Our most expensive import: Rising crime
ACCORDING to a recent study, Cyprus is one of the safest countries in the world. Hmm. As with all these international studies, “Cyprus” refers only to the Greek Republic of. Had the TRNC been looked at, I doubt it would have done so well.
The survey in question, carried out by the curiously-named consumer and finance website ValuePenguin, looked at data from 106 countries and placed Cyprus in fifth place worldwide. Among smaller countries, with populations under five million, Cyprus was No 1.
That’s the way it used to be in the North also. Not any more. A flick through recent editions of this newspaper tells its own sorry story: “Man stabbed to death in play area”, “Manhunt under way for armed robber”, “Hammer attack robbery”, “Artist throttled with own belt”, “Husband given life for wife’s murder”, “Armed ‘debt collectors’ arrested”.
Only last week the police had to issue advice to drivers on keeping their cars and belongings safe following an upsurge in “smash and grab” raids from vehicles. And then we have the alleged rape of a 35-year-old British woman by a man who broke into her home.
This is not just anecdotal evidence or scare stories either. No less a figure than the Chief Justice, Narin Ferdi Şefik, has revealed that recorded crime in the TRNC shot up by an astronomical 51.26 per cent over the past year. Mind you, this also includes prosecutions for motoring offences, standards of driving being truly criminal.
Something precious is being lost. Turkish Cypriots are, on the whole, a peaceful and easy-going bunch, courteous to visitors. Mugging or robbery with violence is just not in their nature. (Some of them have much more sophisticated ways of parting you from your money, but let’s not go there!)
In our early days here, we used to hire a Mini Moke and never feared to leave bags, a camera or a radio-cassette player (yes, it was that long ago) on the