This week in history
THIS week last year, a British pensioner finally reclaimed her husband’s dead body, almost two weeks after his death, by borrowing money to pay the bill of a TRNC private hospital.
Cyprus Today’s front-page coverage of the Tivey family’s struggle to pay the hospital some 92,000TL hit the headlines in the UK’s Sun newspaper and a Kent news website.
● Also this week in 2017, a cable car system connecting the Karaoğlanoğlu coast to St Hilarion Castle and providing panoramic views was set to become reality, according to plans revealed by Cyprus Today. The overhead link proposed by a private company would be able to handle up to 1,000 people an hour with journey times of between 12 and 15 minutes in gondolas carrying six to eight seated passengers along a 3.5km route.
● This week in 2013, past stars of Arsenal and Liverpool football clubs were said to be heading for the TRNC. Some of the two Premiership sides’ big names of bygone days could have helped to train local youngsters and even join forces to take on a TRNC national squad, if plans being hatched by organiser Stuart Green had come to fruition. The proposed visit by the clubs’ “Legends” followed a similar trip set up by Mr Green in 2011, and came as efforts were under way between Turkish and Greek Cypriot football federations to allow TRNC football back into the international fold.
● This week in 2008, a British firm secured a deal — the first to see direct foreign investment in the TRNC — to redevelop Geçitkale airport into a cargo hub. Cyprus Aviation Services Limited (CAS) was granted a 15year lease of the airfield and was planning to initially invest some 50 million euros in a groundbreaking deal. It was the first time a foreign company had directly invested in the TRNC and not under the auspices of the European Union, United Nations or Turkish “front” companies.
● This week in 1998, South Cyprus police briefly detained a Turkish Cypriot reporter for possession of a pistol when he crossed into the south of the island to cover the Greek Cypriot elections. The reporter, identified by police as Hambil Yılmaz, 42, had surrendered a pistol and three bullets to police as he crossed from the TRNC to Greek Cyprus in an organised press visit.
● On this very day, February 17, 1979, China sent hundreds of troops into Vietnam after weeks of tension and a military buildup along the border. Former Vietnamese Vice-Foreign Minister Nguyen Ko Tach told ambassadors in Hanoi that the Chinese troops had occupied nearly all Vietnamese border positions and were advancing southwards.
● On February 21, 1965, controversial black leader Malcolm X, who once called for a “blacks-only” state in the US, was assassinated. He was shot several times as he began a speech to 400 followers. In March 1966, three men, two of whom admitted being members of the Nation of Islam, were found guilty of Malcolm X’s murder.