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Our
adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....
   
Another day another dollar, or in this case another month in to 2007. Why is it that the older you get the faster time seems to go?
It is Saturday again so time to see what the Cyprus Today has to tell us this week.
First piece of news for all of you with holiday homes over here. you only get a 30 day visa now so be careful not to overstay your welcome. This is an e-mail that I have received this week on just this subject:-
Hi Frank,
As an avid reader of your diary, I thought you may be interested in what happened to me and my wife during a recent visit to TRNC.
We are buying a holiday property in Arapkoy and decided to stay for about 5 weeks so we could clean and furnish the villa. We had an enjoyable, if busy
5 weeks. Our problem came when we went to Ercan airport to fly back to the UK.
We were stopped at passport control and were asked to step into the office.
Apparently we had over stayed our welcome by 6 days. A new rule had been introduced which allows visitors to stay for 30 days only. So we had to pay a fine of 44YTL per person per day, we had over stayed. This amounted to approximately £200 fine! We were told that if we did not pay there and then, the next time we entered the TRNC the fine would be doubled. We had looked at all the available websites before our visit, and they all stated a 3 month stay was allowed on a current passport.
On arriving back in the UK we contacted the TRNC Embassy in London and spoke to the Embassy Consular. He said that he had not received any official notification of a change in the rules from TRNC, but had received the same complaint from many disgruntled visitors in the past few weeks. He asked me to put our complaint in writing and he would pass it on the relevant minister in the TRNC.
We have notified the TRNC Ministry of Tourism, via the link on your website, of the change in rules and they have now updated their website, but there are many websites that still refer to the 3 month stay.
We are not hopeful that we will get our money back, but thought you may want to warn future visitors to the TRNC, of this new rule. STAY MORE THAN 30 DAYS.... AND THE VISITOR PAYS!!!!
Best regards
John & Jane Flack
Apparantly there are no notices advising the change of rules so people are being caught unawares. The BRS are suggesting that the authorities are tightening up all round and that the best answer is to apply for temporary residency on an annual basis if you are going to be here frequently. Also if you have a return flight booked then you should show the passport control this and they will grant a visa until this date. Just be careful I would suggest.
This week coming sees the long awaited meeting between Presidents Talat and Papadopolous, so next week we should have something about the outcome of that meeting. In a recent TV interview, Mr Talat is on record as saying that he is warning that the island is heading towards permanent division. That would be a different solution.
Page 3, in the side column, a little notice that CTA now has a pilot as it's new General Manager, what happened to last month's dentist I wonder?
The case of the intelligent thief. A building worker from Turkey, broke in to the home of an English lady where he broke open a built in safe and stole two cheque books. He then went to a local market shop, signed a cheque for goods and put his name and phone number on the back of the cheque, making it quite easy for the local police to catch him.
Finally as a bit of a supporter, I have got to mention Liverpool's current postion in the premier league, helped by a 6 - 0 win over Derby. Could this finally be the season we have been promised....?
Big Sunday brunch as usual as we seem to do this every week whilst Stewart remains on his own over here. Very enjoyable too.
Later we had a bit of a BBQ with David and Liz, Pat and Bryan. It has been a long time since we were able to get together with David & Liz, as they have been back to UK a number of times for family reasons, so it was good to be able to catch up with their news. No pics as you must all be quite bored with photos of people sitting around our big garden table.
An interesting evening out. We went with George and Susan to meet up with Andrew Cowley and his wife Sue at Haci Al's restaurant. As soon as we went in to the restaurant we noticed a complete change in staff from the previous week. This clearly included the chef as well, because two of us got fillet steak with gristle on it, the service was not what it always was there, so we came away a little disappointed. Now we had heard a rumour that around 800 Turkish nationals with passport irregularities had been sent back to the mainland and had also seen a notice in the restaurant across the road asking for new waiters. Maybe this is all part of the general pressure being brought on businesses to clean up thier act and to start paying tax and social security.
