Two holiday businesses on the Karpaz peninsula have been ordered to tear down their beach bungalows. The owners potentially face three-year prison sentences, Havadis reports.
Burhan’s Bungalows and Teko’s Place have been operating for several years on Golden Beach. However, the area is listed in the EU’s NATURA 2000 sites, as an ecologically sensitive region.
Turkish Cypriot businessmen Burhan Kalin and Tekin Erdogan heard that two court rulings determined that both men had no license to build bungalows and had violated a designated protected area.
The court has ordered that the buildings be demolished within a month and called for the two men to serve three years’ jail time.
Other businesses in the region also face prosecution.
Dipkarpaz community leader Suphi Coskun said that they would fight for the businessmen. He told Havadis that the court had been unfair. Both men have said that they would appeal the ruling.
Mehmet Kalin, Burhan’s father told Havadis that they had been operating in the area since 1990.
He pointed out that they had had a contract with the Forestry Department, which had been renewed annually until 2005. An amendment was made in 2004, permitting them to construct seven bungalows for their workers. They increased that number to 16 and built a restaurant. However, in 2007, the environmental department, the office of antiquities and a number of environmentalist protested about the buildings and they were refused a renewal of the licence.
Eventually, in 2012, a new lease was granted. However, Metin Kalin said that the court dismissed the fact that they had contracts.
Cyprus Weekly, Havadis
