THE COMPANY charged with the destruction of a grade one archaeological site in the village of Kazafani says it will do all it can to go ahead with its project to build luxury housing on the site of an early Bronze Age necropolis.
Reacting to an article that appeared in the Cyprus Mail one week ago, Sercem Construction Ltd boss Cemal Bulutoglulari said: “We have the necessary licences to build on the plot, we have done nothing illegal,” adding that his company had issued an appeal to the Turkish Cypriot antiques and monuments council to have the grade one status of the site at Vounos lifted.
According to a spokesperson at the north’s museums and antiquities department, the antiques and monuments council will be meeting next week to discuss the case.
Although the outcome of next week’s meeting is uncertain, Cypriot archaeologist Vassos Karageorgis is unequivocal on what a decision in favour of Sercem would mean.
“Vounos is one of the most important– if the not the most important – early and middle Bronze Age necropolis in the Middle East. It was the first to be discovered and excavated and nobody knows, in fact there is no doubt, that there are other undiscovered tombs there. If the [building] works go ahead, either they will be destroyed or buried forever.”
Sercem said the decision to prevent them building at Vounos is unjust and claimed that neither the Cyprus government nor the breakaway state in the north were concerned about the archaeological remains there until the company began “cleaning up” the site in mid May.
Bulutoglulari, in countering the department’s claim, draws attention to the fact that the site was only registered as a grade one archaeological site on May 27 this year, three months after the company bought the site from its previous owner.
He also questions how, if the site was of archaeological importance, there was no mention of this fact on the land’s title deeds or why building permission from the authorities in the north was forthcoming.
The company has requested that the monuments and museums council reconsider its decision and allow building to go ahead.
Sercem is a Turkish Cypriot-owned company, which claims to have built hundreds of villas in the north in the last two years alone. Its sister company Sercem Asphalt Ltd has also undertaken major road building projects, most notably the Nicosia to Kyrenia highway and the runway at the newly refurbished Tymbou (Ercan) airport.
Its owners have complained that staff at the north’s museums and antiquities department gave “their personal views” on the Vounos case while it was still under review by the antiques and monuments council and that articles written on the case did not make it clear that the property in question was Turkish Cypriot-owned, and not land abandoned by Greek Cypriots following the Turkish invasion in 1974.
According to the museums and antiquities department spokesperson, Sercem’s lawyer has contacted the department informing it that the company is preparing taking legal action against it.
The department, meanwhile, has filed a case against Sercem for alleged damage caused to the site. However, when the Cyprus Mail contacted the Kyrenia District prosecutor’s office it was told that “no such case has been filed”.
