THE NUMBER of Cypriots living inside Nicosia’s historic centre has dropped to less than half its total population, parliament heard yesterday.
“There have been demographic changes in the past 10 years with the settlement of immigrants in the walled city of Nicosia,” Mayor Eleni Mavrou told the House Interior Committee.
The committee yesterday discussed the problems of the walled city of Nicosia, an issue that had been pending since it was tabled in 2007.
According to a 2004 survey, Cypriots made up only 45 per cent of the population of the walled city – 30 per cent of whom were over 60 years old.
Youths under 18-years-old were just 15 per cent.
The Nicosia Municipality believes migrants, who make up the largest section of the population, have no emotional ties with the place and its rich past. This assertion was made despite the fact that many migrants have built businesses in the area catering to the needs of their compatriots who have made the old town their new permanent home.
The council believes there is friction between ethnicities due to the difference in attitudes and the problems they experience away from home. This creates a “feeling of insecurity” for the rest of the residents and visitors, the municipality declared.
“The feeling of security needs to be bolstered,” Mavrou said.
Many immigrants, legal and illegal, live in squalid, overcrowded dwellings rented out by locals, who charge them by the head.
The director of the Nicosia Trade and Industry Chamber Socratos Heracleous said incentives were needed for the development of the old city.
As things were now, it was more advantageous for property owners not to fix their houses, and rent them out to five or 10 people, he said.
Referring to a state housing plan that included the old city, officials said there was not much interest to settle there but there was huge interest to set up businesses.
The shopkeepers union said small and medium businesses in the centre had a survival problem.
“We let the heart and soul of Nicosia commit suicide,” Stefanos Koursaris told the committee.
He suggested that moving a university department in the old town would bring much needed development and youth.
Police said they were introducing daily foot patrols in the area around Ledra Street and the Ochi Square.
But their duration – from 5pm to 8pm. – is not enough, say shop owners.
“If we could, we would have 24-hour patrols,” said police representative Soteris Katzikas.
Katzikas said the lack of holding space hindered the force’s campaign against illegal immigrants.
But the completion of a camp in Larnaca would allow them to carry out checks more often.
