Greek Cypriot refugees to be offered property back

The Turkish Cypriot parliament in the unrecognised statelet in northern Cyprus yesterday voted to allow Greek Cypriots to apply for restitution of their property lost after the 1974 Turkish invasion.

If this is found to be a sufficient legal remedy by a European Court of Human Rights judgement on the Arestis v Turkey case on Thursday, it will present Greek Cypriots with a dilemma: apply to receive their properties back from an administration seen as part of an occupation regime or wait for a resolution to the Cyprus problem that its own leaders appear to be in no hurry to solve.

Turkish Cypriots have also applied to get their property back in the south but have so far been refused.

Efforts to reunite the island in 2004 failed when the UN-backed plan was rejected by 76% of Greek Cypriots and accepted by 65% of Turkish Cypriots. Relations between the two sides have since been frosty at best.

The ECHR has so far ruled that the domestic remedies available for dispossessed owners of property in the north are not sufficient but the wording of the judgments suggests that if the Turkish Cypriots get the technicals right, they could be judged as sufficient domestic remedy.

The (Greek Cypriot) Republic of Cyprus government says that the new “pseudo law” is “nothing else but the repetition of the illegal occupation and the looting of Greek Cypriot properties,” arguing that the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey are trying to “infringe the initial decision of the European Court of Human Rights.”

“Our shield is the international law, the decisions of the UN Security Council and the illegality of the continuing occupation”, said the Government Spokesmnan Kypros Chrysostomides.