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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
   
Well today they came in with big hammers and by the end of the day we had reached stage 2.
The whole intention is to convert downstairs in to a living area and to put an internal staircase up into the original small bedroom and then finally to convert our current lounge, kitchen and dining room in to a large en-suite bedroom area just for us. That way Joan will not have to be trotting up and down stairs all day long.
What used to be our huge store will now have an archway leading through to the front door, the stairs and the new dining room and at the same time the lads will brick up the back entrance to the garage as we didn't want a door leading from the lounge directly.
Because the weather so lends itself to summer building the lads can very quickly turn the roadway outside in to a building site. The other thing is that stuff just gets left here overnight and at weekends and is still there next day. I haven't tried it but, I think if you left an empty skip outside it probably wouldn't have a mattress in it the next day.
Roger B started up at The Saffron this evening, his first Saturday night appearance there, so his "Groupies" otherwise known as The Lapta Layabouts went to support him. Any excuse for a good meal out. The usual late night of course and this when Joan and I had said we where going out with George and Susan on Sunday. Lots of stamina us oldies!
During the winter George, Susan, Joan and I had been over to the South to see what the ski areas were like and had spotted a restaurant near to Troodos village which seemed very popular with the locals and vowed to return. As there was so much going on around our villa it seemed like a good idea to get away or the day.
Some of you may have made the trip up the Trodos mountains, but have to say that it is a very beautiful part of the island. We crossed at the newest border crossing, near Guzelyurt and made our way up into the mountains that way. We stopped a couple of times on the way up at some small pull in places just to saver the views and the lovely shades of green that the conifers are up the sides of the hills. The smell of pine is absolutely wonderful up there and there are also some very pretty villages nestling in the mountains. One of the many tourist attractions in this area is Makarios monastery , but being Sunday it was incredibly busy and we also discovered that you can only go in to the monastery in suitable clothing, there were tourist police there turning people away. When Bill and Margaret come over in September we will make it a day out as feel it must be really worth seeing.
There are a couple of excellent ice cream stalls near by and we had the chance to partake,all the rest of the area is souvenir shops as you might expect.
We found our restaurant in a village just below Troodos itself and for £6.00 each we were able to go to the open buffet and just help ourselves. There was a whole range of cold and warm starters to form a local meze and this was followed by lamb kleftiko or beef afelia or grilled chicken and then a fruit table to finish off with. We washed this down with a couple of beers and now realise why it is so popular. Superb day out.
A chance to look at the newspapers this morning, with the major news item being the tragedy at The Courtyard Inn. Four of the staff at this well known restaurant died in the well in the Courtyard grounds. The official police verdict, after post mortem examinations is that they died through lack of oxygen but speculation says that it was carbon monoxide poisoning. It appears that one of them went down the well to find our why the pump was not delivering water and when he did not come back up the others went down to investigste and all suffered the same fate. All of the boys are from Pakistan and closely related to many of the other restaurants in the area, Jashans, The Grove, Happy Valley and Rafters. Many of these will be closed for a time as owners and friends have all gone back to Pakistan for the funerals.
Gary Robb's empire is in trouble again. The villa complex in Catalkoy is to have its water cut off because of an unpaid bill for planning permission and water supply provision. As there are supposed to be huge assets frozen by the government why could some not be released to resolve this.
A British Insurance company is launching a government sanctioned policy for homeowners and buyers, which it claims can put an end to Orams style cases. Supposedly the policy, called Land Title Indemnity Guarantee, will cover home owners against any claim against their title. Initially the policy will cost £1,560 for a year, reducing to £1,092 per annum for a three year policy. Claims will be administered here by Gurkan & Gurkan solicitors and there is an on-line website www.yourindemnity.com
A TRNC equivalant of e-bay has been set up by Andrew Charter together with Amanda at Ian's Auctions. You can get a look at this through his regular website www.northcyprus.biz
Local authorities here are suffering financially and have all vowed a big crackdown on debtors. Many debts are run up by none residents who own properties here so maybe its time to set up some sort of system to ensure these things are paid.
