washington.
On January 25, 1998 Pope John Paul II called for reform in Cuba and the release of political prisoners while condemning US attempts to isolate the country. The Pope was the first pontiff to visit the Communist Caribbean island.