‘No investment made in north’s ports in 100 years’

No investment has been made in the north’s ports “in 100 years”, the north’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli said on Monday.

Speaking to television channel Kanal T, he said expert reports have now been prepared into the state of the ports in Kyrenia and Famagusta, with damning results.

He said the reports found that the breakwater at Kyrenia port has been “structurally undermined” and “needs to be reinforced urgently”, and that the dock at Famagusta port is “at risk of collapse” and needs to be renovated within the next 30 months.

“Kyrenia port was in a worse condition than ports in African countries. Passengers are having difficulties in the heat, and there are no security cameras or x-ray devices there,” he said, adding that there are “similar problems” in Famagusta.

Last year, he had said the Famagusta port had “come to the point of collapse due to negligence.

“A team from Turkey has warned us that the port will become unusable if not repaired,” he added.

Those statements had been made after the north’s cabinet had approved a bill to privatise both ports, but that has met with problems.

On Monday, Arikli pointed out that the decision to privatise the ports had initially been made in 2001 when Dervish Eroglu was ‘prime minister’, but that the necessary funds to do this had never been allocated in any of the subsequent ‘government’ budgets until last year.

He also claimed that a company by the name of Salamis Port Shipping Ltd had “pressured for the handling tender to not be an international tender” – a point upon which he had insisted, event to the point of withdrawing his party’s support for the ‘government’.

“I will not just give the ports away to anyone. I am determined there will be an international tender. If necessary, a government will be formed without us,” he said.