Whilst we were in UK, Susan had managed to buy tickets for us to attend the TRNC Music Festival. They had been last Saturday to the Jose Carreras concert, which they say was very enjoyable, but not quite our cup of tea. This evening we did collect them from home and went first to the new Ezic Premier restaurant situated on the eventually to be opened by-pass, where we had an excellent, very reasonably priced, meal.
Afterwards we went to Bellapais where The Bilkent Symphony Orchestra was performing in the Abbey. This Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1993 as an original project of Bilkent University. It has since expanded and developed and now puts on over 80 concerts per year throughout Europe. Tonights music included Brahms Piano Concerto No 1, with a stunning performance by the soloist Rauf Kasimov and then after the interval Beethoven's Symphony No 7.
Bellapais Abbey lends itself very well to these sort of concerts with wonderul acoustics, but do take your own cushions or you will end up with a very "numb bum" after an hour or so. This was the 5th North Cyprus International Music Festival so guess we will be looking forward to next year as well.
What a lovely surprise this evening. As usual the gang went to LDs for the meeting around the trough...when in walked Anne and Jeff. They had arrived in Larnaca at 4 p.m. this afternoon and guessed rightly that we would all be there.
Jeff tells us that he is currently in remission after his radium treatment and the specialist had given him permission to fly and come over for a short break before their next meeting on 24th September. They needed to sort a few things out around the villa and most importantly had made the decision to take their big Kia 9 Seater vehicle back to UK before the tax has to be paid at the end of September. They are going to book a ferry off the island for next Tuesday and then drive through Turkey to connect with the 3 day ferry trip to Northern Italy, this only leaves them 900 miles to Calais. With Anne as the only driver they propose to take it easy with regular overnight hotels. We have to say that Jeff has a very positive attitude to the whole thing and looks so much better than he did when Joan and I saw him in UK.
Finally seem to have caught up with things after a fairly hectic time since we got back from UK. Joan and I actually sat in last night, had a leisurely dinner and watched a DVD.
I have to say that for the last three days we have had some tremendously strong winds with gusts that have, they say, reached 80 kilometres/hour. This is borne out by the fact that once again we found our garden swing seat almost in the pool and the excessive gusts seem to come mostly at night. We have now taken off the sun canopy bit as this is just acting like sail. We have been going to bed with the windows open on two sides in our room and been woken in the night by horizontal curtains. They do say that this wind is related to a new moon, but three days and four nights is a bit excessive.
OK so we all wanted some progress from the presidential meeting last Wednesday. Well just as expected - no progress. The following is an article published in the Cyprus Times:-
The long awaited meeting between President Mehmet Ali Talat and the Greek Cypriot Leader Tassos Papadopulos has failed to produce any concrete results.
The two leaders held a three-hour long meeting on Wednesday and President Talat proposed a two month-long preparation period to prepare the ground for fully fledged negotiations for a comprehensive settlement.
He also proposed a deadline of the end of 2008 by which negotiations on a comprehensive solution should be completed.
But, Greek Cypriot Leader Papadopulos rejected all these.
President Mehmet Ali Talat and the leader of the Greek Cypriot Administration Tassos Papadopulos met on wednesday for the first time in a year.
The meeting at the residence of the UN Chief's Special Representative to Cyprus Michael Moller in the UN-controlled buffer zone in Lefkosa lasted more than three hours.
Reading out a short statement at the end of the meeting, Mr Moller said the two leaders agreed on the need for the earliest start of a new process and discussed other issues leading to a comprehensive settlement.
Mr Moller said that the meeting was held in a constructive atmosphere and that the two leaders agreed to continue their contacts through the United Nations and to meet again when appropriate.
Speaking to reporters after returning to the Presidential Palace, President Talat said that he had proposed a two to two and a half month long preparation period to prepare the ground for fully fledged negotiations for a comprehensive settlement and a deadline of 2008 for the completion of the negotiations.
But, he said the Greek Cypriot Side - which he accused of playing for time - rejected all the proposals brought by him.
