For those foreign people who have not visited the old city of Nicosia (within the Venetian walls) it is a place to visit. The unfortunate history of the city over the recent years (post 1974 invasion) has had its “benefits” to an extent, since the older preserved buildings were not improved (demolition and rebuilding - if improvement means this) and it has retained (to an extent) the old city character in its pre 1950 years. Like most old European cities and after the change of policy by the Nicosia Municipality (originally not allowing places of entertainment/cafes etc) the new policy is one of encouragement for this sort of uses and a lot of good and some very good quality restaurants and cafes have sprang up especially catering for the younger generation.

The very recent years (since 2007) were met by some quality restaurants for the more “mature” ages. The Spanish restaurant, the Italian restaurant at Stoa, the old Electricity “factory” with its French cuisine, as well as some of the very traditional local restaurants (mainly catering for lunches) are few of the worthy places to visit in terms of food. In terms of drinks there are two lovely bars with “facilities” for the more “cultured” people having even nargile/a library, where you can sip a drink and read in the library all sorts of well read books.

The Nicosia old city however has become over the last couple of years a place of living for the political/foreign refugees, legal and illegal and the concentration of such a large number of people with “kellapia”, beards and caps, reminding us Europeans of (excuse the expression) of the Taliban situation, is a cause of concern. The limited locals that live in the old city have expressed their concern about the situation and in a recent gallop, 82% of the locals expressed their insecurity feeling during the night hours.

So on the one hand we have the numerous incentives that are being offered by the Government/Municipality for upgrading the old centre and on the other hand the fear of committing added investments. It is a difficult situation to address since new investors are now concerned and old ones worried. More incentives in the old city are expected but we wonder whether financial incentives are enough. The police has attempted to clamp down on such a situation only to be unjustifiably accused by the Ombudswoman with all sorts of excuses being offered including human rights etc. This is all well and good, but “we” on the other hand have a historic city to preserve and we even try to improve it. On the other hand the old city is becoming a Muslim ghetto (of all sorts of opposing sects) and the recent violent events among the Muslim sects have disappointed all.

So, is the old city turning back to its ruinous direction or does it have a hope of success in terms of revitalization? Much of this will depend on the Governmental policy. Concentration of immigrants is causing all sorts of problems in France (see Paris Arab immigrants), Greece (by Albanians and others), Italy (by the Romans etc). The recent troubles in Birmingham is another example to learn from, but then what shall we do? Italy’s Government decision to send “them” back regardless and the creation of concentration camps (see Malta and Spain) are surely not a permanent solution.

On the other hand if “we” are to shift these legal/illegal immigrants out of the old city, where are they to go? A recent example of ours, letting a 2 bedroom apartment in the upmarket area of Hilton ended up with 8 livers!! The other tenants of the apartment block immediately objected and offered the landlord to let the unit to all the other occupiers. A similar situation exists in the Paphos area where the Russian Greeks (Pontiacs) live. Their unruly behaviour drops property prices immediately even if a single one family lives in a block. Racism behaviour? May be, but things being what they are, we can only report on the reality and not how we would like it to be. With regards to the Ombudswoman should she so wish to verify this, we suggest that she lives for one week in such a foreign ghetto and we are sure she will have second thoughts, on what she has said on the police behaviour. We feel that the existing immigration policy is in shambles, with the northern E.U. states philosophizing that the southern E.U. states project a racist behavior i.e. Malta, Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus. The suggestion (by Cyprus) on the illegal immigrants to be distributed to all the E.U. states in accordance to their population was turned down by the same northern E.U. countries that are the accusers for the southern states. Because this article refers to real estate, we need a firm immigration policy to be adopted, with special regard the old city of Nicosia as well as in the other “aged” areas, in order for them to have a fair chance to revive. Mr Sylikiotis, the Minister of Interior, whom we support from time to time, on this account we have different views. What we need in such locations is better lighting, more policing, more integration and less segregation. At this point of time numerous locals exploit these immigrants and let out unsuitable units, some without kitchen/sanitary facilities, at exorbitant rents. The Government will now approve a law making it illegal to let out such units, but this is not the solution, since it will force the immigrants to pay more, become thus more concentrated in one unit, shift their occupation in wider residential areas, increasing thus the objections by the locals. We can tell you this is not a good development.

During these difficult times and for this subject we need an iron man/woman, Mrs Thutcher “type”, who has done wonders (in some respect) for the U.K. Is there an “Iron” person to be found in this country?

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