"One day one of our customers came to the gas station we knew. It took time to show. In a playful way, he told us “prices go up. Still shut it down thieves? In Varosi, petrol is half price ”» ». The gas station owner's wife came to explain to him that it was not the gas station owners who set the fuel prices and he, ironically, answered her with audacity: to fill muhtin. You are thieves. "
In today's article, the newspaper "Phileleftheros" reports that the wife of the gas station owner on the old road Larnaca - Famagusta bursts into tears. "No one who asked the rulers how we are doing since the time when the roadblocks were opened. How do we get by, since the time when the pound fell, and too many people enter the occupied territories, Varosi and elsewhere, to fill their heads. To shop ". And he continues: "All of them come into our gas stations and make fun of us. "Thieves bring us up, thieves bring us down."
Panagiotis Tsolakis, whose family has the gas station outside Vrysoulles, on the old Larnaca-Famagusta road, tells us by name how the situation is for the family business and the four families he maintains, from the time when the E / k flow in the occupied areas, due to cheap fuels, but also for gas stations of free Famagusta, mainly the 4- 5 that are on the way to the roadblock of Strovilia. The gas station of the family is the last e / k gas station, 4-5 km just before the roadblock of controlled passage in the occupied areas, located in this area of Cyprus.
"We are a very small gas station business, due to the fact that we are in a remote and secluded area of the island, but in which there was increased traffic after the opening of the Strovilia roadblock," he informs us. He added: "I would like to inform the governors and the parties, who are not here in Vrysoules, to see that in recent months we have seen a decrease in the amount of fuel we sell, in addition to 60 thousand liters per month. Almost half of our customers were lost. We are in despair. We are not in an area that has a lot of customers. We are in Vrysoulles, in Dasaki Achnas, with two gas stations, Xylotymbou with one and Dhekelia with also one, and losing five customers is a problem. And unfortunately we didn't all lose five. As we go, we will be left with only five customers each. " "For God's sake, save us. We are law-abiding taxpayers of the Republic of Cyprus and we have been left unprotected.
And we learn from the media that the government is making it easier for the Turks to open the Deryneia roadblock. That is, to give us the free shot ", concludes Panagiotis Tsolakis.
Loads and malls
It is not very difficult to find out details about what the few thousand Greek Cypriots and tourists from the free areas are doing, who pass every week through the Strovilia roadblock (and to a lesser extent from the Pergamon roadblock, in the area of Pyla).
The gas station owners in Kokkinochoria, many shopkeepers in Ayia Napa, Protaras and in the cafes know and discuss them. Women in the villages while drinking coffee in their neighborhoods. Even the taxi drivers in the area and the drivers who transport tourism from Ayia Napa and Protaras to the occupied territories know this. In the parish of Agios Loukas in the occupied sea-loving and formerly lemon-loving city, every Thursday there is a big bazaar. And from morning until afternoon, there are times when a queue of vehicles forms in Strovilia. The Greek Cypriots are going big shopping to buy fruits and vegetables, yogurt, anarades and halloumi "in bulk" from the Turks and the Turkish Cypriots who are at a "kilippiri" price. Sparkling halloumi 4-6 euros per kilo cheaper than "ours". "Ours and ours" according to the gas station owners are in the colloquial language of the regular customers in the occupied areas, the women of the stockbreeders and the farmers of Kokkinochoria, who are also in their language "thieves and swindlers as well as the gas station owners".
And the regular walks of Greek Cypriots in occupied Famagusta continue in the big "mall" of the occupied city. Where "one finds the best and most famous brands in the world at half the price of what the" thieves "from Nicosia sell in the" Mall "of the capital".
"And the E / K ladies and the gentlemen are overjoyed about the prices -" kilippiri "clothes, shoes, perfumes, medicines, jars, halloumi, anari and yogurt and after filling the cars with fuel, they return to the free areas where there are our thieves and swindlers, gas station owners, farmers and women who make halloumi and other dairy products ". Words uttered by the mouths of E / k gas station owners in the area of the Strovilia roadblock, who also experience in a painful way the consequences of the reckless policy of opening roadblocks.
● We should also mention the complaints and information of some gas station owners about possible illegal activity of clever E / K and T / K associates, through which tankers from the occupied areas transport to the free areas from unguarded areas of the dead zone in Frenaros - Acheritou and Pyla - Pergamon - Xylotymbou - Oil freight on behalf of farmers and large companies that use heavy machinery.
Source: Phileleftheros / Pampos Vassilas