"We proposed the speeding up of the 8 July process and making it productive but unfortunately our proposals were rejected' he said.
The President stated that the Greek Cypriot Side - which he said wants to continue the process with few committees - rejected all timetables.
'Such a move will take us to the point where we started 14 months ago', he said.
Noting that the Greek Cypriot Side is not ready to start full-fledged negotiations, he said that the Greek Cypriot Side's attitude is contrary to the short statement issued at the end of the meeting.
President Talat also added that the international isolation on the Turkish Cypriot people and exploration of oil in the Eastern Mediterranean were also on the agenda of the meeting.
He said he expressed his concerns to Mr Papadopulos on the issue of oil exploration.
© Copyright Cyprus Times 2007
OTHER NEWS.
Experts say that the exhaust emission tests which we all have to undergo on our vehicles are flawed. They have also suggested that favouritism and bribery could be at work. Surely not?
A warning to those of you who are renting out your property and not paying the monthly tax. Checks are in progress and prosecutuons are to start. We have heard that inspectors are just knocking on doors, asking about ownership and rental paid and then charging heavy fines for non participation in the scheme. One couple, we believe, had rented out for two summer weeks and when they could not prove that they had not had further rents they were charged for 52 weeks at 10% of the weekly rate, plus a fine. So take care this governement needs money and is hitting the obvious areas.
There is more pressure coming from within the EU to honour it's commitment to TRNC. Liberal and Democratic MEPs have asked questions of the commission which requires them to be answered in the parliament's general assembly.Add to this the fact that the new president of the UN wants to meet with our president in October. All this is coming at a time when there are new presidential elections due in the South.
Tomorrow is Bryan's 73rd birthday so Pat organised to have the gang round this evening to help the birthday boy celebrate. As usual The Layabouts were more than happy to oblige and help with the party, any excuse will do as you all know. The surprise visit of Anne and Jeff, to the island, made a welcome addition to the group so they were there to raise a glass to Bryan.
On Tuesday these two get on a ferry from Kyrenia and begin the journey back to UK taking their car off the island before the tax becomes due. Lets wish them a safe journey.
Barbara;s son Robert and his partner Pippa are over for a week so we were all asked to attend Barbara's BBQ. She held this specifically today as it would have been Michael's birthday. As usual with the Layabouts you can get more views at the trough and a reasonable consumption of beer and wine. We all had a very good evening and so did Mozart, Barbara's recent new find, a stray cat, that has taken up residence under her watertank and of course him taking up residence could not have anything to do with the fact that Barbara is feeding him! This guy has clearly been domesticated and then maybe abandonded, he gets more and more friendly by the day, but he got called Mozart because he is very, very noisy and as soon as somebody appears he starts calling. Barbara called in the cat catcher to take him to the vets, but the wise old boy thought they are not taking any bits off me, so chose to disappear that very morning, returning in the evening for his food. He really is a lovely fellow so don't be surprised to see him curled up inside and in comfort, come the winter.
Ikea have opened up in the south so Joan and I just had to go and see for ourselves. Actually we really went over for an eyetest, as we had not had our eyes tested for 4 years now and reckoned it was about time.
For some time now Joan has been saying that she feels happier driving without her glasses on but definitely needs some help with the reading and I have been wearing varifocals for a number of years. The last eye test was here in the north and we had our current glasses from here also. Well the young lady who did the tests said that Joan was long sighted and did not need glasses, except for maybe her computer screen and for reading. Question, why had she been prescribed varifocals also, some four years ago? The proof will be in the new glasses, but it makes you wonder sometimes at the various methods of testing and the variation in results, worrying.
For those who want to know, Ikea was quite good to see, but we are still only allowed €135.00 per person across the border, so no large items of furniture I'm sorry to say, unless you want to pay 30% import duty.
Saturday seems to come round more quickly each week.
