Supreme Court President Bertan Özerdağ made statements to the Turkish News Agency Cyprus (TAK)

“The construction of the new Supreme Court building will be carried out in the framework of the protocol between the TRNC and the Republic of Turkey concerning the Metehan premises”

“The three powers that constitute the state -legislative, executive, and judicial—will be located side by side”

“The construction area will be nearly 7,000 square meters. The building will include a conference hall with a capacity for 300 people, five courtrooms, meeting rooms for the Supreme Council of Judicature and the Supreme Court, rooms for prosecutors and lawyers, and a large library”

“We aim to establish a second Assize Court in Nicosia”

“Serious work is being carried out concerning court buildings throughout the country”

“As there are not enough halls and rooms at Assize Court of Famagusta, sessions are held at District Court of Trikomo”

“In order to have a judiciary that serves faster and under better conditions, capacity problems must be eliminated”

Nicosia, January 19, 2025 (TAK): Supreme Court President Bertan Özerdağ announced that the construction of the new Supreme Court building in Metehan will start soon.

Özerdağ stated, “The three powers that constitute the state - legislative, executive, and judiciary- will be located along the same route side by side.” He noted that the new building would be constructed under the protocol between the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Republic of Turkey concerning the Metehan premises.

He added that the construction area would be nearly 7,000 square meters, stating: “The new building will have a conference hall with a capacity for 300 people, five courtrooms for the use of the Supreme Court, meeting rooms for both the Supreme Council of Judicature and the Supreme Court, rooms for prosecutors and lawyers, and a large library.”

Özerdağ explained that detainees and convicts coming for appeals would be kept in the building's basement and would be brought into the courtroom through a special corridor from below. He added that the new building would also house the Supreme Court Secretariat, Supreme Court registry offices, and the information technology department.

Referring to the work carried out to address the shortcomings related to the court buildings throughout the country, Özerdağ noted that serious work is being carried out in this regard. Özerdağ emphasised that capacity problems must be eliminated in order to have a judiciary that serves the citizens faster and under better conditions.

• “The Supreme Court has been working on this project since 2015”

Speaking to the Turkish Agency Cyprus (TAK) reporter, President of the Supreme Court Bertan Özerdağ stated that the Supreme Court has been carrying out a project for the construction of a new building in the Metehan region since 2015 following the decisions taken by the Supreme Court at that time.

Özerdağ further explained, “In recent years, with the construction of buildings belonging to other constitutional powers in the Metehan region in the form of premises, upon our requests by exchanging the insufficient area given in 2015 in the same region for the Supreme Court building, a land was allocated for the construction of a new Supreme Court building that will be located in line with other buildings but separately from them.”

Bertan Özerdağ announced that in line with the decisions taken by the Supreme Court and the Supreme Council of Judicature, the land allocation and project design of the new building have reached the final stage. Stating that the construction of the new building will be carried out within the framework of the protocol between the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Republic of Turkey regarding the Metehan premises, Özerdağ said, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Republic of Turkey and the TRNC authorities for supporting the realisation of the project.”

Özerdağ continued as follows:

“In addition to the legislative and executive powers of our country, which are the three powers determined in the Constitution, a building where the Supreme Court, which is the judicial power, and the Supreme Council of Judicature will also operate will be built within the premises to be located in the Metehan region. Thus, both the realisation of the project for the construction of a new Supreme Court building in the Metehan region, which was initiated by the Supreme Court in 2015, and the representation of the three powers that make up the state, ‘legislative, executive and judicial’ powers, which we see in some other countries, will be ensured.”

• “The construction of the Supreme Court building is planned to start soon”

Noting that the construction of the new building of the Supreme Court is planned to start in February, Özerdağ stated that according to the information they have obtained, the building is expected to be completed in early 2026.

Stating that the building currently in use by the Supreme Court is insufficient to meet the needs of the day, Özerdağ stated that the Supreme Court will have a building designed specifically for judicial and administrative activities for the first time.

Özerdağ pointed out that the new building will enhance efficiency and speed in the work of the Supreme Court and emphasised that the building will make a great contribution to the conduct of judicial work with the latest technology and will be used exclusively by the Supreme Court to carry out judicial proceedings and administrative activities of the Supreme Court.

