Tourists staying in hotels in Turkish-controlled north Cyprus could be in for a shock along with their bill: a suit brought against them on behalf of Greek Cypriot owners.
Greek Cypriot lawyer Constantis Candounas, who won a landmark ruling this week triggering upheaval among foreign home buyers in ethnically split Cyprus, said on Thursday he plans to sue tourists using disputed properties in the north.
He said a summons would be filed against some 60 individuals who stayed at the once-luxury Dome Hotel, owned by Greek Cypriots but not run by them, in the northern town of Kyrenia in 2009.
Hundreds of Greek Cypriots were trapped in the hotel for 18 months after the war in 1974 that split the island.
"They (the owners) object to the use of their property in Kyrenia by whoever it is running it and also the trespassing tourists," Candounas said.
The plan comes on the heels of Candounas's victory in a British Court of Appeals which ruled that a British couple must tear down their holiday home in north Cyprus and pay for trespassing on property belonging to a Greek Cypriot refugee.
"We do not object to the development of tourism in the north…but not at the expense of Greek Cypriots and definitely not in Greek Cypriot properties," Candounas told a news conference.
He said ignorance of the ownership issues on the island was no excuse.
"The party is over," he said.
Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup. Property disputes are one of the thorniest aspects of the conflict affecting thousands, since about a quarter of Cypriots are internally displaced.
Northern Cyprus gets a fraction of the 2 million plus visitors who visit the southern government-controlled areas of Cyprus every year.
Yet tourism in the north has picked up, with an estimated 5,000 Britons having holiday homes there, lured by rock-bottom prices in one of the last undeveloped corners of the Mediterranean.
Legal action would impact tourism and trigger a fall in property prices, local analysts said.
"Prices will fall," said Serden Hoca, a Turkish Cypriot real estate agent who also partipates in Cyprus reunification talks.
"This case and others like it will drive us away from the European and British markets towards the Turkish property and tourism market," he added.