Headline news this week. Ercan airport car park payments start this week. When? From this coming Thursday. How much? No-one knows. Now why does this not raise anything more than a laugh amongst us all here? Apparantly they, CTA that is, are going to control the whole thing and use their staff to collect money initially, until there are barriers and ticket machines installed. They have not decided how to differentiate between long and short stay and how to handle dropping off and picking up only. Now it just so happens, that I am taking Stewart to Ercan for about 6.30 a.m. next Thursday morning so that could be interesting. At least they may find jobs for some of the excess staff they have, but maybe they will just recruit some more friends in to the fold.
Absentee landlords. The rental tax system is to be made easier but will probably take three months to implement. Ideas seem to be to make the tenant responsible or allow payments via direct debit. At the moment you are supposed to attend the tax office every month, on the 15th, make a declaration of income earned and pay the 10% tax. I don't know if you use agents here to handle things they are allowed to pay on your behalf, but suggest you check it out as the fines are quite high for non payment.
Seems that the "Aga Saga" is still very much on-going, with buyers being asked for even more money for completions. I can sense the objections because passed performance might suggest that this would not be the end of things.it really is time that the government stepped in and forced some sort of solution.
Things are changing fast over here. There have been two reported break-ins during the night in Alsancak. In both cases the people were sleeping and heard nothing. Time for the baseball bat under the bed technique, because I don't think the law would be on the side of the burglars here.
Joan and I spent a lot of time on Sunday last, pulling out all the pipework for the irrigation system, that we are no longer allowed to use due to the water shortage. Next stage will be to put in pipes that go down to the plant and shrub roots, so that the minimum amount of water goes direct to where it's needed. it is still very hot over here, so by early afternoon we had had just about enough and the pool was very tempting.
In the evening Barbara joined us for some steak on the BBQ, salad and jacket baked spuds. We spent a pleasant evening enjoying good food and the bottle of white wine that Barbara had brought with her.
Today, Wednesday, I drove over to Larnaca airport to collect Anne & Jeff's friends, Rod & Stella. The news is that Anne & Jeff got back to UK on Sunday evening last, with their car and after a very good journey, so now Jeff just has to start his chemo. treatment and we all wish him well with that. Anne is due back here again tomorrow evening, because her friends are here and her sister arrives next week, she is going to be exhausted by the time she gets back to TRNC.
This morning was the early rise morning, 4.30 a.m., to get Stewart to the airport to go to UK for three weeks. Now remember that today is the first day of the new airport car park charges. Well let me tell you that at 6.a.m there is certainly nobody from CTA looking like they were keen to take money in exchange for a piece of paper. However it does look as if some preparation work has been done, as there are some of those nasty drop down metal teeth been put into the roadways to allow exit only in some areas.
On the basis that a change is as good as a rest, we all gathered at the Asmali restaurant, here in Lapta, this evening. Bryan had been down yesterday and organised for a table of eleven, with most of us wanting Kleftiko as a main dish. Apart from the seven regulars here at present we were joined by Fiona and her Mum & Dad, who are all over on holiday, Andrew who has recently come over here for good and Rod & Stella who I collected yesterday and brought along this evening, as Anne is not due in until the early hours of the morning. It was a good evening for the guy and his wife who own this little local restaurant and I have to say that they laid on a very good meze starter, an excellent kleftiko, followed by home made pancakes, fruit and very "small" glasses of local brandy to go with the coffee. All for around 40 YTL each, super value and I will not need to eat for a few days. You can find the Asmali Restaurant by turning left just before you get to Flippers Hotel, on the main road between Lapta and Karsiyaka.
Oh yes, Mozart the stray tomcat, was collected from Barbara's today, but will be back before the weekend, minus a couple of little bits.
Over to the south early this morning to collect our new glasses. Wow, I can actually see properly now, the differance is quite incredible. Joan has not worn her glasses during the day, since the the young lady optician told her they were not needed, she is amazed that it works, but has got so used to wearing her light weight frames cosmetically, that she has asked for them to be converted into reactorlight sunglasses. I am having my old glasses converted to full sunglasses with the same prescription as these new ones. Collection next week we hope. Interestingly we will both have new glasses and the old converted for less than we paid for just two pair three years ago and the eye test was included. Almost as good as Specsavers!!!
