Harmancı: LTB’s 30-Year Theatre Dream Becomes Reality

Speaking at the launch and signing ceremony for the LTB Theatre and Cultural Arts Centre project, Harmancı said the theatre building project, which began 30 years ago, was being revived after a long and difficult process.

Harmancı said the tender value of the project was £5.2 million, equivalent to approximately TL330 million, and that the investment would be financed through the municipality’s own resources, budget and financing capacity.

At the beginning of his speech, Harmancı thanked members of the press, municipal council members and the municipal administration, as well as the teams at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre, Nicosia Municipal Orchestra and Arkhe Nicosia. He also thanked theatre artist Yaşar Ersoy, project architect Burhan Atun, Can Atun, who has continued the project, and Ali Kamacı on behalf of KAMTEK.

“We are opening the final act of a 30-year story”

Harmancı said a story that began in 1996, 30 years ago, had reached a new stage, noting that the idea of building a modern theatre in Nicosia was first put forward by Yaşar Ersoy in the form of a proposal.

He said construction had been halted over the years, plans had been changed and the original structure had eventually been demolished and rebuilt.

Harmancı added that the project was once again left unfinished in 2012 due to a major financial and administrative crisis at the municipality.

He said the building stood unfinished in the centre of Nicosia for years, noting that some structures were not merely made of concrete, steel and stone.

“Every year they remain unfinished, they acquire a little more meaning,” Harmancı said, adding that over time the building had come to represent not only an incomplete construction project, but also a postponed need, an unfulfilled promise and a missing part of the city’s collective memory.

“First, we had to rebuild a municipality capable of completing the theatre”

Recalling that they had promised in 2014, when they took office with the support of Nicosia residents, that “this shameful sight will disappear”, Harmancı said they had also promised Yaşar Ersoy and the theatre and cultural arts community that the building would be completed.

However, he said the municipality was facing a serious financial and administrative crisis at the time, describing it as “a municipality that had collapsed, run out of resources and whose debts could not even be fully calculated.”

Harmancı stressed that they first had to rebuild a municipality capable of completing the theatre, saying they had chosen to strengthen financial discipline and institutional structures rather than launching tenders without funding and leaving projects unfinished.

He said they had succeeded in rebuilding the municipality with the support and patience of Nicosia residents and had subsequently turned their attention to the city’s long-delayed basic needs.

“We made investments to secure Nicosia’s future for decades to come”

Harmancı highlighted investments in sewerage systems, stormwater networks, main infrastructure systems and regional infrastructure, saying the aim had been to secure not only the city’s present but also its future for decades to come.

He said Nicosia, having prepared its infrastructure for the future, had now become a city capable of using its own resources to invest in improving quality of life, public spaces, culture and the arts.

Harmancı said one of the elements that truly makes a city a city is the ability of people to come together, listen to one another, think, debate, create and build a shared memory.

He said it was no coincidence that democracy and theatre developed within the same social environment in ancient Athens, noting that both provided spaces where different people could confront common issues together.