Harmanci says Nicosia Turkish Municipality should merge with Kioneli and Yerolakkos

Turkish Cypriot Nicosia Mayor Mehmet Harmanci called on Thursday for a merger between the Nicosia Turkish Municipality (LTB) and the neighbouring municipality in Kioneli and Yerolakkos.

Speaking to Kibris Postasi TV, Harmanci said LTB “has no choice” but to merge with the Kioneli-Yerolakkos Municipality.

He warned that “an internationally recognised capital city municipality will be whittled away and suffocated to a point where settlement is restricted, and good development principles are not even implemented” if the municipalities are not allowed to merge.

Municipality mergers were one of the long-running political stories in the north last year, as efforts were made to bring the cost of local administration under control.

Those efforts were met with fierce opposition, particularly from the north’s smaller municipalities, which feared being swallowed up by larger municipalities and losing their voice in larger and less local administrations.

Large-scale protests were held against the municipal reforms outside the north’s ‘parliament’ in April last year, while the differing visions of political parties led to delays in decision making.

Local elections in the north were pushed back six months to December 25 last year as a result, with the final outcome being a reduction in the number of municipalities in the north from 28 to 17.

Harmanci on Thursday said he was in favour of the principle of municipal mergers, but that the way it was done in practice left a lot to be desired.

“They should sit down and make proper plans now. The process of merging municipalities proceeded with political concerns, without involving the human element or any projections. Let’s not make the same mistake again,” he said.

Lamenting the lack of finances available to his municipality, he said “we have to pull an elephant out of the hat every month.”

“We are trying to make new investments despite the economic difficulties we are facing,” he added.

He also pointed out that LTB “is now one of the smallest municipalities in terms of geography,” and that the amount of money they receive from the north’s central ‘government’ has also decreased.

He also decried the lack land being made available for development in northern Nicosia, saying “while only a very small area is opened for development where we are, they opened almost a million square metres of land for development in Kioneli-Yerolakkos.”

Despite these issues, he said the first 10 months of his third term in office as mayor have been “a great success”.