Having saved money on our glasses, ha ha, we finally succumbed to something we have been looking at and talking about, for some time, a 32" Sony LCD television which is HD ready, in the event we ever get digital TV here. So guess what we did this evening, yep, out with a DVD, a bottle of wine and feet up to enjoy. Have to say the old one was very good quality but this is something really nice. Now the next question will be, do we go for wireless surround sound before the winter, which is telly watching season.
Sunday has come round again very quickly so guess I need to read the news over breakfast and see what is interesting.
Orams case goes to the human rights court says the headlines.The London Appeal Court, ruled in June, that crucial European Union law issues could only be resolved by the European Court of Justice so now the couple have had to file with the European Court of Human Rights. This has been filed to protect their rights befgore the case is considered by the European Court of Justice. Complicated issues but an important outcome for us all, now that things have gone this far. The couple are now appealling for support from other property owners and warn of the lawsuit floodgates opening up if they lose their case.
This is interesting, as there is another situation brewing as reported this week. A report in The Cyprus Times under the heading:-
NIGHTMARE IN SOUTH 25/09/2007
Property exchange nightmare in southern Cyprus.A possible approval by the European Court of Human Rights of a property exchange between a Greek and Turkish Cypriot is on the agenda; whether to accept a land exchange between a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot. The European court seems to be in the final stages of deciding.
The European court will possibly ratify the exchange of properties in Cyprus in the case of Mike Tymvios, a Greek Cypriot who petitioned the Property Commission in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) for a land exchange with a Turkish Cypriot. Now the case is in the hands of the European court for approval.
The move has far-ranging implications for all Turkish and Greek Cypriot refugee applicants to the European court, who would then have to use the Property Commission until a Cyprus settlement is reached.
If this request of both parties is ratified by the European court, then an exchange of lands will take place officially in the land registry offices of the KKTC and the Greek Cypriot administration. Following this decision, it is very likely that all the other appeals to the European court will possibly be conveyed to the Property Commission in the KKTC.
Another issue relevant to this property exchange would be the Guardian of Turkish Cypriot Property, which is part of the Greek Cypriot administration and is the only so called authority in southern Cyprus legally allowed to return land to Turkish Cypriots who claim it back under the courts, if they have been residing in southern Cyprus for six months or more.
Turkish Cypriots would not need to be inhumanely forced to reside in the Greek Cypriot territories to repossess their property, if the current property exchange is ratified by the European court. To repossess their lands, Turkish Cypriots have since 1974 been forced to reside in the territories of Greek Cypriot administration, although they are citizens of the European Union. The European court will put an end to this inhumane enforcement, which is against human rights as well.
Although the Greek Cypriot administration claims that a Turkish Cypriot living in the territories of the KKTC could take the property of a Greek Cypriot refugee, it is unlikely that the reverse could apply, since Turkish Cypriot properties in the Greek Cypriot southern areas are protected by the "Guardianship Act." The European court's final decision will also nullify this law.
If the European court gives the green light to the property exchange, not only does it give legitimacy to the Property Commission of the KKTC, but it also puts the guardian on the spot because the Greek Cypriot refugee would be claiming Turkish Cypriot land not legally returned by the guardian, the Greek Cypriot administration.
A possible refusal by the guardian to accept the European court's ruling, if it is in favor of the Greek Cypriot refugee, could propel the Greek Cypriot administration into a collision course with the court.
The Greek Cypriot administration may very well say they don't want to accept the decision to hand over the land which is under the jurisdiction of the guardianship, but the result will be a head-on clash between the Greek Cypriot administration and the European Court of Human Rights and, as a consequence, the Council of Europe. The council would ultimately raise the matter if the European court ruling was not implemented by the Greek Cypriot administration.
This case is a real nightmare in the policy of the Greek Cypriot administration and Mr. Palmas, who in his last statement stated that if this property exchange is ratified by the European court, the Greek Cypriot administration will refuse to enforce it.
