47^TH ANNIVERSARY OF EVKAF TO BE CELEBRATED 

The 47^th anniversary of the handing of the Evkaf Administration back to the Turkish Cypriot people from British rule will be celebrated today.  

Taner Dervis, the Director General of the Evkaf Administration, said the wide real estate sources of the Evkaf Administration throughout the island are the guarantees of the territorial existence of the Turkish Cypriot people.  

Pointing out that from the Colonial Rule up until 1974, it was calculated that the Evkaf had financial losses of 500 billion Sterling, Dervis requested that these losses be compensated to the Turkish Cypriot people.  

Requesting that the closed area of Varosha be handed back to its original owner, which is the Evkaf Administration, Dervis said in the event of this area, with  tourism facilities of a 10,000 bed capacity and 5,000 new businesses, being included to the country’s economic development in a planned way, national income in dollars would increase by 50 per cent.  

Pointing out that with its social and economic investments, the Evkaf had performed a historic duty in the formation of the state’s infrastructure, Dervis said with the Colonial sovereign rule over the island in 1878, the Evkaf was degraded to the status of a state office under the Colonial Rule.  

Pointing out that the biggest real estate looting was carried out during this period, Dervis said: “After the pressures imposed on the Turkish Cypriot people and the Evkaf one of the main aims of the Turkish Cypriot people was to achieve the handing back of Evkaf to the Turkish Cypriot people. Achieving this aim on 15 April,1958, an important step had been taken in the liberation struggle.”  

TURKISH TECHNICAL DELEGATION IN TRNC

A delegation headed by Halil Ibrahim Akca, the Deputy Undersecretary of Turkey’s State Planning Department, arrived in the TRNC yesterday. 

The delegation, who arrived in the TRNC to undertake technical studies prior to the visit to be made by the Turkish State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener, on Thursday (April 17) with the aim of concentrating on economic issues, will continue with its studies until April 17. 

Abdullatif Sener, within the framework of his contacts in the TRNC during the meetings that will take place between the technical delegations of the two countries, will lead the Turkish delegation and sign the protocol that will be reached as a result of the meetings.