This week in history
THIS time last year, a well-known Alsancak restaurateur was jailed for seven years for the “revenge” stabbing of Birmingham-born expat Richard Cadd at his home in Karşıyaka in June 2017. Amore Bar and Restaurant owner Ramazan Acar, 26, was sentenced by a panel of three judges at Girne’s Assizes Court for what Chief Judge Fadıl Aksun described as “a premeditated attack driven by rage and the desire for revenge”.
Also this week in 2017, the air industry was bracing itself for potential “travel chaos” after the government made a surprise U-turn on its controversial decision not to put the clocks back that month — meaning that the TRNC would be an hour behind Turkey for the entire winter. Ministers announced that clocks would go back an hour in line with the UK and the rest of Europe, despite then-deputy prime minister Serdar Denktaş having said the previous month that it was imperative to keep time with Turkey, with which the TRNC “has all forms of cooperation”.
This week in 2013, Girne’s St Andrew’s Church congregation was left stunned after it was announced that the new chaplain due to take up her new role, Rev Wendy Hough, had deferred her expected start date — by almost six months. This meant the church would be without a permanent chaplain for the remainder of its centenary celebrations, Remembrance events and Christmas.
Back in October 2009, people power forced a raft of improvements in how the TRNC Immigration Department dealt with people seeking residency and work permits. Delays, red tape and confusion at the Lefkoşa office had long been a bugbear of expats, so the Department got an automated ticket machine — similar to those in banks — and a full-time English-speaking assistant.
Twenty years ago, headline news was that TRNC was expected to be “plunged into darkness again”, according to then-deputy prime minister Serdar Denktaş, who warned that the Teknecik power station’s fuel supply was about to run out.
Looking to international news archives, on this very day, October 20, 1967, the biggest demonstration against American involvement in the Vietnam War took place in the town of Oakland, California. The anti-war movement grew from strength to strength, until in March 1968 President Johnson announced a pause in the bombing of North Vietnam to start negotiations for peace.
On October 25, 1983, United States marines and army rangers invaded the Caribbean island of Grenada, seized the country’s two airports and took Cuban and Soviet prisoners. Hundreds more troops were sent in over the next few days. Heavy fighting continued but as the invasion force grew to more than 7,000 the defenders either surrendered or fled into the mountains.