By George Psyllides
Backing the controversial project with links to the president that will cause major environmental disruption, the head of Pera Pedi village said small sacrifices must be made if a development will take place in a mountainous area.
The matter sparked a fierce debate after it emerged that land belonging to President Nicos Anastasiades and his family was included in the large tract of forest acquired by Parnitha Development Ltd, a company first set up in 1979, now belonging to one Leonid Buryy, who appears to have been granted Cypriot citizenship.
The issue was discussed by the House environment committee whose chairman said would be discussing the political angle next week.
The head of Pera Pedi, President Nicos Anastasiades’ birthplace, voiced his community’s support of the project, arguing that cutting a couple of thousand trees was a small sacrifice for a project that would breath life to the broader area.
Lenas Markantonis said environmental studies met 80 per cent of the conditions for the protection of the environment and they had no objection to the project.
“Reactions are strong but with proper study I believe that at the end of the day everyone will be convinced that the project must be done,” Markantonis said.
Of the concerns expressed by the forest department, he said it was an area with 10m trees.
“For a development to be done in a mountainous area some small sacrifices must be made,” he said.
He added that the 2,000 plus trees expected to be felled will be replaced.
“It is a densely forested area with many pine trees that felling 2,000 won’t have a big effect on the environment or the area itself.”
Markantonis went on to say that their initial reluctance was overcome after they saw the environmental study.
He argued that the project would create new jobs in the area, new tourism, and that would make people return to their villages.
The development will be built on an expanse totalling almost 200,000 square metres, of which construction will cover more than 24,000 square metres, including a hotel, a spa, five villas, a church, and a stable to host up to eight horses.
Preliminary estimates said that the development would require 2,114 trees to be felled, while subsequent figures increased the number to over 3,000. The developers say they plan to plant 1,800 new trees to compensate.
Committee chairman Adamos Adamou said the forest and water departments objected the project although the district office had given its okay. There was no word from the town-planning department or the environment service yet.
Green Party MP and former environment commissioner Charalambos Theopemptou voiced his concern.
He said the area had a dense forest, 2,200 trees would be felled for the buildings alone, there was a steep slope, and it was protected to safeguard the quality of the water in the Kourris reservoir and the river.
Theopemptou said an environmental study was one thing, what happened in reality was another.
Ruling Disy MP Annita Demetriou argued that it was beyond any reasonable doubt there had not been any outside intervention in the work of the departments handling the application.
Demetriou suggested that certain quarters were seeking to smear the president but the “effort to deconstruct the president’s personality has failed.”
“We’ve said it before and we repeat it today, certain campaign headquarters are resorting to black propaganda because of lack of arguments,” she added.
Akel, which has been leading the charge, was unfazed.
In a written statement the party posed three questions: why and how was the particular area chosen; how much was the land sold for, given that there is a request to develop the area; “because in recent days contradicting replies were given, what is at last the truth?”
