Government to clamp down on illegal holders of Turkish properties

THERE would soon be no more Turkish Cypriots properties in the hands of people not entitled to them, the Interior Minister said yesterday.

Speaking after a meeting with the Central Advisory Committee in Charge of Turkish Cypriot Properties, Christodoulos Christodoulou said that while many people had lost their properties just after the invasion, some were now very much back on their feet.

He said many now had luxury properties of their own, but still held on to the Turkish Cypriot houses and land; "On a strict interpretation, the number of illegal cases could be a few hundred," he said.

Christodoulou said he would be heading the Committee’s first ever efforts to establish how many of people should be allowed to keep Turkish Cypriot properties.

"What has to take place is a new approach to the issue so that we can decide if those who were once entitled to property should still be allowed to hold on to them, and this will be judged on the financial situation of each one, who may have been in need in 1974 or 1980 and is in a different situation now."

Christodoulou said that if it were established that people were found holding on to property to which they were not entitled, they would be prosecuted. "(They will be subjected to) what the law says and what the court decides."

He said his next meeting with the Committee would be in May and added his efforts were in no way connected with the recent wave of people leaving the occupied north for the free areas.

Christodoulou said there were approximately 500 empty Turkish Cypriot houses available, and that the people coming over were being housed in waiting areas until it was established that they were in fact Turkish Cypriots.

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