The following
article appeared in the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Ortam on 5
May 2003. The article is of interest due to its statement that
Turkey aims to pay compensation to Greek Cypriot property owner Titina
Loizidou in the case brought to the European Court of Human Rights. Mrs
Loizidou was prevented by Turkey from returning to and reclaiming her
property in Kyrenia. However, Lobby takes serious
issue with Ortam's descrption of the area of the Republic of Cyprus that
is currently under illegal Turkish military occupation.
"A step from Ankara in Cyprus – Reparations
determined in the Louizidou case will be paid
Turkey is on the
initiative to have the Louizidou case, in which she was sentenced by the
European Human Rights Court (EHRC) to pay reparations, dropped from the
agenda through the European Council.
A step from Ankara
in Cyprus' Reparations determined in the Louizidou case will be paid
Turkey aims to pay the reparations determined by the EHRC for the
Louizidou case, provided that Louizidou case will not serve as a
benchmark, other similar cases will be frozen and they later dealt with
through a council that will be established in Cyprus. That way, Turkey
targets to achieve effective internal law in Cyprus.
Accordingly, if a law is passed and a committee is established to
deal with reparations for the property that was nationalized with the
159th article of the TRNC[sic] constitution, relevant cases pending at
the EHRC can be sent back to that committee.
Committee's decision would be binding for the government, and it
will determine the amount of the reparation taking the value of the
property and the duration of inaccessibility to it into consideration.
The Louizidou case is the only one which Turkey did not obey the
decision of the EHRC. Dropping this case from the agenda is also
important for the European Council since it is the only one whose
decision was rejected by Turkey and it can serve as a benchmark for
similar cases."
