Ankara: Cyprus property measures intact despite court ruling

A recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in which it ordered Turkey to pay millions of euros to Greek Cypriots for their abandoned properties on the northern part of the divided island of Cyprus does not rule out the effectiveness of the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

The ECtHR on Tuesday fined Turkey more than 15 million euros in 19 cases filed by Greek Cypriots. The cases concerned the applicants’ complaints that the 1974 Turkish military intervention in the northern part of Cyprus deprived them of their homes and properties. In judgments issued in September 2009 and October 2009 the ECtHR upheld the view that there had been a continuous violation of Article 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which covers the protection of property, in all 19 cases and of Article 8, which deals with the right to respect for private and family life, in 11 of them. The question of the application of Article 41, which concerns just satisfaction, was reserved for a later date.

In its judgments released on Tuesday, the court ruled that Turkey was to pay a total of 15,001,498 euros in pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages and 160,375 euros for legal expenses.

The Strasbourg court, in a March ruling, recognized the IPC of the KKTC as a valid domestic judicial remedy whose jurisdiction extends to Greek Cypriots, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Selçuk Ünal recalled when invited to comment on the ruling at a regular press conference on Wednesday. “The ruling is not a ruling against the effectiveness of the IPC,” Ünal said, while noting that Tuesday’s judgments concerned applications that were announced as admissible before the March ruling.

The aforementioned judgment means that Greek Cypriots will not be able to launch court cases against Turkey in the European court prior to seeking redress with the IPC and sets a precedent for approximately 1,500 property cases pending at the ECtHR. The ruling is significant in that for the first time a Turkish Cypriot commission has been recognized by Europe’s top human rights court, boosting the international legitimacy of the KKTC.