The north’s ‘government’ on Monday formalised its plans to move northern Nicosia’s court buildings from their current location in Nicosia’s old town to the under-construction ‘government’ complex in Ayios Dhometios.

The ‘government’ gazette officially allocated a site in the area to the east of what will be the Turkish Cypriot leader’s official residence, which is currently part of a military base, for the construction of a new courthouse.

Incumbent Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had said in September he was “making moves” on the matter of building new court buildings in the north, with northern Nicosia’s courthouse having first opened in 1904.

All of the court buildings in the north except for those in Trikomo date back to the British colonial period, with Tatar in September having described them as “inadequate”.

The new ‘government’ complex is set across a total of 657,000 square metres and consists of a ‘presidential’ palace, a ‘parliament’, a mosque, and a park, as well as the planned courthouse.

Tatar’s new official residence was initially supposed to be complete “by the end of the year”, though it appears to have hit some delays, with the year set to end on Tuesday.

The north’s ‘public works minister’ Erhan Arikli had earlier this month told the Cyprus Mail of his pride that it was his ‘ministry’ which had “administered this project from source to sea”, but the project has not come without criticism.

Serdar Denktash, son of late Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, told the Cyprus Mail the near 5 billion TL (€138 million) spent on the project could have been better spent elsewhere.

“We need schools and hospitals. We need infrastructure which can support the population,” he said.

He added that in prioritising the construction of the complex, the north has “put the cart before the horse, and we are now trying to move forward”.

“This project is neither beneficial to the Turkish Cypriot people, nor is this the message we should be giving to the world,” he said.