Tatar reiterates call for common earthquake response unit

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar reiterated on Tuesday that he thinks there should be a dialogue with President Nikos Christodoulides on a common earthquake response unit, as a few schools in the north continued to hold class in tents.

Speaking at the Eurasian Economic Summit in Istanbul, Tatar said at his first meeting with Christodoulides they agreed Cyprus is a small island where cooperation can be achieved with an earthquake response unit.

Stating his belief that despite the disagreements in Cyprus, “continuous communication and dialogue will contribute to both politics and the economy and stability in the region,” Tatar also referred to the prospect of cooperation for the exploitation of energy deposits of the area.

Meanwhile, as some schools continued holding classes in tents on Tuesday, the students at Cumhuriyet High School in Lefkoniko, where the tents flooded on Monday, were told to have online lessons.

Commenting on the situation and the outcry from unions and opposition parties, ‘Education Minister’ Nazim Cavusoglu said that his office had prepared a list of more than 100 projects that needed to be completed, and applied to the Turkish embassy for financial assistance in the north.

He said that they were forced to erect the tents after the buildings were deemed unsafe the embassy had never responded to their requests.