TRNC’s a clean and pleasant land – not!
IF A child were to inherit a priceless artefact, one would imagine their parents or guardians would teach them to cherish it and not allow them to destroy it. Yet that is exactly what’s happening right here.
The Turkish Cypriots have been blessed with one of the loveliest places on earth: a land floating in an azure sea; a land so rich that fruit, vegetables and exotic trees and flowers burst from its soil; a land mystical and magical, coveted by different races since the dawn of civilisation — and now in the hands of ignorant, selfish, ill-mannered oafs.
I’m sorry, I really am, but who else is responsible for the institutionalised rubbish dumping that is slowly but surely turning this beautiful country into a mountain of muck?
It’s always someone else, isn’t it? Ask the locals about this national shame and they will doubtless blame Turkish settlers. Uneducated peasants, you see?
Ask the many perfectly decent young Turks who have chosen to make their homes here, and they point to the Turkish Cypriots. Unsophisticated village people, you see?
Ask anybody else — well you get the picture; it’s never them.
I do know that many among the increasingly active Russian community are disgusted by the dirt they see all around them and have decided to do something about it. They have joined the recently formed İyilik Gönüllüleri, which translates as “Goodness Volunteers”, an organisation launched by Evkaf, the Muslim charitable foundation, to encourage people to do good in their neighbourhoods.
I joined about 200 of them — Cypriots, Turks and Russians — to help clear the Boğaz picnic area, the notorious litter blackspot on the main road from Girne to Lefkoşa. They were mostly students shepherded by enthusiastic teachers, such as Tatiana Babaeva and her husband, Alex. Nothing wrong with that.