Easyjet finally started their Luton/Istanbul service, but unfortunately there is no link with the Pegasus flights from the same airport to the island. Pegasus say they have no plans to alter their flight timings to provide a connection for onward travellers as their target market is local people wanting to travel between Istanbul and the island. This means it might be cheaper but you would have to sit in the airport for up to 8 hours, waiting for the onward flight.
Work goes on at our house and we believe that they are going to knock down the external steps on Wednesday so expect some pics.
They arrived this morning with a compressor and heavy duty kango hammer. Our cat Tiggy took refuge at the back of the settee for the day and Smudge wasn't seen until after they had all gone home.
Both sets of external stairs are to be removed, but first the back ones, as a new small loo will be built in their place. They are kindly leaving the front steps until last so that we can still get in and out without a rope ladder.
The first hammer drill started about 8.30 a.m. so have already apologised to Stewart and Barbara. A bit like the auctioneers cry of Going, Going, Almost. Tomorrow maybe the last of these steps, but it has confused the socks off the cats, as this is always their way up and in through the cat flap, now they are going to have to use the front steps for a few weeks and then discover that we have a backdoor downstairs.
This evening Barbara and Michael invited us round to sit in the peace and quiet of their place and enjoy dinner with them. I managed to get four bottles of English ale, which Michael and really enjoyed for a change.
Well the stairs have gone and are now being replaced by the new downstairs loo. In the picture you can see two window gaps in what will be the new kitchen, the first window is exactly right as this will be over the sink, the second window should have been the old window left as it was, unfortunately the guys doing the work decided, by themselves, that we needed a new big window exactly where the hob and extractor are going. Sometimes it is a good job that we keep going to see what is happening, but in this case slightly too late. Now they have the job of bricking it all up again to the old size.
Another piece of press news today, that was sent to me by Northcyprus.biz. A nasty smell is now coming up around the Gary Robb affair and it would seem to be revealed that there has in fact been something nasty going on and he may yet be vindicated. I reprint this article courtesy of Cyprus Times.
CYPRUS Times and Kibrisli are slowly but surely unveiling the massive robbery that took place over Gary John Robb's assets and money in the past year, with proof that is backing up every word that Mr Robb has told the press and his customers after his arrival to the TRNC.
A document that was obtained by Cyprus Times and Kibrisli from the TRNC Company's House yesterday showed that Gary Robb's 50 percent shares of one of his companies were stolen from him with a forged signature.
Britannia Construction Ltd. which was founded by Gary John Robb and Tahir Tuncel Soycan as a 50/50 partnership in late 2002, is said to be worth over 1 million pounds. According to the document that has been obtained, Mr Soycan or one of his associates have forged Gary Robb's signature and have passed on his shares to Mr Soycan's spouse Mrs Nevber Soycan.
Examining Gary Robb's other signature on his bank accounts and cheques there is no need to be a handwriting expert to establish the difference. However the Cyprus Times took the two signature samples to a handwriting specialist and became sure that the signature was forged.
The expert without even needing to go into details pointed out that Gary John Robb was left handed and it was obvious that the person signing on behalf of him fraudulently was right handed and this was enough to give the fraud away.
On the other hand the official stamp on the document which handed over Gary Robb's shares to Tahir Soycan's wife, indicates clearly that the document was produced to the TRNC authorities way after Mr Robb left the island for Thailand last year. Therefore it is also obvious that Mr Soycan and his associates chose the time when Mr Robb was out of the country and there was a slim possibility that he was ever going to return.
Britannia Construction which owns many properties and other businesses is worth up to one Million Pounds however according to the fake document Gary John Robb had sold his half of the company top Mr Tahir Soycan's wife for a ridiculous sum of 2500 YTL (Just under 1000 pounds)
"This itself indicates that that there is something fishy in this supposed share handover" said Gary John Robb while talking to Cyprus Times.
