Demonstration against Akamas fires

A demonstration against Wednesday’s arsonist attacks in Akamas is taking place on Saturday outside the agriculture ministry.

Following the fires that broke out in Akamas, the organisation Save Akamas, Save Cyprus is organising a protest outside the new agriculture ministry near Kalispera traffic lights at 12pm with the slogan ‘Hands off Akamas’.

The fire broke out at 9.30am on Wednesday and took eight hours to extinguish, burning 70 hectares of pine trees, bushes and vegetation.

“Since 2017 the Akamas peninsula is systematically targeted by arsonists. During these three years, arsonists have set around 80 fires in or around the National Forest Park,” the announcement said. “The state is at best tolerating and at worst encouraging such criminal behaviours.”

According to the organisers’ announcement, protesters are demanding the government take appropriate measures and press charges against the perpetrators.

“Your crocodile tears are not enough to put out the flames you set at Akamas,” they said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.