Turkish businessman accepting Varosha bookings for 2025

The unnamed businessman who claims to have purchased hotels in Varosha has stated that from Tuesday he would be accepting bookings for the 2025 season.

The businessman additionally claimed that he had now purchased a total four hotels, 86 apartments and 20 donums of land. Plans are already underway to build an amusement park and a beach club on that land, he said.

Although the fenced-off area of Varosha was opened by the Turkish occupation forces, under the control of which it was since 1974, the ghost town has been left untouched, operating exclusively as a tourist attraction. Given the state of Varosha, it is difficult to see how there would be hotels operating there in two years.

Although there had been claims that Varosha would be turned into the Cannes of the eastern Mediterranean, and its official opening was attended by President Erdogan, no work has been undertaken on the town apart from the opening of a stretch of beach.

The businessman, whose identity remains a secret, still sounded optimistic. “Soon Varosha will relive its old days,” he said, further claiming that another 29 hotel owners have submitted proposals to him to buy their properties.

The latest reports are a significant development in the businessman’s initial claims that he purchased the Cleo Hotel, the Golden Seaside Apartment Hotel, and the Aegean Hotel.

Speaking to Yenis Bakis, a report later carried by the Press and Information Office (PIO), the businessman said that since April he has purchased an additional hotel – now his fourth in Varosha, along with 86 apartments and 20 donums of land.

He was further quoted as saying that he was pleased to have taken on “this initiative for Varosha, which has been closed off for 49 years”. He added that he felt encouraged to do so after the “positive stance” taken by Turkey and the north on this issue.

He referred to previous statements made by ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli that the ‘cabinet’ could decide that Varosha be rezoned so that it was no longer considered a military area. That, he added, would mean the hotels would become available for use by the public.

“As of today, reservations are open to everyone – if our government, cabinet, decides to remove the military status zone from Varosha then I will immediately renovate the properties and make them useable.

“If, however, cabinet does not decide on such a move then unfortunately I will have to cancel all reservations from September 2024,” he was quoted as saying, in reference to ‘officials’ in the north.

In a bizarre twist, the businessman claimed that reservations for 2025 could be made at www.cyprusvarosha.com which is an interactive medium where users create avatars and tour the area.

The businessman’s explosive claims were first reported in April which led to a scramble within the government to try and authenticate the reports. The businessman claimed in April that the Republic’s interior ministry had confirmed the sale of the property in Varosha.

He told Turkish Cypriot media that he has been following the Varosha issue closely for four years, adding that he bought the hotels by meeting with their owners and that they got approval for it from the interior ministry and the ‘TRNC interior ministry’.

At the time, the interior ministry said that: “Since it [the sale document] has not been filed in the land registry, we as the interior ministry cannot do anything else. There is nothing to investigate.”

Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou added that as far as the sale deed was concerned, it was a private deal that the interior ministry had not authority be become involved in.

Ioannou added that the ministry has been in contact with the attorney-general’s office to see what legal measures could be taken if and when there were developments on the matter.

No sales transaction was made for the three hotels in Varosha through the immovable property commission in the north, according to its chairman, Novber Ferit Vehci.

The Cyprus Mail found that the agreement made for the purchase of three initial hotels in Varosha, between a businessman and their Greek Cypriot owners, appears to have no validity. It was most probably an attempt to push for amendments of the law in the north to open the way for the sale of properties in the fenced-off city.

However, the Hoteliers’ Association (Pasyxe) said soon after that private deals are being brokered by agencies for the sale of Greek Cypriot properties.

On the topic of Varosha, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Sunday, prior to the latest report, that: “Surely the passage of time creates new fait accompli.”

“We will take all the diplomatic, political steps, but the only way to prevent all these fait accompli is to solve the Cyprus problem,” he said, adding “there is no other way”.