Advertising hoardings were removed from the Alagadi area on Wednesday.

Alagadi beach is famous island wide as a landing and hatching beach for sea turtles, and the area had been declared a “Special environmental protection area” by the Turkish Cypriot authorities in 1997.

The law declaring Alagadi’s special status had prohibited the placement of such billboards in the area, but advertising permits had erroneously been handed out in recent years.

However, those permits have now been revoked.

Ayios Epiktitos and Ayios Amvrosios mayor Ceyhun Kirok said on Wednesday that the permits were awarded by the Ayios Amvrosios municipality before the two villages were merged in 2022 and added that the billboards would now be placed outside the protected area.

The municipality itself said the billboards would be removed “as soon as possible”.