Denktaş museum building flooded
THE building intended to house a museum commemorating the life of the founding President of the TRNC, Rauf Denktaş, has flooded for the second time in months.
Water filled the building, located in Cumhuriyet (Republic) Park, just months after it had reportedly flooded during heavy rain in the winter. The flooding this time around was caused by a leak from a water tank.
Rauf Denktaş’s son, the former MP Serdar Denktaş, discovered that the building was flooded when he went to visit the site, which also includes his father’s mausoleum, last Saturday.
He asked for help from the Civil Defence Organisation to pump out the water and for an electrician to fix an electrical fault with the water system.
Expressing his sadness over the incident, Mr Denktaş said that he has been “asking and waiting” for a caretaker to be appointed to the area “for a long time” but that the government “has not taken any steps in this regard”.
Mr Denktaş said that management of the site should be turned over to a “responsible authority or institution”.
“You see the weeds, this is not something we can take care of,” he said. “Since the municipalities did not come to clean up the weeds, we stepped in. . . The governments’ indifference is troubling to us.
“There would be greater damage if the Civil Defence Organisation did not exist and we could not remove this water today.
“The Civil Defence Organisation comes and steps in every time we are in trouble, this is the second time they have. Things like this wouldn’t happen if there was a person responsible here.
“This is first and foremost a disgrace. It is greatly disrespectful to a leader who has established the positions where they [ministers] sit.
“Part of this place belongs to the Environmental Department and some of it belongs to the Lefkoşa Turkish Municipality and Gönyeli Municipality, but it is not being taken care of.”