ECHR pays 23% of Greek Cypriot expectations in Lordos case

Greek Cypriots claiming for loss of use for their property in the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus received on Tuesday only 23% of what they claimed from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), according to analysis by Sapienta Economics Ltd.
In the judgment on merits in the case of Lordos v. Turkey (Application no. 15973/90), the eligible applicants claimed a total of EUR 91,808,144 (EUR 91.8 mln) for loss of use of several hundred properties but were awarded only EUR 20,830,000 (20.8 mln), or 23% of their claims, by the Court.
The biggest claim was made by Constantinos Lordos, a well known property and hotel owner, who claimed EUR 43,696,313 for over 60 separate properties. He was awarded EUR 8,000,000 million, or just 18% of his claim.
The Lordos v. Turkey case was one of the last to be heard in the first instance by the ECHR. Since the landmark case of Demopoulos in March 2010, Greek Cypriots must first take their claims to the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) in the north.
Although many Greek Cypriots attempted to challenge the legitimacy of the IPC, in Demopoulos the Court found “that Law 67/2005 provides an accessible and effective framework of redress in respect of complaints about interference with the property owned by Greek Cypriots”.
The latest round of UN-facilitated talks to resolve the property issue via a comprehensive settlement of the longstanding Cyprus problem have been under way since April 2008, with leader-level negotiations since September 2008.
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