The Greek Cypriot administration is opposed to this act and has requested from the European court that a private settlement for the exchange of properties in Cyprus be reassessed and the same day made an official call to Greek Cypriots not to follow Mr. Tymvios, as this act would deeply damage their policy on the road to settlement.
Actually the "enosis" dreams and inactivity of Tassos Papadopoulos' administration in the Cyprus problem have not only led to a dead end, but have also showcased the incapability of the Greek Cypriot administration to handle serious aspects of the problem, such as the settlement of property disputes, along with others.
All in all, things are still very much in the melting pot.
Now I read that the parking charge at Ercan started on Thursday. Must have been breakfast time for the staff when I arrived there. There is currently a flat rate charge of 5 YTL per day, manually implemented by staff, but this will change when the barriers and ticketing machines are introduced over the next couple of months. Meantime I suppose if you have a second cousin on the staff you will be able to park for free, unless of course you are an ex-pat.
The paper says "drivers' attitudes to road safety are improving". At the same time the paper reports that nearly half the drivers in Girne still reckon it's OK to break the law. They say that if the driver is in a hurry then the traffic rules should be ignored....Now the law also says that a new driver requires a minimum of 10 lessons before applying for a test. This obviously goes hand in hand with a comment by a lady friend of ours, who said that her driving test took 7 minutes in total. Can't say that I have noticed any change, but we have got used to their little ways.
We attended a supper organised at the beach bar & restaurant of the Denizkizi Hotel in aid of SPOT. This is a charity set up to Save the Turtles on our beaches and every year students come over to supervise the hatchings and protect the turtles and their nests.
Money is raised in many ways, but this event was organised by BRS and there was a donation from BRS, prised out of the chairmans funds. The usual raffle took place and we even had a quiz set up by one of the main turtle people and of course when you have a quiz you have to have a prize winner.
A pleasant evening enjoyed by all.
At the end of a week which saw us just doing the regular things there are some news items that may well be of interest.
A ferry service is to commence between Famagusta and Latakia in Syria. Now this may not seem very interesting to you but it is part of the recognitionof TRNC by Syria and that is of great importance for the recognition of the TRNC passports. The south were obviously objecting and trying to get the service banned declaring the port as being illegal.
The TRNC government is considering changes in property law which will allow foreign residents to lease property for fixed rents for periods ranging from 10 to 99 years. The idea is to avoid the need for capital outlay but will still allow sub-let and the passing on of leases in wills etc. The whole needs much more thought as it is seen by some as an attempt to control foreign property ownership.
450 athletes from 12 countries have been taking part in the 9th International Games held here in TRNC. Fields as diverse as basketball, golf, judo, badmington and field sports were contended by both male and female athletes. Members of a Lebanese golf team were blocked from travelling through Cyprus by the south when they declared that they were attending the games in TRNC. Nothing changes; but this time Turkey sorted it, by flying them in through Istanbul in to Ercan.
Something new for Lapta. A weekly market is opening every Monday with produce stalls etc. that will be really good for us locals.
Diesel fuel has risen again from 1.75 YTL per litre to 1.80 YTL, but petrol remains unchanged. Just when I was contemplating changing my vehicle for something with more space in it.
The new well started operating in Kyrenia and immediately the increased pressure caused other problems. The pressure found water leaks in many of the old pipes under the streets so now they have to do emergancy repairs to these. There are long term plans to replace all the pipework but this is needed in many local areas so the 12 million euros pledged by the European Union will be sorely needed.
More Turkish Cypriots are crossing to the south than the other way round. The Democratic Party leader has said that government policy is forcing this to happen as prices are rising here due to taxation. He quoted the fact that electrical items are as much as 40% higher in price here, than across the border.
Yesterday evening Joan and I entertained David Rogers, who is over here at his Karaman villa, from Niarobi. We only see him a couple of times each year and it is lovely to catch up with his news each time.
It is lovely to be able to still sit out there until late in the evening and talk.
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