THE Government Spokesman yesterday challenged anyone who thought refugees should not own the houses they were living in to say so openly.
Michalis Papapetrou was replying to opposition criticism of President Glafcos Clerides’ pledge to give ownership titles to all refugees living in refugee estates around Cyprus.
Papapetrou challenged anyone who thought refugees should not own the homes they lived in now — even if they returned to their properties in case of a solution – to say as much to the Cypriot people.
The opposition has dismissed Clerides’ pledge as electioneering.
Papapetrou said Clerides had begun handing titles in the past, but was stopped by Parliament, which passed special legislation prohibiting him from continuing.
“President Clerides clearly said that the least we could do for these people — and not only Clerides but all of us – was to consider these houses to be theirs’, irrespective of whether they return to their homes (in the occupied areas),” Papapetrou said.
“It is one of the President’s commitments so that refugees know that when they go home after a solution, they won’t lose the houses they live in today.”
But AKEL leader Demetris Christofias said the government only remembered the issue at election time.
“Every five years or whenever there are elections they suddenly remember to give out title deeds,” Christofias said.
He said this should concern both those receiving titles and those who could not get them because their refugee homes were built on Turkish Cypriot property.
“Unless of course the policy of this government is that there should be property exchange at the end,” Christofias suggested.
KISOS chairman Yiannakis Omirou described the move as sacrilege.
“To exploit the refugee problem on the eve of the elections is sacrilege,” Omirou said.
“To give out title deeds just a few days before the elections degrades our political ethics and injures our people’s dignity.”
New Horizons leader Nicos Koutsou said Clerides’ declaration looked like an election ploy and wondered why the President only took a stance on title deeds and not on the refugee problem in general.
“It’s an old problem that had to be resolved a long time ago.
“From the moment titles are given to some refugees, I believe it is not fair to have some with titles and others without,” Koutsou said.
And he added it should be made clear that refugees’ right to free movement and settlement in a settlement should be guaranteed — titles or no titles.
He too criticised Clerides for his decision to raise the issue now, when he had had plenty of time in the last five years to deal with Parliament’s decision to halt the issue of titles.
DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades suggested that issuing ownership titles to refugees was merely a continuation of the policy which began in 1997 and had been halted by the opposition.
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.
