Cyprus-Forum.com

[Oracle]

There's something familiar about this woman ... I can't quite put my finger on it


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aHh3ykPQEl4

Oracle, great, I nearly peed myself. I can just see trashinshit doing and saying that.

I suppose the Greeks had Lord Byron fighting their cause ... So the Turks have enlisted tess .....

.... As for whether or not I have any allegiance with Turkey, that, my dear, is none of your business ............ Ireland however DOES have strong feelings for the Turkish people as they aided the Irish during the famine when England stood by and did nothing. There are many Irish people who own holiday and retirement homes in Turkey myself included - why not?

"trnc" and Turkey ... or is one the same as the other

BTW ... why would the Irish people take up arms against the Cypriots just because the Turks supposedly aided them when the English did nothing. Confusing logic

Does tess hate the English even more?

[tessintrnc]

There's something familiar about this woman ... I can't quite put my finger on it


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aHh3ykPQEl4

Despite your allegations as to my Turkishness, I can assure you that I do not EVER wear the headscarf. The sensible cosy boots however are a different matter entirely..................... [/i]

[tessintrnc]

There's something familiar about this woman ... I can't quite put my finger on it


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aHh3ykPQEl4

Oracle, great, I nearly peed myself. I can just see trashinshit doing and saying that.

I suppose the Greeks had Lord Byron fighting their cause ... So the Turks have enlisted tess .....

.... As for whether or not I have any allegiance with Turkey, that, my dear, is none of your business ............ Ireland however DOES have strong feelings for the Turkish people as they aided the Irish during the famine when England stood by and did nothing. There are many Irish people who own holiday and retirement homes in Turkey myself included - why not?

"trnc" and Turkey ... or is one the same as the other

BTW ... why would the Irish people take up arms against the Cypriots just because the Turks supposedly aided them when the English did nothing. Confusing logic

Does tess hate the English even more?

Who has said that the Irish would take up arms against the Cypriots? I said that Ireland has close and affectionate ties with Turkey because of the famine aid. Have you been drinking? Or is your command/understanding of the English language slipping?

[Nikitas]

Umit asked:

"Nikitas are you a Civil Engineer by any chance you seem to be stuck on Varosha. What makes it so special to any other place on the island? I know that is was very developed for it's time and that the hotels there were huge, but why only there?"

No I am not a civil engineer. The reasons I am stuck on Varosi is that it is a huge project of RE-development, which means that no virgin land is spoilt and covered in cocnrete. Once the work starts it has the capacity to absorb all of theisland's building related people and thus leave the rest of the place alone. Urban renewal is he modern way to approach development, as opposed to the Cyprus approach of spoiling valuable cultivated land to build unrelated houses of doubtful aesthetics.

Just think of 40 000 people moving into the town, how this drops pressure on the rest of the island and how it will affect the value of houses. The probabilities are that prices will drop and housing will be more affordable for regular people of Cyprus, not tourists or retirees.

Famagusta also has the financial problem more or less solved. EU will lend the money for infrastctucture, not because it loves Cyprus, but because EU civil engineering companies will take over the heavy projects. The dwellings and other buildings will be paid for by loans taken out by their owners.

There is also a personal angle, since I grew up in the town and know it well.

[purdey]

Nikitas, do you not think the opposite may happen to Varosha. IE: all new, expensive builds, with an eye on the top end of the tourist market.
Seems to be the perfect opportunity for huge investment and where huge profits can be made. Affordable housing for locals may then take shape in the tourist areas of Limassol, where it seems there shift is away from tourism.
I hope I am barking up the wrong tree.

[Nikitas]

Purdey,

Varosi has a beachfront, but that was bought out by the usual suspects long ago. The redesign of the beachfront will be the big test for Cyprus, this process will show whether raw capitalism or the overall environmental interests will win out.

Behind the beachfront there is the major part of the town with medium to low grade housing in which normal people lived. It is this part which represents the big project of Varosi. I doubt that tourists will want to live in this part of the town.

[denizaksulu]

Purdey,

Varosi has a beachfront, but that was bought out by the usual suspects long ago. The redesign of the beachfront will be the big test for Cyprus, this process will show whether raw capitalism or the overall environmental interests will win out.

Behind the beachfront there is the major part of the town with medium to low grade housing in which normal people lived. It is this part which represents the big project of Varosi. I doubt that tourists will want to live in this part of the town.

I used to visit Varosha with my cousins prior to 1974. The only thing that disappointed me was the proximity of the Hotels to the prime beaches.
Would it not be better to pull the dangerous ones down and , if possible rebuild them away from the beach. Thereby more of the beaches would be opened up for the public at large. Why would hotels 'own' beaches? Are the beaches on the Hotel owners deeds?

[Nikitas]

Deniz,

I do not know what the law in Cyprus decrees about private beaches. In Greece it is unconstitutional to limit access to the beach, although some hotels on rocky coasts manage to do that by clever fencing.

All hotels are now dangerous. Concrete left unattended, especially near the sea, degrades very badly, corrosion eats the steel reinforcement. So all hotels will have to be torn down, as will all buildings, and this is a golden opportunity to rebuild the whole town on different architectural principles. And this is the test, will we do it, or are we going to rely on the dry legal titles and let the "usual suspects" rebuild those tasteless beachfront towers blocks?

The mayor of Famagusta and his aldermen should take a trip to Barcelona and see how a decaying city can be redeveloped with sanity and respect for its people.

[denizaksulu]

Deniz,

I do not know what the law in Cyprus decrees about private beaches. In Greece it is unconstitutional to limit access to the beach, although some hotels on rocky coasts manage to do that by clever fencing.

All hotels are now dangerous. Concrete left unattended, especially near the sea, degrades very badly, corrosion eats the steel reinforcement. So all hotels will have to be torn down, as will all buildings, and this is a golden opportunity to rebuild the whole town on different architectural principles. And this is the test, will we do it, or are we going to rely on the dry legal titles and let the "usual suspects" rebuild those tasteless beachfront towers blocks?

The mayor of Famagusta and his aldermen should take a trip to Barcelona and see how a decaying city can be redeveloped with sanity and respect for its people.

The titles issue will be the stumbling block to all sensible redevelopment and re-planning in the area. Of course I am envisaging the return of Varosha one way or another to its original owners once a settlement is reached. Inshallah (god willing, apologies to non-believers).

[Nikitas]

Deniz,

In a sense I am lucky. I lived in Famagusta before the tourist boom and experienced that miles long beach when there was not a single house on it, let along a hotel. There was one restaurant, called Kalamies, otherwise the sand was free and open to all. A local man, Marangos, owned horses and in the afternoons they would exercise them on long gallops along the beach certain that there would be no one in the way.

Maybe a rehabilitation of the long beach is possible, and the empty beach would be the major attraction for tourists who are fed up with the wall to wall people scene in other places. Such emptiness would make FGamagusta unique among holiday spots worldwide. To do thisneeds local politicians with balls to stand up to the "usual suspects" who are now even richer and more powerful than they were in the 70s. Inshallah indeed!