THE GOVERNMENT yesterday accused Turkey of misleading Europe in the Titina Loizidou case, after Ankara did an about-turn on its promise to pay unconditionally the Kyrenia refugee compensation awarded to her in 1998 by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Turkish officials told the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on Thursday that by October it would comply with the ECHR ruling and pay Loizidou the compensation of around $900,000 without any terms and conditions.
However two different news agency reports out of Ankara have quoted Turkish official sources as saying Ankara would pay on condition that 3,000 other Greek Cypriot property compensation claims pending at the ECHR were shelved — and that future applications be dealt with by Turkish Cypriot ‘courts’.
Yesterday Turkish television NTV quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as saying that “a law will be enacted in the TRNC” which would deal with Greek Cypriot property cases. This would provide that any cases the ‘TRNC courts’ could not deal with could be referred to the ECHR, he said.
Commenting on the Loizidou case, Gul said: “A payment can be made once we see that this system will definitely work.”
Speaking to reporters at the European Union summit in Salonica yesterday, government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said that “Turkey’s policy has been proven once more unreliable”.
“While Turkey has told the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe that by October it would comply with a European Court of Human Rights ruling and pay the compensation without any terms and conditions, it appears that it intended to make yet another diplomatic manoeuvre that indicates its strategy to avoid compliance with the Court decision and at the same time avoid being condemned by the Council of Europe,” Chrysostomides said.
“The intentional misleading of Europe by Turkey is evident. The European Court and the Council of Europe, as well as the EU, should note this new Turkish affront to the intelligence of the international community.”
Chrysostomides said that when the government heard of Turkey’s intention to pay Loizidou, it had its reservations about Ankara’s sincerity. “Today it appears that Ankara is making a U-turn and is revealing the true face of Turkish diplomacy,” he said.
“No Cypriot will fall into the trap laid down by Turkish diplomacy,” he said, adding that the ECHR would also be able to draw its own conclusions.
“We do not believe that the Court will take into consideration diplomatic manoeuvres from Turkey. Europe, especially the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, cannot possibly allow institutions it is very proud of to be insulted,” the spokesman said.
Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash was yesterday quoted as saying Ankara’s pledge to pay Loizidou was designed to create the climate for a balanced resolution of the property issue via the exchange of property and compensation. Denktash said the payment had been postponed until October because there was a lot of “legal work” to do until then.
“The decision of Turkey on the payment of compensations up to October does not have the aim of gaining time,” he said. “It is simply to create a climate for the resolution of these problems jointly and in a balanced way.”
He said perhaps the ECHR could assist in handling the claims of both sides.
“In this way the EU and the ECHR will see the realities,” he added.
Turkish Cypriot opposition newspaper Afrika said yesterday that Denktash’s plan was twofold: “On the one hand he (Denktash) checks the flow of Greek Cypriot claims at the ECHR and on the other he achieves the aim of setting up an exchange of property and compensation through the courts of northern Cyprus,” the paper said.
Afrika said there was an underlying hope that many Greek Cypriots would give legitimacy to the ‘TRNC property courts’ by seeking compensation and ostensibly putting aside their political views, in the same way as their desire to visit the north prompted them to show their passports when the checkpoints opened on April 23.
