Daggers drawn in north over new Apostolos Andreas road

Harsh words flew back and forth on Friday over plans to upgrade the road linking the village of Rizokarpaso and the Apostolos Andreas monastery, with the north’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli, Turkish Cypriot Rizokarpaso and Yialousa mayor Hamit Bakirci, and former Turkish Cypriot Rizokarpaso mayor Suphi Coskun all trading blows.

The chain of events began when Bakirci on Thursday night announced his intention to hold a press conference the following day to complain about the ‘government’s’ decision to prioritise upgrades to the road between the Famagusta district villages of Kalopsida and Acheritou.

Arikli responded on Friday morning, accusing Bakirci of “playing to the crowd”, and saying that the decision to upgrade the road between Kalopsida and Acheritou first had been made based on weather conditions.

“As we have previously announced, the road from Rizokarpaso to the monastery was included in our ministry’s programme, and according to that programme, the work would start at the end of this month, with construction vehicles moving in at the end of March or at the start of April when the rain stops,” he began.

He said that in the meantime, he had asked the contractor to mend the road between Kalopsida and Acheritou, as “this was a road which would not be affected much by rain and mud, since the work would be done on the old road”.

“We agreed. The company will quickly shift its vehicles to Acheritou, build this road in a very short time, and then shift its vehicles up to Rizokarpaso,” he added.

He then offered harsh words for Bakirci, saying he had “come on stage and tried to incite the local people against us”.

He pointed out that Bakirci had been elected as mayor in 2022 after having been endorsed by the north’s ruling coalition, but that “he has never even contacted us on the phone about the latest developments”.

Bakirci and Arikli both belong to ruling coalition parties, the UBP and the YDP respectively, with the three-party ruling coalition jointly endorsing candidates in the 2022 local elections.

“His aim was to play to the crowd. We included this road, which has not been touched for 50 years, in our programmes, and we will start and finish it in the next few months. Instead of encouraging us, the mayor is trying to score points by criticising us,” he said.

He then added, “please do not overstep your limits and your manners”.

Opposition party the CTP’s Suphi Coskun, who had been Rizokarpaso’s Turkish Cypriot mayor before the municipality merged with Yialousa between 2013 and 2022, then weighed in on the matter himself, finding himself largely in agreement with Arikli.

“I was in office for nine years and we fought for the road between Rizokarpaso and Apostolos Andreas to be constructed. The UBP mayor is engaging in showmanship. I met Arikli four times. I also met the company,” he told news website Gundem Kibris.

He added that he had also made visits to Ankara, and that as a result, it had been agreed that construction of the road would begin at the end of March or at the beginning of April this year.

“Today, this road is important for the people of the TRNC. 70 per cent of the tourists who come to this country go there. The company brought the machines 15 days ago to build the road. The company said it cannot be done right now due to the rain. They said it could only be done at the end of March,” he explained.

He then corroborated Arikli’s version of events regarding the road between Kalopsida and Acheritou, before pointing out that two members of ruling coalition parties were publicly at loggerheads, and criticising Bakirci’s position.

“The minister is from the YDP and the mayor is from the UBP. Action is one’s right, but there is consensus in this country. The mayor wants to gather people, but we need consensus first. He wants to play to the crowd without meeting the company or the minister.

“I would like to ask him, have you ever opened a dialogue with the minister or the mayor?”

Bakirci did get to say his piece, saying he had “called the honourable minister eight times” and that “he answered his phone twice”.

He also questioned Arikli’s reasoning over sending construction vehicles to Acheritou first, saying that the same techniques of road construction would likely be used for both roads, before accusing ‘governments’ of leaving the Karpasia region behind.

“They have locked us up here since 2004. Of course, while all this was going on and the road was scheduled to be built and is now being postponed, were we ever going to remain silent while the people of Rizokarpaso were talking about it. Was that what they wanted?”

He added, “I am not speaking here as Hamit Bakirci, I am speaking as the spokesman of this community. More than 90 per cent of this community has the same opinion as I do, as Arikli should very well know.”