Some while ago I was surprised to see a Property Information Office (PIO) notification of a proposed meeting between ex President Talat and Hilary Clinton in Washington.  The Secretary of State’s office had no such entry on the said day for any such meeting and in fact had the good lady’s presence as being in Canada on that day. The PIO declined to comment on my polite enquiry. Probably landed in spam, if that’s allowed; her being pork and all that. Maybe it was the Hilary Clinton at the church fete in Washington, West Sussex, must admit I never checked that one, but there’s one in the phone book.

I then read, hear and see all sorts of interesting bits and pieces about visiting German politicians, Italians, Swedes MEPs campaigning for Direct Trade, direct travel between Lebanon/Syria/Israel but seldom, other that the odd comment on one or other of the web forums, do I see any actual publicity of these events let alone any substantive evidence that the meetings or reported issues actually took place. Strange you would think for a country so starved of any actual PR. It seems as if they make a claim and it is forgotten as soon as it leaves their lips. This reminds me of the sort of cheap journalism that abounded in the 70’s and 80’s in Germany.

Headline:

“ESTONIA SUNK BY RUSSIAN SUBMARINE?” over 900 perish, see page three. On page three we read ESTONIA SINKING? There is absolutely no truth in the rumour that any Russian naval vessels were involved in the sinking. The only things that are missing here are the rebuttal notices and question marks.

So where’s the parallel you may be asking yourselves? Remember J.Lo? Seen all the renowned artists signed up to definitely appear in TRNC? Wondered why, if the Hotel group had such a waterproof contract with the singer that didn’t allow for reneging on political grounds, she wasn’t sued to hell and back?

What about the Karsiyaka Bungalows scandal and all the claims that have been made that have turned out to be allegedly false and no feedback from the accused?

Now there’s a new slant on the PIO. If you put a question mark at the end of every statement issued, I suspect you’re a mite nearer the truth of the matter than the government intended.

If the government and its associates want to be believed in future they had better come out with something utterly believable like “I’m the world’s only surviving brain transplant donor.”

It all stinks like the same fish to me.

According to Akan Kursat, at my meeting with him on the 23rd July 2010, our villas at Kulaksiz 5 are valued at £110,000 with a pool and £100,000 without.

Well we all know how fact and Akan Kursat (aka arrogance on legs) are virtual strangers so today’s revelations about the state and the true valuation of our homes will come as no surprise. My own villa now has damage to the doors where they were forced when arrogance on legs, Akfinans Bank Manager and the locksmith who illegally broke into my villa, changed the locks and forced Chris into ‘playing chicken’ with them. The damp is still there as are the cracks which are widening daily. The whole of the pool area is sinking and my spoof valuation before the auction looks pretty attractive by comparison to its its present state.

More seriously, what is happening to my neighbours’ homes is of more concern to me because they are actually living in them. On one particular villa the cracks are so severe, and penetrate through from the external walls to the internal walls, that my neighbour has to hold the window frame in place to be able to close the window. The structural integrity of this property has to be questioned.

Not only have Kulaksiz 5 the stress of wondering when they might be broken into and have their locks changed, they have the additional burden of homes that are fast becoming unfit and unsafe to live in. Only in the T.R.N.C.

Back to the true valuation of the villas at Kulaksiz 5. As with every market, they are worth what someone would be prepared to pay for them and in my opinion they would be lucky to get the land value and since this land is obviously flawed and would need considerable safeguards made with regard to foundations, I really cannot see prospective purchasers queuing up to buy.

Ken and Mary Hudson from Larnaca  look set to be evicted from their home in South Cyprus in a case that echoes the Kulaksiz 5 fiasco. The two pensioners bought a flat in 2002 and then found, just like Kulaksiz 5, there was a mortgage on the property which the former owner failed to pay. The bank has now decided to auction the property to recoup that money. However, unlike Kulaksiz 5′s case, the debt does not seem to have multiplied by nearly 30 times.

This Cyprus wide problem seems to be as a result of old laws not being changed by either government and unscrupulous property owners and complicit banks being lax in their money lending practices. The logic of allowing construction companies to mortgage property in order to complete projects does make some sense in the early stages of a build but to allow a mortgage to be retained after full payment has been received should be treated as fraud rather than “forgetfulness.”

In the north there has been a misguided tendency to blame Turkey for the mortgage scandal when the blame lies firmly in the hands of the Cypriot construction industry. A government with strong resolve and the ability to confront the construction industry would help but these seems to be absent on both sides of the island. If the EU are unable to make the South Cyprus government do something about this scandal then how on earth can Turkey be expected to do better?

Carry on up the Karpaz! - $1 billion Bafra leisure resort now expected to be finished 13 years late

Help me stay alive - David Briars needs people to donate platelets to help his blood clot and to stop him bleeding to death. The platelets are taken from donated blood and potential donors should contact Mrs Briars on 0533 845 1911 or the BRS welfare liaison officer on 0542 855 1114

CTA will fly again, says PM Kücük - the  Public Works and Transportation Minister, Hamza Ersan, ruled out the return of CTA and the PM Kücük ruled it back in again.

