This week in history
THIS week last year, dozens of buildings put up illegally inside a central Girne stream bed were to be knocked down and their owners prosecuted, amid fears that the flooding they cause after heavy rains could put thousands at risk. Authorities revealed a crackdown in the wake of massive flooding in December that saw parts of Girne’s “high street” turn into a fast-flowing river.
Also this week in 2017, urgent calls were made for the government to clarify expat residency rules after a British woman who settled in the TRNC over a decade ago with her partner was told she could no longer live here because the couple had sold their property — to pay for cancer treatment. The Yorkshire couple — who did not wish to be named — said they were “shocked” when they were informed by an immigration official at Girne police station that the woman, 56, could not renew her temporary residency without a “koçan” or title deed, because she was under 60.
This week in 2013, horse meat and equine DNA found in imported products sparked island-wide investigations. Authorities admitted that TRNC consumers might have been exposed to the offending products, but that the risk was low. Shoppers in South Cyprus were more likely to have come across the foodstuffs containing horse meat marketed by the Findus and Rangeland Foods brands. Investigations were being carried out on both sides of the “Green Line” after the British Food Standards Agency (FSA) discovered traces of horse DNA in burgers.
This week in 2008, a terrified non-swimmer pleaded for his life as boat hijackers forced him into the sea at knifepoint more than two miles off North Cyprus. Adil Çakır, 46, a father of three from Silifke, Turkey, was missing, believed dead, after the ordeal. Mr Çakır had been crewing for Turan Yeşilada, skipper of Gims, a 42-foot motor yacht, to demonstrate the vessel’s seaworthiness to two men, thought to be Lebanese, who were posing as potential purchasers.
This week in 1998, anxiety reigned over the impact of a threatened “tit-for-tat” visa clampdown on Britons entering the TRNC. News of possible TRNC government action in response to recently-demanded fees in Cyprus pounds to enable “sanctioned” Turkish Cypriots to travel to Britain was first broken to hoteliers. But then it was suggested that only Britons visiting the TRNC from the South via the Ledra Palace checkpoint would be confronted with the visa charges.
On this very day, February 3, 1959, three young rock ’n’ roll stars were killed in a plane crash in the United States. Buddy Holly, 22, Jiles P Richardson — known as the Big Bopper — 28, and Ritchie Valens, 17, died in a crash shortly after take-off from Clear Lake, Iowa. The pilot of the singleengined Beechcraft Bonanza plane was also killed. Buddy Holly and, to a lesser extent, Ritchie Valens, became musical legends.
On February 7, 1964, the fourmember Beatles band arrived in New York to begin their first tour of the United States. The Beatles were the first British band to break into the American market. Their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show reportedly led to a dip in the crime rate to a 50-year low as 73 million people, or 40 per cent of Americans, tuned in to watch.