More rains will bring the wall down, antiquities chief warns

By Jean Christou

ANTIQUITIES Director Sophocles Hadjisavvas yesterday warned that unless work was allowed to resume to repair the Venetian wall at the Roccas bastion it was in danger of total collapse.

” If we don’t take measures – and this it not a new story because I’ve been warning the United Nations for many years now that the wall will collapse – if the rain continues and the forecast says it will, then we will have a real problem.”

A section of the old Venetian wall at the bastion opposite Paphos Gate collapsed earlier this month after heavy rains. The bastion marks the edge of the boundary between the UN buffer zone and north Nicosia, and the Turkish Cypriot regime has previously refused permission for the wall to be tampered with. An agreement reached to jointly repair the wall was reached last week but the Turkish side withdrew suddenly on Monday, leaving the work unfinished.

UNFICYP officials met on Tuesday with representatives of both sides to discuss the issue and established that the Turkish side was contesting where the ceasefire line began and ended. A new meeting was held on Wednesday, but UNFICYP could not be reached for comment yesterday to establish the outcome of the meeting.

” I don’t know what is the issue is with the Turks,”Hadjisavvas said. ” Some years ago they did some military work there undercover pretending it was a playground, so probably they don’t want us to climb on the wall to do anything.”

Under the initial plan, it was agreed the Greek Cypriot side would undertake repairs to the bottom half of the wall and the Turkish Cypriots would repair the top half. UNOPS was to pay for the cost of the renovation.

Hadjisavvas said the work could be completed without the co-operation of the Turkish side, if the UN offered protection to the antiquities workmen, since the face of the wall is actually within the buffer zone.

But he said he was waiting for the UN to come up with a solution

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