GALANOS Brothers Ltd yesterday added their names to the growing number of Greek Cypriots suing Turkey for denying them use of their property in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus with a lawsuit filed against Turkey in the European Court of Human Rights.
The case is one of some 40 such lawsuits that Galanos’ Nicosia lawyer, Achilleas Demetriades, said he has filed on behalf of Greek Cypriots against Turkey for keeping them from enjoying their land in the occupied north.
The suit by Galanos, a Limassol-based distributor of foodstuffs, does not seek specific damages "at his stage" for the seven pieces of land in occupied Famagusta that held "a biscuit factory, flour mill, various ancillary operations as well as a store and freezer facilities – their production capability," Demetriades said.
"Basically you make application to the European Court of Human Rights of the Council of Europe (CoE), in Strasbourg, France," he said. The court considers the case, sends Turkey a copy, deliberates, issues a ruling on finding a violation of rights, and awards compensation, he said.
With some 200,000 Greek Cypriot refugees from Turkey’s 1974 invasion in the Republic, the Galanos suit is just one of possible thousands that could hit Turkey with huge political and financial liabilities for denying them access to their land.
In one suit filed by Demetriades, the Court in 1998 ordered Turkey to pay Titina Loizidou some $914,000 for denying her the right to enjoy her land in occupied Kyrenia. That award entailed $600,000 for denial of use; $40,000 for moral damages; and $274,000 for legal costs.
Based on the number of invasion refugees, an extrapolation from the Loizidou ruling would slap Turkey with a potential financial liability of at least $16 billion for loss of use alone.
And this figure would not begin to address the value of the land or buildings involved, since their titles remain to this day in the names of the original refugees, Demetriades said. And it would also not be affected by any Cyprus settlement, he added.
"The interesting thing about these cases and the message that Loizidou has sent is that the individual also has rights, and these rights can be vindicated through the European Court quite separately from any Cyprus settlement," he said.
"They are ‘accrued rights’", he said. "These people have been deprived of the use of their property obviously since 1974… From that loss of use of property, they have an accrued right… independent of whatever (Cyprus) solution is reached."
"And whatever compensation these people receive, is only for the loss of use; it’s not for losing title to the land… because they haven’t lost title to the land. That’s the whole point," he said.
Then there is the political cost to Turkey of continuing to flout the Court’s judgment in the Loizidou case, Demetriades said. So far, Turkey has refused to pay her any money the Court awarded her for barring her from her Kyrenia land.
Ankara had argued it had no responsibility for denying her access to her land, but that this had been the responsibility of the breakaway Denktash regime.
The Court dismissed this claim, ruling that Turkey, by virtue of its 40,000 strong military forces in Northern Cyprus, exercised effective control and was liable.
"In order to be eligible for EU candidacy, you have to abide by… a certain level of human rights. That level is determined by membership in the Council of Europe, and obviously by abiding by the judgments of the Court," Demetriades said.
"If that is not done, then there is a serious reason for Turkey no longer to be eligible for the EU application (extended last December to Ankara in Helsinki) because of this non-compliance with the norms that it voluntarily undertook to abide by in joining the Council of Europe," he said.
"The only orthodox way to force a state to comply with a (Court) judgment is through the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which is a political body, but which has been in its 50-year history extremely effective in that not a single state has in the 50-year history avoided honouring a judgment debt," Demetriades said.
"They would prepare a resolution calling upon Turkey to comply with the judgment (they have already sent Ankara one). If they (Turkey) fail to do that, then there is a mechanism whereby they (the Ministers) will start to take action in order to expel Turkey from the Council of Europe," he said.
At such a point, all Turkey’s EU hopes would be dashed, and all recent Greek-Turkey, EU-Turkey, Cyprus-Turkey detente as regards an eventual EU seat for Ankara would have been just so much wasted time.
