Nicosia walls could collapse if Turkish Cypriots withhold co-operation

By Athena Karsera

TURKISH Cypriot refusal to co-operate with the Antiquities Department could lead to the part of the Venetian wall around old Nicosia crumbling and endangering lives.

Department head Sophoclis Hadjisavvas this week told reporters that a UN controlled portion of the wall at Paphos Gate had begun to fall apart.

Hadjisavvas said the falling wall was a public hazard as a busy road passed by the section near the CyTA roundabout.

The Turkish Cypriot side was unwilling to co-operate with the Department for reconstruction work on the wall, he said.

According to Hadjisavvas, UN officials told the Department the Turkish Cypriot stance meant permission could not be given for the restoration work to be carried out.

Hadjisavvas said the issue would be taken up with the new UN special representative once Dame Ann Hercus left the post at the end of September.

He said the Department had tried to meet with Hercus on the issue several times without success.

Hadjisavvas said that a French archaeologist and advisor to the United Nations Office for Project Services would shortly be submitting a report that would back up Greek Cypriot opinion that the wall required urgent attention.

Unficyp spokeswoman Sarah Russel yesterday could not confirm Hadjisavvas’ assessment, but did say the UN had last winter carried out work to preserve other parts of the Nicosia buffer zone.

She said this project, involving both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides, consisted of propping up ramshackle buildings that were in danger of collapse. Russel said full restoration process could only take place once a solution was found to the Cyprus problem.

Most of the buildings involved were built using traditional methods of mud bricks covered with plaster: “It’s been 25 years and the plaster has started coming off so the buildings are terribly exposed” and are damaged every time it rains, she said.

The walls and bastions encircling Nicosia were built by Venetians in the 16th century. Their rehabilitation is part of the municipality’s plans to revitalise the city.

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