ERCAN AIRPORT Our Ercan airport was repeatedly in the news again this week. As you most probably do know, after much pushing and shoving by our motherland, we have joined the caravan of liberal countries that favour privatisation of their national assets. Ercan was the first to be privatised (but so far the last). The only other asset that could be privatised (and is resisting) is our Telecommunications Department. With the exception of the lands that were “bequethed” to us by Greek Cypriots in 1974 I do not think anyone would be interested in anything else. The Turkish company that won the tender for the airport has already paid us 100 million Euros which our previous government allegedly spent on the 13th wages of the state employees. And the reason why Ercan was back in the news this week was that (shock horror probe) our government was late in fulfilling its commitments under the terms of the contract and the company officials were bemoaning that they felt as if they were being punished for having trusted the government. Noone is really interested and I am sure things will somehow be settled amicably at the end. I was at the Ercan twice over the last week and to me it seemed like a synopsis of the changes that this place has experienced since 1974. One of the first things that our motherland did for us in the wake of 1974 was to build a new airport for us at Ercan on the site of former small airport that dated back to the British colonial era. First we had a prefabricated building with an asbestos roof and that was soon replaced by a brand new terminal building. To me everything about that airport had reflected what was good about living here. For example you knew everyone (well almost everyone) from the customs officials, to check in personnel to the police. Most of the fellow passengers also happened to be friends or acquaintances. There was about one flight a day and that was by our long gone Cyprus Turkish Airlines and most of the flight attendants were also friends.There was an open balcony on the second floor where you could shout out to and wave at the incoming or departing passengers. This balcony was very entertaining when there was a flight to or from London. As soon as a lady (I am not going to say every lady but will say quite a few of them) who was on the balcony to see off or welcome a relative she used to start ululating and than promptly faint. It was after all quite an event to have a beloved one to come from UK or go to UK. It was not the ordinary affair that it is these days. Everyone is hopping on and off those planes all the time these days. There was nothing and nobody to stop you from jumping on to the runway for a bit of added drama. For example once upon a time a friend of mine had got engaged to another friend , much to the delight of their respective parents because they were both quite well to do. They were 16 at the time. One day they had a huge argument which allegedly involved violence as well, and the mother of the girl decided that this boy was no good for her girl and she had to save her. She tried to this by taking her away to Istanbul. So they went to Ercan and boarded that plane but the boy heard about the plot, rushed to the airport, realised that they had already boarded the plane so jumped down from balcony run to the plane, got inside and rescued the girl by unfastening her belt and taking her hand despite the protestations of the mother (Leave my daughter) and to the applause of the rest of the passengers. Try and do anything of the kind now. You would be shot dead immediately. Than our motherland knocked it down and built a new terminal for us. Before its demolition a friend of mine who used to work at the check in counter had said “Hight time” for this because she had explained “rats are running free everywhere.” Once the new teminal was built and before the privatisation an architect friend of mine who lectures at one of our universities had given a project to his students and the project was something to do with the airport and he thought it would be a good thing if they put on all the projects that were cased in glass on display at the airport and the parents would see them as they waitied for their departure. As I had expected at the time , they were put there and left there. Within a couple of months they were so covered in dust that there was no way you could see what was inside those glass cases. That was the sort of place that it had already become in only a year or two. Since the privatisation it has been spruced up. It looks and feels like an airport. Very impersonal. You hardly come across anyone that you know anymore. There are God knows how many flights a day now. They are all operated by Turkish owned airlines. So are most of the passengers.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 13:12:21 +0000
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