“HAND-IN-HAND WITH KARPAZ NATURE”

We were pleased to receive a news bulletin from the Girne American University about one of the activities being carried out alongside the new Girne American University (GAU) Karpaz Life Campus which is currently being constructed just on the outskirts of Dipkarpaz and this news is as follows:

“While the construction works of the Girne American University (GAU) Karpaz (Yaşam) Campus is still progressing, GAU is continuing to contribute in the fields of culture, sport, art and nature in the Karpaz region.

The Municipality of Dipkarpaz together in co-operation with GAU and Dipkarpaz Primary school contributed to the planting organization of “Karpaz-GAU hand-in-hand for a Green Future” and planted 800 additional plants to those 1000 planted previously in the GAU Karpaz Cultural Forest.

The planting festival that was conducted in the field of GAU Karpaz Yaşam Campus was attended by the President of Dipkarpaz Municipality Mehmet Demirci, GAU Academic staff Zeki Akçam, GAU Academic staff of PCG Department Fatif Balcı and about 100 students of GAU and Dipkarpaz primary school, locals and environmental organizations while 800 Cyprus Turkish culture oriented olive, walnut, almond, pomegranate and citrus saplings of moral and material worth were planted in the GAU Karpaz Culture Forest which has a capacity of 1000 plants.

In relation to the event, President of Dipkarpaz Municipality Mehmet Demirci spoke to the GAU TV team about the importance of planting and forming new forest fields and also added words of appreciation to the GAU authorities. Also underlining the importance of the support of the Dipkarpaz primary school students, Demirci had pointed the attention to the importance of the education and similar activities for the protection of the Karpaz nature and bringing up children to be volunteers for protecting the environment.

The academic staff Zeki Akçam of GAU had pulled attention to the importance of the virgin nature, flora and fauna to the tourism and economy of the country and also emphasized that the works of GAU in support of developing the nature, culture, education, art and sport activities of Karpaz.”

This news was a pleasant reminder of when I attended the ceremony at Dipkarpaz last year when the construction works started and I wrote about this in the Cyprus Observer and next week we will re-publish here on cyprusscene.com this account of this new and very important venture together with a pictorial slideshow of the sights and scenes on that very special day.

By Chris Elliott