Asked when he became aware of the situation and what he had done about it Mr Robb told Cyprus Times that he became aware once he came back to the Island over three months ago and complained to the Police about it.
The Police however seemed reluctant to act on a massive fraud like this and despite three months after the incident had been reported to them they had even failed to invite Mr Robb to a station and ask for his handwriting and signature samples. Kibrisli Newspaper raised questions asking if there were any police officers involved in the issue, due to the fact that some officers seemed to be deliberately slowing down or even obstructing the course of justice.
Cyprus Times will continue to unveil the truth behind the "AGA Saga" and will see that the perpetrators of the massive fraud, which created dismay amongst people who have chosen TRNC to become their homes and bought property, will face the cold face of justice.
© Copyright Cyprus Times 2006
Yesterday Joan and I had to go to Nicosia to see one of her furniture suppliers, so we then nipped over the border to get some bits and pieces and especially to allow Joan to go to the M&S sale. When we got back we found that the buidlers lads had been in and cut a hole in the floor of our small bedroom, where the stairs are to be fitted.
These three guys really work hard and things are taking shape, we have a hole in the front of the villa where the front door is to be fitted. This space was originally a window in to our store room and the existing door from upstairs is to come down to this space. Inside this area and looking from the yet to be new lounge you can see through an archway to hall where the hole in the ceiling is going to be the new staircase to upstairs. A big discussion this afternoon about this with the builder and his architect. Because I am quite tall the size of the hole has to be much greater or I have to hang a hard hat at the bottom of the stairs in case I forget to duck, ouch. Because of this the final decision was made by the "boss" that a part spiral staircase would be absolutely fine with just 1 1/2 full turns to the top, interesting and should look quite nice.
Round the back of the villa the old arches have been taken out to make way for patio doors and new big window in the lounge and outside these doors we are going to get George and his men to build us a new patio area, as this remains a very cool area until mid afternoon. Further round the back, we are retaining the two arches which lead to our shaded sitting area and also to the new back door entrance. The new loo walls have taken shape and we just need a tiled roof up there now. The whole shape of the house is going to take on quite a new look but when the guys have gone home in the evening we walk around and are very pleased with what is taking shape.
This afternoon Michael and Barbara have decided that they are going to feed about 10 of us to celebrate the return of Pat & Brian from UK so that's another day of no cooking for us, very nice when you are in this mess.
Whilst the hammering and banging goes on just a quick look at the weekend papers.
There was a horrendous crash at the main roundabout coming in to Kyrenia early on Friday morning. A runaway lorry coming down that steep hill from the Nicosia direction caused a multiple pile up involving nine other vehicles. Now unless I am very much mistaken, lorries of the size of this one are not allowed down this hill from Nicosia as it is considered too steep. This is borne out by the fact that the driver took to his heels as soon as he got out of the cab and was only caught as he tried to board a ferry to the mainland. Amazingly only four people were injured in this crash, but the road was closed for a long time.
The death of the four lads at The Coutyard Inn, reported last week, seems to have definitely been put down to oxygen starvation. It seems that there was another contaminated well just 9 metres away and interaction between the two caused oxygen starvation at a depth of 3 metres down their well.
The Cyprus Times has really got the bit between it's teeth about the supposed fraud in the Gary Robb affair. It is busy accusing the Attorney General, Senior Policemen, some influencial accountants and a few more besides. If all this is true then those doubters about Gary Robb's intentions could be eating there words. Lets wait and see. Strong rumour ahs it that there is to be a renewed police investigation and there could be early arrests.
The following important bit of information for anybody wanting to travel over to TRNC was posted on an agents site today.
