Kyrenia harbour businesses ‘will not open’ if demands are not met

Businesses in the Kyrenia harbour said on Wednesday they will not reopen when renovations to the harbour are complete unless demands made to the north’s ‘tourism ministry’ are met.

A total of 25 businesses in the harbour signed a letter to the ‘ministry’ which included a list of eight demands.

They said that every business should be given a loan from the north’s development bank “with no questions asked”, and that they should all be all given canvas covers to be able to continue their service in winter.

They also said the dimensions of the pedestrianised area and the outside area owned by each business must remain unchanged.

In addition, they demanded back payments for funds they say they were promised during the construction period.

They say the ‘tourism ministry’ promised to allocate grants to the businesses in December 2022 and February of this year, and that compensation for lost earnings would be paid for every day after the originally scheduled completion date of May 30.

Additionally, they say the ‘ministry’ had pledged to pay the social security contributions of business owners and workers while the harbour was under renovation.

The harbour’s renovation project has been plagued by delays throughout the process, with it currently believed that renovation work will be completed on October 20.

Cenk Tosunoglu, director of Tosunoglu construction, the company which is carrying out the renovation work, said the latest delay was attributable due to a “slower than expected approval process for paving stones and gravel”.

He said that renovation work is 90 per cent complete, and that once the harbour has been repaved, lighting will be installed.

To this end, he said there are no “big things” left to do.