Trikomo’s Turkish Cypriot mayor Hasan Sadikoglu and his municipality are both the subjects of a case which was handed over to the Turkish Cypriot police on Thursday, alleging lawbreaking on their part related to property construction in the area.

The case, which was compiled by environmental advocacy movement the Green Action Group, alleges that Sadikoglu and the municipality are guilty of negligence in not having prevented construction projects being undertaken without the relevant permits, and not having stopped them once they were underway.

“In these days when lawlessness and disregard for the law have emerged in our country, we will continue to protect our laws and carry on the fight against those who do not,” they said.

They also highlighted a recent increase in the number of accidents on construction sites which has been observed in the north, and described the situation regarding construction projects being undertaken without permits in Trikomo as “out of control”.

“Considering that a worker died on a construction site which was operating without a permit in this region before, we would like to highlight that the responsibility for this lies with the Trikomo municipality, which did not close the site,” they said.

Trikomo has seen rapid and large-scale construction in recent years, with the Long Beach area on the south side of the village having been transformed into a scene of high-rise apartment blocks.

The village and its surroundings became popular for construction due to the fact the land in the area is flat, as well as the fact that the local municipality’s construction regulations are more relaxed than in other parts of the north.

The properties have largely been bought by Russian nationals, with conflicts in Ukraine and in the Middle East pushing more people to buy in the area, and thus driving property prices up.

Newspaper Diyalog reported in November last year that apartments in new high-rise developments were selling for more than £200,000 (€229,048 at the time) – a near fourfold increase on typical prices from just two years prior.

Meanwhile, it is not just the Turkish Cypriot police becoming busy with related to Trikomo’s construction boom, with police in the Republic also having begun to arrest those they suspect of having participated in unauthorised development of Greek Cypriot land in the area, and in other parts of the north.

Israeli property developer Simon Mistriel Aykut was arrested in June while attempting to cross from the north to the Republic. He is the founder of the Afik Group, which has carried out various construction projects in Trikomo, many of which are believed to have been carried out on Greek Cypriot land.

Later, a 49-year-old German national was arrested after reportedly having spoken about selling property in the north to an off-duty police officer while aboard a flight to Larnaca airport.

Most recently, a 25-year-old Israeli national was released on a €92,000 bail after having been accused of “misusing” Greek Cypriot property in the north.