This week in history
THIS week in history last year, the hunt for a sword said to have belonged to the Ottoman emperor who ordered the conquest of Cyprus almost 450 years ago and which went missing from a Lefkoşa mosque in 1987 took a new twist amid speculation that it might had been acquired by the British Museum in London. Reports in Turkish and Turkish Cypriot media claimed that Sultan Selim II’s ceremonial blade had been sold 30 years ago by officials at the Selimiye Mosque — named after the ruler — for £4 million and that it had made its way to the British Museum where it was now to be sold for £15 million. An investigation was launched by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Also this week in 2017, a well-known British expat was in police custody after a lunchtime crash in which a Bangladeshi kebab delivery driver was killed. Alesta Kebab House employee Mohammed Sazzad Hossain, 35, died on the way to Girne State Hospital after he was badly injured in the collision with a jeep driven by Neil Silbery, 72.
This week in 2013, it was disclosed that some 319 people had been arrested the previous year for drug-related offences, with the most common drug being marijuana. Anti-drugs campaigners and police called for action, including anti-drugs education, to raise young people’s awareness of the issue and to “stem the tide.” Police issued a statement singling out the “incorrect” belief that responsibility for dealing with illegal drug use rested solely with the force.
This week in 2008, a symbolic handshake between the leaders of Cyprus in a re-opened Ledra Street was to signal a real desire for a solution to the island’s division. That was the hope of former British High Commissioner Peter Millett, who said if the political will was there, Ledra Street — bisected since the 1950s by the Lokmacı Barricade — would re-open “tomorrow”.
This week in 1998, a storm broke after a newspaper published an “intelligence” report naming 13 MPs and ministers as holders of “Republic of Cyprus” passports. A front-page article in Kıbrıs newspaper — the sister Turkish-language publication of Cyprus Today — quoted a “top secret” document listing politicians said to be among hundreds of Turkish Cypriots with travel documents issued by Greek Cypriot authorities in the name of the “Republic”.
On this very day, February 24, 1955, deep snow and freezing temperature across Britain left many parts of the country cut off from essential supplies. The severe weather conditions continued across Britain into March. Sheep farmers were probably the worst affected by the big snow of 1955. Despite valiant relief efforts by the RAF, thousands of sheep died from exposure.
On February 28, 1986, a former Swedish prime minister died after being shot in a street ambush in central Stockholm. His wife was wounded. Olof and Lisbeth Palme were attacked as they were leaving a cinema. At the time of his death, Mr Palme had been accused of being pro-Soviet and not safeguarding Sweden’s interests. A drug addict and social outcast, Christer Pettersson, 42, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder in July 1989.