The Mayor of Ayia Napa, Giannis Karousos, sent a strict letter to the newspaper "HARAVGI" for reports which were published last Monday and Tuesday on their subject the lease of state land for the benefit of a business belonging to the Karousos family. The Mayor of Ayia Napa, through his letter to the newspaper, asks for an immediate apology for the insults and the "fake news" as he characterizes them that saw the light of day.
The full letter of the Mayor of Ayia Napa:
"I am forced to refer to the two front pages of your newspaper dated 13/11/17 with the misleading and defamatory headline" State land for a hotel of the family of the Mayor of Ayia Napa, Megaton scandal with a request for a state fillet to the company of the Karos family / 14/11 entitled "The wife of Caesar γυναίκα and Caesar".
Out of respect only to your readers and to the refutation of your "valid" sources, I mention the following: It is a fact that an application was submitted to the Famagusta Land Registry by a company for lease of state land for the purpose of building a tourist complex, in which company I am not a member. Board of Directors but I am a shareholder through another company in a percentage that does not substantially exceed 12% and this despite my expressed opposite position, since the same state land was and still is the intention of the Municipality of Ayia Napa to be used for creation by the Municipality of Ayia Napa cactus garden and parking lot for the Sculpture Park of the Municipality.
In the context of the examination of the company's application for lease of state land, the Department of Lands and Surveys requested the views of the Municipality of Ayia Napa during the meeting of 02/11/17, after informing the Municipal Council about the application submitted by the Municipality Ayia Napa on 22/08/2017 for the lease of the specific state land in the Municipality of Ayia Napa, I proposed that the request for lease to the private company be rejected, a proposal that was unanimously accepted by the Municipal Council.
I also note that in a previous session of the Municipal Council on 26/10/2017 on the preparation of a Local Plan, I suggested to the Municipal Council that the specific state land be included in a Public Use Zone in support of parks and that the specific land should be leased to the Municipality and in no other.
So the only "megaton scandal" is the way some people distort the facts to create fake news. The defamatory comments of the author of the article that your newspaper hosts on the front page, in fact, are an insult to my face and I expect and call on the author to apologize by immediately publishing an article on the same page and position, which restores the truth.
I also expect and call "Haravgi" as it makes a statement that it does not share the views or comments of this article. I also note that the author of the above post, who is contracting to publish malicious and non-existent articles against me, citing "valid sources" and thus giving another interpretation to the word "valid", deliberately failed to contact me this time to ask my position in relation to what he intended to write as required by journalistic ethics, obviously since his purpose was not the correct and objective information but to create impressions and damage.
The minutes of the meetings 26/10/17 and 02/11/17 as well as a copy of the application of the Municipality of Ayia Napa dated 22/08/17 for lease of state land are available for inspection of anyone wishing to practice valid and not yellow journalism ».
Giannis Karousos
Mayor of Ayia Napa