‘Allow experts to evaluate urgent problems of Maraş’

FORTY-four years of decay and neglect have created a breeding ground for disease in the abandoned and fenced-off Maraş (Varosha) suburb of Gazimağusa, according to a local pressure group.

The Gazimağusa Initiative called a press conference last week to highlight what it called “urgent problems” in the town and to unveil bicommunal activities it plans to stage in 2019.

The group said expert engineers should be allowed immediate accesss to Maraş — abandoned since the second wave of the Turkish military intervention in August 1974 — to fully evaluate conditions there, including the state of buildings, flora and fauna and wildlife.

One of the Initiative’s activists, former Chamber of Commerce head Hasan İnce, called for a bicommunal “bazaar” to be established in the UN buffer zone to capitalise on opportunities arising from the newly-opened Derinya border checkpoint south of Gazimağusa.

He said such crossing points contributed to building intercommunal trust and cooperation, despite being viewed negatively in certain circles.

Confidence-building measures should be developed to enhance cooperation and understanding between the two sides, he said, and a “shopkeepers’ bazaar” in the buffer zone would contribute to that. It could be used by people who cannot cross from the North into the South, he added, and would be “a venue where both Greek and Turkish Cypriot sellers can set up their counters and display and sell their goods according to the Green Line Regulation”.

Other speakers referred to problems posed by the sewerage system in Gazimağusa — where an EU inquiry last month blamed poor planning and management for faults that have left waste trapped in 3km of a 31km network of underground pipes — a controversial proposed development and zoning plan for the area, and the need for more conservation work to preserve historical sites.