Illegal build halted
BEACHSIDE construction at a hotel in the Karpaz Area of Special Protection has been halted on government instructions.
Work was being carried out at the Livana Hotel, where a wooden restaurant was also officially sealed in July last year after being ruled illegal, along with 26 bungalows which were removed to nearby Dipkarpaz by their owner.
Concrete construction is banned in the area but pre-74 building renovation is permitted. However new Interior Minister Ayşegül Baybars Kadri instructed police and officials to close the site after the recent change of government transferred the Town Planning Department to her remit from the Tourism and Environment Ministry.
Hotelier Mehmet Ölmez said on Thursday: “I removed the bungalows and applied for a two-star hotel permit and was told on inspection that concrete columns and beams were unsafe and that, if I renewed the building in February, they would renew my lease for a further 10 years. This is not a new construction.”
He added: “I leased the land and pre’74 hotel building which is 2km inside the protected area from the government and have been there since 1990. I was born in Dipkarpaz.”
No update could be obtained this week on amendments to the Karpaz Decree proposed last year by Tourism and Environment Minister Fikri Ataoğlu after lengthy consultations with town planning officials and private landowners in the area’s villages. The amendments were expected to be passed by a Cabinet decision in January. Mr Ataoğlu said this week issuing Town Planning consent without consultations with the Antiquities and Environmental Protection departments “would be a crime”.
The Livana Hotel’s restaurant remains sealed after being ruled illegal in an İskele court case last year along with others loosely sanctioned for years by previous governments, including wooden bungalows beside the peninsula’s iconic Golden Beach.
Environmentalists cited laws banning concrete constructions within the protected peninsula and claimed Mr Ölmez had taken advantage of rules allowing the renovation of existing pre-’74 properties.
Mr Ölmez said yesterday: “The village boutique hotels blamed us but everyone has suffered from the beach closures because no-one comes any more. Local butchers and grocers and businesses all along the road from İskele have lost out and there are not even any public toilets for tourists here.”