Lawyer bids to stop stars visiting TRNC – the American Greek Cypriot lawyer, Athan Tsimpedes, implementer of numerous unsuccessful lawsuits against Turkey, is having a go at entertainers set to perform in North Cyprus.

South sued for two million Euros in rent – a Turkish Cypriot foundation is suing the Greek Cypriot government over failure to pay rent for its buildings in South Nicosia

TRNC lawyers reject ‘kickback’ claims - unnamed Greek Cypriots are being quoted, possibly in an effort to discredit the IPC process, as saying that they had to give up large amounts of their compensation to their Turkish Cypriot lawyers. Hasan Sözmener, chairman of the Union of Bar Associations, said a lawyer could be jailed for up to 7 years if caught doing this. Editor: I wonder which lawyer would be brave enough to mount the prosecution?

Dead cow left to rot on popular beach – tourists are steer -ing (pun intended) clear of Golden Beach in the Karpaz

Police chiefs demoted following court case – following a court case brought by a police deputy director, three police chiefs have had their promotions overturned for contravening the promotion requirements of the 1984 Police Act. None of the police officers had passed the required exams or had the necessary seniority. Unfortunately this successful case follows an unsuccessful one so that now the High Administrative Court has made two opposing decisions on the same case

Letter: BRS wasn’t told about changes to permits – BRS were not informed by the government about the changes to the requirements for temporary residence permits, they found out like the rest of us. The police were also giving out incorrect information for a while. Editor: if the police can’t get it right how can ex-pats be expected to?

Creative Commons License photo credit: ufopilot

My heart is aching for the TRNC. That may sound very strange coming from me of all people. Yes I do think of all the victims of property scams, of banks who used the law’s weaknesses to mortgage innocent pensioners’ homes without their knowledge in order to feed their greed and the greed of the unscrupulous builders. The victims are justified in feelings of utter frustration at the run-around they are being given by all those involved.

I am not a politician, I am not a banker and I don’t consider myself to be particularly knowledgeable about the rights and wrongs of the north/south divide. What I do know is that this country and this Government needs the guilty to step up to the plate and say, ‘yes we were wrong’, our country needs us, our Government needs us to put our patriotism before our personal gain. We can see our beloved TRNC haemorrhaging and we are going to pull together with the Government before our country dies before our eyes. A band aid won’t work this time.

The hard working Turkish Cypriots deserve better from the so called elite, the Government deserve better. All the victims of the property scams know the Government cannot afford to help them, but we also know that the banks can, and have a moral obligation to stop embarrassing their Government and their country in the eyes of the world.

Between 2004 and 2008 the banks indulged in some very dodgy mortgage practises. The mistake was theirs, yes the builders and landowners also carry blame, but the banks could and should have said NO. Now when I was a little girl I was taught that if you make a mistake then you are the one who has to pay for it. I understood that even as a child. Why do the banks find it so difficult to comprehend?

Akfinans Bank Limited, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Now where did I plagiarise that from? Be the first, set the example, you know the others will follow if you do. What will you actually lose, 104,000 TL, the cost of a couple of years advertising revenue? Then, when prospective customers Google “Akfinans Bank,” instead of getting a list of your atrocities they’ll get nothing but praise! (Editor: that can be arranged!)

Taking the dog for a walk I came across a wild shrub bearing tiny fruits which looked like miniature greengages. I was fascinated to find out what these were and quite quickly established that they were Storax, latin name Styrax officinalis. I always get excited when a plant’s name includes the word “officinalis” because this means medicinal.

It turns out that Storax is a name covering several plants which not only have medicinal values but were used in ancient perfumes and incense. A gum, called storax, is obtained by making cuts in the stem and branches and collecting the resin that exudes from them.

Arthur Gibson notes:

” uses of natural products from bark of Styrax date back at least to the Sumerians, who incorporated the terpenoid resin storax into a variety of medicinal preparations, such as liniments and ointments, applied to sores, aches, and infections. Some accounts say that the inner bark was crushed, and then hot water was used to extracted the terpenoids, whereas others mention boiling the bark and skimming the insoluble resin scum before pressing the inner bark for more extract. From that storax is refined into an opaque liquid having the viscosity of honey and the fragrance of balsam.”

Some believe it to have been the stacte used together with frankincense, galbanum, and onycha to make Ketoret, the Tabernacle incense of the Old Testament. For this reason the plant is associated with magic and, some believe, used in spells!

Well now we have the hat trick.

