This week in history
THIS week last year, Transport and Public Works Minister Tolga Atakan announced a new Traffic Safety and Transportation Department with an action plan based on an analysis of traffic accidents to be compiled with the police. During the Budget debate in Parliament, he also revealed plans to overhaul the current MoT system by setting up modern EU-standard inspection stations via a tender for a public-private partnership to check cars, commercial and heavy vehicles and motorcycles.
● Also this week last year, British High Commissioner Stephen Lillie spoke exclusively to
Cyprus Today about Brexit, saying that issues involving UK citizens in the TRNC still needed to be resolved before Britain leaves the bloc. Mr Lillie also expressed condolence over the flood disaster that hit the TRNC that month and wished readers of this newspaper a happy Christmas and peaceful 2019. ● This week in 2013, the government moved to reassure foreign residents over fears that a “discretionary” measure avoiding the need for over60s to apply for residency permits might have been scrapped. The British Residents’
Society (BRS) called for clarification after receiving reports that immigration officials on the border had issued verbal warnings to several expats and told them they should apply for temporary residency. Although an immigration rule stipulated that foreign nationals needed to apply for residency if they stayed in the TRNC for more than 90 days, the government said in 2007 that expats aged over 60 “would not be penalised” for not complying with the rule.
● This week in 2009, a ban on building development in six areas of the TRNC, including the Karpaz, was scrapped. After weeks of rumour and speculation, the government finally announced that it was abolishing six of eight decrees. Only the decrees protecting the Girne aquifers and Bafra remainedd untouched by the changes which were aimed at ushering in a new building boom.
● This week in 1999, a tireless charity volunteer and friend of many, Ismail Mehmetemin Servan, was found dead at his Girne home. Hundreds of Turkish Cypriots and expatriates were shocked by the tragic news — İsmail, aged 52, having been a champion of many causes, primarily the Help! Group and Kyrenia Animal Rescue (KAR). The death happened on “the eve” of a planned flight to Britain where he was looking forward to spending Christmas and the New Year.
● On this very day, December 21, 1962, President Kennedy and British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan announced the formation of a multilateral Nato nuclear force after talks in
Nassau, in the Bahamas. The agreement meant the United States would sell Polaris missiles to the UK. France eventually declined America’s offer of Polaris and the multilateral Nato nuclear agreement was signed without France in January 1963.
● On December 25, 1989, deposed Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena were shot by a firing squad after a secret military tribunal found them both guilty of crimes against the State. They were charged and convicted of genocide and undermining the national economy among a series of other offences, officials said. Two days after the deaths of Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, video pictures of their summary trial and execution were shown on television in Romania and around the world.