TWI Flights + Atlasjet has Ceased Trading
As from17:00 14th August 2006 TWI flights and Jewels of the World ATOL 3757 ( Atlasjet) has notified us that they have ceased trading. Passengers are advised to contact ATOL claims on 0207 453 6350. Atlasjet flight Latest information information ATOL Website
I have now been informed by the CAA that people who have paid for their Atlasjet flights and have not flown should download a claims form from the website and send it in ASAP. people who are in North Cyprus arrangements will be made by CAA to bring them back home.
We as agents are very saddened by this announcement and will do everything in our hands to help our clients.
We act as retail agents for TWI flights and Jewels of the world, ATOL3757
Not a hell of a lot to show you on the building front as they are busy doing all the electrics and water connections needed and after this has been completed then the new floors can go down. We do have a big circular hole in the floor of our small bedroom up here which will take the spiral staircase eventually so we have to keep that door locked as it would be easy access to the house.
I get e-mails from time to time from a guy called Lewis Gerolemou who I think lives in UK but who uses a hotmail account so it is difficult to know. He sent me a mail to say that the Gary Robb situation amused him and sent me the following link which is very worth a look.
Lewis Gerolemou.
PS I thought you may like to take a look at this site, it offers a very balanced view of Cyprus and is really quite interesting.
http:// www.everyculture.com/Cr-Ga/Cyprus.html
Will get round to taking a look at the papers a.s.a.p. but this item is probably of interest to many of you who invested in Aga Developments.
Arrested! 19/08/2006
TUNCEL Tahir Soycan has been arrested for many counts of fraud, forgery, identity fraud and has been remanded in custody for a further two days for the sake of the investigation.
Tahir Soycan and his associate Cuneyt Diker were arrested yesterday and brought in front of a judge at Lefkosa District court for the remand hearing.
The investigating officer PC Ali Uzun accompanied by the Police's special Graphology and Handwriting expert Bekir Barut told the court that during their investigation to this point, they had found large numbers of documents involving forged signatures made by Tuncel Tahir Soycan on documents relating to Aga Development, Aga Finance, Britannia Construction and Britannia Development.
He said that they had obtained these documents from the TRNC Company's House and that the Police's Graphology and Handwriting Expert Bekir Ba¬rut's opinion was that they were 'definitely' forged.
PC Ali Uzun, who has been involved in the investigation from the beginning, also told the court that there were a number of documents at the vehicle registration office that were forged and a total of 21 vehicles had changed hands from Gary Robb to Tahir Soycan. Asked if they had any objections to the police request Tahir Soycan's legal representative from Guner Goktug Law firm and Lawyer Savas Atakan on behalf of Cuneyt Diker did not object. The Judge adjourned the hearing for five minutes and later called the prosecution, the police, the defense and the suspects to her chambers and handed her verdict.
Hearing the news from the Cyprus Times Gary Robb first found it hard to believe but later said that he expected an arrest but was pleasantly surprised how fast the TRNC legal system could work.
He especially thanked the team of hardworking police officers who have been working day and night for the last week to gather the necessary evidence to make the arrest. He also thanked Cyprus Times and Kibrisli for raising public awareness on the issue.
He said that this arrest was going to be a turning point on the so called Aga saga and he hoped that things from now on would be better.
© Copyright Cyprus Times 2006
Joan and I did some clearing up of the builders rubbish. Don't know what it is here, but clean workers they are not and we feel sure they must arrive on Monday morning and think to themselves, we left that place nice and clean at the end of last week.
During the morning the carpenter turned up, much to our surprise and shifted all the storage cupboards from the old storeroom to the side garage wall. We must now be the only people in Lapta with a garage inclusive of fitted cupboards, very pretty, but also very useful as I can now hide all my tools and we can tuck things away such a suitcases etc.
It is still incredibly humid over here at the moment and all the locals say this is beyond the norm but it makes garden work and clearing up etc very warm work. Luckily for us Roger and Gill had invited the gang round, late afternoon, for a meal and a few beers. As usual this was a lovely way to spend an evening and of course there is always the pool to relax in when it is so hot, which is exactly what the three wise ! ladies did. Just the place to put the world to rights I think, looks like serious stuff to me.