• “The construction area will be nearly 7,000 square meters”

Stating that the building, which was designed with architectural services to meet specific needs, will include important usage areas and it will be constructed with state-of-the-art technology, Özerdağ said, “The building will be built on a total of four floors, including basement and three floors, and the construction area will be nearly 7 thousand square metres. The building will include a conference room with a capacity of 300 people and 5 hearing rooms. In addition, meeting rooms will be built for both the Supreme Council of Judicature and the Supreme Court. The building will have rooms for the use of prosecutors and lawyers and will have a large library.”

He also noted that the Supreme Court’s registrar offices would be divided into two sections for the first time and will provide better service, and that the General Secretariat and IT departments would also serve in the new building.

Özerdağ said, “There will be 3 different cafeterias in the Supreme Court building, which will be used by judges, staff, lawyers and the public. Detainees and convicts coming to the criminal appeals will be kept in the basement and will be taken to the hall from the special corridor from below. Security measures will be heightened.”

• “The building in Sarayönü will continue to serve as the District Court of Nicosia. We aim to establish a second Assize Court here.”

Özerdağ stated that with the Supreme Court moving to the new building, its current space would be allocated to the District Court of Nicosia. This would greatly increase the working area capacity of the District Court of Nicosia, addressing many of its issues.

Emphasising that they aim to establish a second Assize Court at the District Court of Nicosia, Özerdağ said, “We aim to increase the number of judges in the District Court of Nicosia, where especially important commercial cases and requests related to companies are discussed, from 12 and to create fully staffed court committees where two new judges will sit. In the long term, the number of judges may go up to 18. In this way, we plan to speed up the judgement processes of both criminal and important commercial cases and to prevent the loss of time caused by the courts' workload.”

• “Security measures of the District Court of Nicosia will be increased, an elevator for the persons with disabilities will be put into service in February”

Özerdağ stated that the District Court of Nicosia will switch from the small-sized courtrooms currently in use to more useful courtrooms, and that new arrangements will be made to ensure that the detainees and convicts brought to court in criminal cases are brought before the court in a safer way and kept in a secure environment.

Stating that they plan to increase security measures at the District Court of Nicosia, Özerdağ also stated that a tender will be issued for a major restoration and renovation of the building in 2025. Özerdağ also emphasised that the construction of an elevator at the District Court of Nicosia, which will be used by persons with disabilities and elderly citizens for the first time in a public building together with the District Court of Kyrenia, will be completed in February 2025.

Underlining that the District Court of Nicosia will continue to serve the people of Nicosia with a stronger staff and capacity from the building in Sarayönü, Özerdağ said, “We aim to provide better service to our people by providing this place with a court area that can work better and with high capacity.”

• “Serious work is being carried out concerning court buildings throughout the country”

Referring to the situation regarding the court buildings throughout the country, Özerdağ stated that serious work is being carried out in this regard.

Stating that the working areas of Kyrenia and Famagusta courts are insufficient in terms of capacity, Özerdağ continued his speech as follows:

“We have requested from the state to expand the working areas of the courts for both Kyrenia and Famagusta. We are focusing on two alternatives in Kyrenia. Either Kyrenia Akçiçek Hospital will be given to us or in addition to the existing District Court of Kyrenia, we are planning to build a court building on the entire land diagonally across the court, part of which is currently used by the court and part by a government office. We have had meetings on this issue.

The current building of the District Court of Kyrenia is far from providing sufficient space for the judicial activities of both criminal and civil cases. For this reason, there are difficulties in taking the necessary security measures.

With the building to be constructed in the future, it may be considered to use the existing building for civil cases and the new building, which will be located in the area diagonally across the new court building, for criminal cases. We can see that the building of the District Court of Kyrenia is inadequate and better security measures need to be taken.”

• “Assize Court of Famagusta is currently operating in Trikomo”

Özerdağ stated that the capacity of the court will be increased with the construction of an additional building on the empty land next to the Famagusta Court.

“Since there are not enough halls and rooms in the Assize Court of Famagusta, sessions are held at the District Court of Trikomo. This is not only impractical for the judicial community, but also creates discomfort.” Özerdağ stated that their goal is to ensure that the Assize Court of Famagusta has the opportunity to operate within its own district borders again.

Özerdağ emphasised that in order to have a judiciary that serves faster and under better conditions, capacity problems should be eliminated and stated that they have identified the deficiencies related to the capacities of “technology, building, personnel and judges” and that they are constantly working to find solutions. Özerdağ said, “We are aware that we cannot recruit judges as long as we do not have a building. In order to recruit judges, we need to solve the building problem.”