A tourism project that has stood still for almost twenty years has drawn the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus into scrutiny surrounding Turkey's investment-fund crisis. In three reports for Havadis Kıbrıs, journalist Nazar Erişkin follows the corporate trail to Akanthou/Tatlısu, where promised investment, public land and unanswered questions now sit alongside reports of residents losing savings.
By The Levant Files
3 October 2026
How the Crisis Reached Cyprus
Turkey's Capital Markets Board, known as SPK, has put numbers to the crisis. Its 23 September announcement confirmed liquidation decisions covering 131 funds belonging to seven portfolio-management companies. They held investments from 455,758 individuals.
The warning signs came earlier. In its 18 September explanation of its regulatory preparations, SPK said it had observed fund-driven price movements during late 2025 in shares with limited public float that could not be explained by economic conditions or the companies' underlying finances. It also identified risks from unsecured borrowing between related parties.
The Cyprus connection runs through Maya Turizm, the company behind the unfinished Aqua Dolce development in Akanthou.
Public Land and an Unfinished Development
In her first Havadis report, published on 25 September, Erişkin traced the Tera/Pera corporate connection to Maya. The report followed the arrest of Tera Yatırım Holding chairman Emre Tezmen in Turkey's capital-markets investigation.
Aqua Dolce envisaged a resort and residential development. Almost twenty years passed.
Citing a December 2006 government decision, Erişkin described authority to lease public parcels to Maya for 49 years, with a US$160,000 bank guarantee and provisions for termination if obligations went unmet. Subsequent decisions amended the arrangement.
Finance Minister Özdemir Berova told Erişkin that the journalist's enquiry was the first he had heard of the connection and said the documents would be examined. Interior Minister Dursun Oğuz did not respond. Local mayor Hayri Orçan said Maya had pursued the investment in good faith but encountered licensing problems.
What the Property Records Show
Erişkin's second report, published on 27 September, identified Global Yatırım Holding as Maya's other 50 percent shareholder, alongside Tera Yatırım Teknoloji Holding. Maya also owned four parcels separate from the leased public land.
Those parcels had a valuation. According to the company report cited by Erişkin, an assessment dated 3 March 2025 put their combined value at TL54.698 million excluding VAT, or TL65.6376 million including VAT.
In Turkey, prosecutors were asking whether fund money had been used to buy shares in Tera-controlled companies and drive up their prices. Tezmen denied the allegations.
Erişkin brought that question back to Akanthou. Had Maya's property interests or the unrealised development been used in financing, collateral or fund transactions? Her reporting identifies assets that warrant examination. Their role in the alleged conduct remains unresolved, and Turkish asset measures cannot be assumed to apply automatically to Maya's property in northern Cyprus.
Residents Behind the Missing Numbers
On 3 October, Erişkin published her third dossier, “Fon Krizinin Kıbrıs'a Düşen Gölgesi”, asking what Turkey's fund crisis is costing Cyprus and who will measure it.
Her sources described losses among residents who had invested in affected Turkish funds. One reportedly had to put a car up for urgent sale. Erişkin states that names and amounts could not be independently documented. No verified local total exists.
The dossier also reports that a bank operating in northern Cyprus appeared among 46 legal entities for which asset measures were sought. Those measures were subsequently lifted. Inclusion in the list establishes no wrongdoing.
Erişkin asks about Maya's current leases and reported unpaid rents dating from 2007. He also seeks a count of affected investors and an assessment of the Turkish-lira economy's exposure to financial conditions in Turkey. Her editorial note explicitly says the reporting establishes no criminal finding against Maya or the Aqua Dolce project.
An Interim Payment, With Conditions
For affected investors, there is movement. SPK's 1 October notice provides interim payments to investors whose holdings have been reconciled in funds founded by Tera, Pusula, Atlas and Hedef.
Payments depend on net investment. They are capped at TL1 million per investor, per fund, with money-market funds receiving priority, and will be deducted from final liquidation entitlements.
The notice gives no Cyprus-specific count. It also leaves the final amount recoverable by each investor to the liquidation process.
Measuring the local cost will require care. Money temporarily inaccessible must be distinguished from final losses, while any public rent arrears need their own accounting. Property valuations cannot simply be added to investors' losses to produce a headline figure.
Financial supervisors and institutions holding investor records would need to establish the extent of residents' exposure. For Akanthou, the authorities responsible for the public leases could begin by publishing the current agreements, the rent account and the record of enforcement over unmet investment conditions. Those documents would help explain what happened to land committed to a development almost two decades ago.
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