Not being at all certain that the Cyprus Bar Association would reply to her enquiries, especially as her request was in English and about an TRNC Advocate, Polly Marples conducted her own research. Firstly she input both Akan Kursat and Talat Kursat’s names as a general search in the Kyrenia district section of the website database – both came back as “no records found.” Realising this could be argued as inconclusive, she searched the whole membership and as you can see below, alphabetically they should be between Ktenas Nicolas and Kurtha Ali – but they are not there, oh dear not another false claim?

This really speaks volumes about the ethics of these Advocates and begs the question, if they will lie about things that can be easily checked, what else would they lie about, that maybe could not be checked?

I leave you the reader to come to your own conclusions. As they say in the legal profession, I rest my case, that is unless Polly Marples comes up with yet more disturbing revelations.

The female of the species is more deadly than the male.

It is one year since NCFP was launched and time for something new. We are trialling NCFP Classified Ads for a short time to see if there is a need for it. To get started here is what to do:

BROWSE ADS

Click on classifieds.northcyprusfreepress.com and look through the ads in one of 3 ways:

1. click on a category and check out the Ads
2. enter a search into the Search Classified Ads section on the right, optionally choosing a category
3. at the bottom of the page are 3 tabs: Just Listed, Most Popular and Random
   

REPLY TO ADS

Once you’ve found something you want you can reply to the Ad by filling in the Contact Form on the right and then wait for a reply. Don’t forget to enter the answer to the simple calculation in order to prove you’re human!

REGISTER and POST ADS

To Register all you have to do is click on the Join Now button and fill in the information and then click the Register button. A password will be sent to the email address you gave and you should then Login and change your password to something more memorable by clicking on My Dashboard on the top right of the page and then Edit Profile.

To Post an Ad click on the button and follow the instructions. Select the Category and Sub-Category, if there is one, fill in the Title, Price (include currency), Town, a Description and any images you want included. CAREFUL, once you post this you cannot change it! Once you accept the Terms and Conditions your Ad will be sent to be verified. Emails will be sent to confirm all these stages

Good Luck and get started classifieds.northcyprusfreepress.com

Well, it would seem that AGA Buyers Action Group were one step ahead of me in writing to the Bar Council of England and Wales. I am still awaiting my reply. Girls, we seem to be conducting investigations along the same lines so if you get your reply from Cyprus Bar Council before I get mine, please let me know.

I have included that well known paragon of virtue Akan Kursat in my enquiries but I will be surprised if he comes out ‘whiter’ than Baba, that is if you consider his recent moonlighting in the breaking and entering and vehicular attack arena. For those of you who have not seen the email from the Bar Council of England and Wales, here is the juicy bit:

‘I have checked our records and I confirm that we have no record of a barrister by the name of Talat Kursat as a member of the Bar of England and Wales. I have checked the records which return to the 1960′s’

For the full email see comments on the article I wrote about ISO 9001.

There you have it – two of the four memberships claimed by the law firm TALAT KURSAT are false, the third, membership of the Cyprus Republic Bar is being checked out as I write.

Now what about that fourth membership: Membership of the TRNC Bar? Oh what a web we weave, when we practise to deceive.

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Bulldozed - a 16th century church intended to spearhead North Cyprus religious tourism was bulldozed over 2 years ago. The importance of Ayia Katerina church at Turnalar was highlighted in the tourism masterplan published last month. The UN complained at the time but apparently it was in a dangerous condition so it was demolished rather than repaired.

New residency rules attacked – the requirement of under the 60s to have an annual health check has been criticised. These changes were announced in the Official Gazette on August 26th. Editor: available from?

Galaxy of stars promised – at Cratos Premium, who incidentally are not going to sue Jennifer Lopez.

Oar-some! – the second annual raft race launches for charity. Editor: and, according to Cyprus44, in some confusion

Crash newly-wed fights for life – recently married Ayhan Karadağ is fighting for his life after he was knocked off his motorbike by a 28-year old allegedly uninsured drunk driver who did not have a driving license.

Road man hurt - a Turkish man, who had only been here a month,working driving a steam roller and who had to have his leg amputated after an accident has been told by doctors that he is going to be given an artificial limb.

Driven to distraction – former Jaguar owner spots government official driving his car following customs “confusion.” He was told that, after he failed to pay tax, the transfer of the car had been announced in the Official Gazette and he’d been given a month to challenge the transfer to the government. Editor: available from where?

Come back in 13 years’ time – TRNC set to develop its full tourism potential by 2023. Editor: that’s if there is anything left undemolished that is worth visiting for.

Clampdown on casinos as gamblers are snared – 37 TRNC citizens were caught gambling. Incidentally the casinos were also targeted for tax and electricity bill payments

‘Infected’ meat is on sale in TRNC – according to the government. Editor: I get the feeling that this weeks’ edition of Cyprus Today is about driving away tourists.

Price rise follows ‘smuggling’ scandal – the government put a 1TL/kg tax on imported meat rather than ban it because of a shortage of local meat.