All good intentions to update you on the papers this morning when the power went off, the generator went on and then the builder said we must go and pick tiles and bathroom stuff.
Off to Nicosia eventually, as we could not find what we wanted in Kyrenia and remembered exactly where we had chosen the original tiles for this place, almost 5 years ago now. They were still full up trading and had a tremendous selection, so where able to pick all the tiles and ceramics for the new bathroom.
By the time we got home it was in for a swim and then a salad supper, too hot for anything else.
Some good news for those of us who are faced with renewing our residency permits every year. Currently it takes four weeks for the administration to process these and you can only apply seven days prior to the expiry of the current permit. This means of course that there is a three week gap when you are not allowed to travel to the south and even if you go across to the mainland there are questions asked on your return. Now at last, common sense has prevailed, thanks to pressure from the BRS, and a receipt is to be issued which will prove that permits have been applied for and allow us to travel.
Electricity prices have risen quite sharply. Usage of the first 250 KW will rise by 14%, the next 250 KW by a further 12% and above that level by 24%. In our case we seem to use around 450/500 KW in the summer and up to 1,000KW in the winter when our air conditioners are giving us heat. Maybe its a good thing that we are installing a gas fire in the new lounge. According to the papers the prices are still much lower than in the south, which currently has the most expensive electricity in the EU.
The government has once again promised to set up a centre, staffed by English speaking personnel, to deal with property complaints especially in the areas of bureaucracy, shoddy building work and questionable estate agency practices, to resolve disputes without the need for court action. In addition the process of obtaining permission to purchase is being speeded up. According to statistics they have already processed more applications this year than in the whole of last year, so maybe something is working.
Just a quick complaint from me. The football season has started and I have not found time to go and see even one game yet. Shame.
This morning the tilers arrived to start to make the final preparations for the new flloring and then much to my surprise a truck arrived with a staircase. This then looks like the way up in the future.
It was quite a struggle to get this thing into the house and up through the hole. It must have weighed a ton and took about five of them to get it up and through to what was our smallest bedroom. Even then it required a liitle adjustment. The whole thing needs dressing off in some way yet to be discussed, but my favourite is to think of hardwood treads. The builder is suggesting marble but thinks that might be very expensive, we'll see.
This evening, together with "The Layabouts" we went to Ann & Jeff's new villa in Karsiyaka. The idea was to have a sort of meet the Lloyds BBQ, as they have their daughter, son-in-law and four grandsons over on holiday at the moment. A super spread presided over by the King & Queen for the night. They got their son in law to do the cooking and the crowd, aided by a few neighbours, to do the eating and drinking. A great spread Ann, nobody went hungry tonight.
Newsnight.
I have reported recently on the situation around Gary Robb and the arrest of his previous business partner and a few others. It is quite noticeable that very few of the other newspapers have even mentioned the story. Strange, because if this suggested massive fraud turns out to be true, then it is of major interest to anybody who has been highly critical of the serious problem of corruption which may be here on the island. The Cyprus Today has said that tenders have been invited to continue the work on Amaranta Valley for work to restart before the end of the year. The only mention of the arrest they make is to suggest that Mr Soycan was preparing a legal case against newspapers that have published false stories of fraud. Mr Soycan's initial detention ends on Sunday, lets hope that he does not just skip the country.
The owner of Cyprus Paradise has issued a warning that his company faces severe financial problems due to the downturn in tourism in the TRNC. This on the back of the bankrupcy of TWI reported last week. Cyprus Paradise are asking the government for help, either by subsidy or bringing down flight costs to assist.
Weather reports suggest that August will finally be the hotest month on record for a number of years. The average temperature will be 38C compared with a normal 34C. Add to this a 20% increase in humidity and it can get quite uncomfortable. Add further to this the five power cuts we have had in the last week and things get quite frustrating, especially when you discover that the builders have used all your diesel for their cement mixer.
