Police called to stop work at ‘Old Harbour’
POLICE had to be called in to help halt “illegal” construction work that locals say has ruined the “Old Harbour” of Yenierenköy.
Yenierenköy Mayor Emrah Yeşilırmak joined fishers, residents and the members of the Hunting and Shooting Association to protest against the activities of a company called Özkom Ltd, to which the land has reportedly been leased until 2049.
Police and municipality personnel showed up at the site after receiving complaints that the company, owned by Ahmet Özçağ, was harming the environment with “illegal activities”.
His company has built a 25 metre-long breakwater and reclaimed land “without permission” Cyprus Today’s sister paper Kıbrıs reported last Saturday. Due to the breakwater, fishers are now unable to enter the sea with their boats and members of the public can no longer access the beach and the sea. Some “historical” buildings including a carob warehouse have been destroyed and replaced with new buildings, Kıbrıs reported.
Mr Yeşilırmak said that the “embankments, breakwater and the buildings are illegal” but that the company has continued its construction work “even though its activities have been suspended”.
“We are not against investments, we just want them to be legal,” Mr Yeşilırmak said. “Someone has to say ‘stop’ to this developer. They are harming the natural and historical structure.
“The history of the harbour involves trade as carob and tobacco were exported from here in the past. The company’s activities were halted by the Ports Office on the basis that illegal work was being carried out.”
According to Mr Yeşilırmak’s claims, the breakwater was built without approval from the Council of Ministers or the preparation of an Environmental Impact Assessment report, and without consulting the Environment Protection Department, the Antiquities and Museums Department, or the Highways Department.
Mr Yeşilırmak said that an existing Council of Ministers decision referred to an old breakwater, which specified in law how it should be renovated. He also accused developers of “playing with the income of the local fishers”.
Safiye Mehmet Sayar, the muhtar of Yenierenköy, said that there are many people in the region who earn their living by fishing but were now unable to do so because the “intervention in the area” has prevented them from launching their boats into the sea.
Mehmet Metni, head of the Yenierenköy Hunting and Shooting Association, said: “Our childhood and youth passed in this natural beauty. We hold our competitions here. Now nature has been plundered.”
His predecessor Tolgay Alevkayalı, who was also present at the protest, said: “In 2014, I . . . demanded that the harbour be leased to the Yenierenköy Hunting and Shooting Association. But we were not given this place because it is a tourism area.
“In 2015, we asked the then mayor of Yenierenköy, Mesut Yıkıcı, to take on the area, as a municipality, but we received a refusal again. Now we see that it has been given to someone else.”
Meanwhile a council excavator unblocked a coastal dirt road that the developers had closed to the public. After the protest, workers on the site continued with their construction activities but were halted by officials from the Environment Protection Office. Mr Özçağ was not available for comment, said.