Denktash proposes commission on land claims

TURKISH Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash yesterday called for the establishment of a commission to examine disputes over property rights on both sides of the Green Line.

“An independent, autonomous commission could be set up and identify formulae and criteria between the two sides,” the Turkish Cypriot TAK news agency quoted Denktash as saying.

“For a solution to the Cyprus problem there are a number of elements. One of these is the exchange of property. Without this there can be no agreement,” he told reporters in occupied Nicosia after a routine meeting with Ann Hercus, the new UN resident envoy in Cyprus.

But speaking from New York, government spokesman Christos Stylianides yesterday rejected the Denktash proposal, saying UN Security Council resolutions on Cyprus called for the return of refugees to their homes.

“This position was given full legal backing by the decision of the Human Rights Court of the European Union in the case of Titina Loizidou. Neither the Security Council nor the human rights court make any reference to an exchange of property as part of a settlement,” Stylianides told the Associated Press news agency in a phone call from New York, where he is attending the UN General Assembly meetings.

The European Court of Human Rights earlier this year ordered Turkey to compensate Kyrenia refugee Titina Loizidou for denying her access to property in the north. Another 40 similar cases are pending.

Fearing a wave of claims, Turkey rejected the court’s ruling, arguing that the case should have been brought against Denktash’s administration.

The Greek Cypriot side rejects Denktash’s call for property exchanges and compensation as a means of consolidating the division of the island.

Some 200,000 Greek Cypriots fled or were expelled from their villages in the wake of the invasion. Their place was taken by 40,000 Turkish Cypriots from the south and settlers from the Turkish mainland who were given Greek Cypriot property.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.