One bit of good news. Liverpool beat West Ham, 2.1 at home. Sorry George, but we both enjoyed the game.
We said after the last boat trip, that we would organise another, as soon as Pat and Brian got back from UK. Well today was the day and as Jeff and Ann's family were still with them we where able to take a couple of pirates with us for the day. Ecevit, our regular sea captain, even stepped aside for driver Tom for a little while. Sorry about the picture quality, but I only had my mobile camera phone with me.
The whole trip was as usual a great day out and the two boys really enjoyed the experience but where totally shattered by the time we got back to the harbour at 4.30 p.m.
Yesterday the builder said that the tilers wanted to continue laying our floor today, Sunday, as they are running a little behind schedule. Joan and I came home all full of anticipation, guess what no tilers have been.
Well some things did happen yesterady whilst we were enjoying ourselves on the boat trip. The guys came and rendered off the fireplace which of course now needs stonework and some granite to finish it off. We have bought a gas fire that looks like a woodburner to go in here and all reports are that this is a very efficient fire, we will see when the winter comes.
Before close of play Friday some floor tiles had been laid and these are starting to look very nice. It appears that the floor man got lost in one of the casinos over the weekend which is why we did not get any progress yesterday. The builder tells me that he is a great tiler but has this little problem with casinos, which is why he pays him by the square meter laid. When he needs money he works like stink, lets hope he lost real heavily over the weekend.
Things are getting serious in the Gary Robb affair.
That Was Close 27/08/2006
Attackers bombed and burnt down Gary Robb's next door neighbours house by mistake
Gary Robb escaped the attack just because he sent his cars to a nearby petrol station to be washed the previous day.
GARY John Robb's next door neighbour's house was bombed and burnt down by unidentified men who obviously took the identical house mistakenly for Robb's.
The house right next to Mr Robb's was burnt down in the early hours of Saturday around 5,00 AM causing horror in the neighbourhood that Gary Robb and his now terrified neighbours live. The residents on Marmara Street in Catalkoy woke up in the early hours of Saturday with a huge explosion and flames followed by the sirens of the Girne Fire Brigade who were promptly on the scene. The house that was attacked belonged to a prominent Lawyer Mr Ismet Izer who owned identical cars as Gary Robb.
A BMW Saloon type car and a BMW X3 4X4 belonging to Mr Izer were completely destroyed in the attack.
It is believed that the attackers mistakenly attacked the house next door to Gary Robb's due to the coincidence that Gary had the exact two same vehicles normally parked in his driveway.
Gary Robb told Cyprus times that he dropped of his BMW Saloon and his X3 4X4, which his mother normally drives to a nearby petrol station to be washed the previous evening and was due to pick them up the next morning.
This information strengthened the possibility to a point where it is nearly certain that the perpetrators of the attack were led to believe that the house that they bombed and burnt down belonged to Gary Robb due to the car similarity.
In the meantime the time that they chose to attack the house thinking that it belonged to Gary indicating that the attackers or those who influenced them wanted to make sure that Gary Robb was at home at the time of the attack.
"The very early morning bombing and arson was obviously aimed to kill Gary Robb therefore the police should take this case very seriously and treat it as an attempt on Gary Robb and his family's life" said a criminology expert speaking to Cyprus Times.
"After Tahir Soycan was arrested and remanded for nearly a fortnight for fraudulently stealing Gary Robb's money and property, an attack of this nature was expected" he added.
In the meantime after his return Gary Robb had requested Police patrol around his home after recieving various threats. The police had been patrolling the area at various hours. The police officers who participated in the patrol signed a log book stating the time they had arrived and inspected the area. According to the book that the Cyprus Times has seen no police officers had been patrolling Gary Robb's neighbourhood since the 2nd of August. This triggered another argument over the polices capacity of protecting prominent people who have been threatened by others and have concerns about their safety.
© Copyright Cyprus Times 2006
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