IT IS now virtually impossible for potential house-buyers to obtain information on the original owners of properties in the Turkish Cypriot north, according to prominent Turkish Cypriot lawyer Talat Kurshat.
“In the past, you could ask the land registry office to run a search on the property in question that would tell you whether it was originally Greek or Turkish Cypriot-owned.
“But around three months ago we asked for a search on behalf of one of our clients and were told pre-1974 data on property had been banned,” Kurshat told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
According to information given to Kurshat, the order to impose a restriction on such information came from the Turkish Cypriot ‘council of ministers’.
An official from the Kyrenia land registry office confirmed that a directive had been passed down from the ‘interior ministry’ forbidding the divulging of information on property ownership prior to the Turkish invasion of 1974.
“We received the order from the ministry a few months back,” he told the Mail.
“It’s very difficult to rationalise such a move. The CTP [Republican Turkish Party] say they are a party of reconciliation and peace, but what they have done is even worse than the policies exercised by the UBP [National Unity Party] government.”
The disclosure could cause deep embarrassment for the CTP-led government, which prides itself on its reformist credentials.
Deputy chief administrator Aziz Savant of the Nicosia Turkish Cypriot land registry denied all knowledge of the directive, but insisted it was still possible to obtain pre-1974 data on property if the potential buyer applied for a court order for the release of the information.
“If the ministry obstructs your access to information you are within your rights to apply through the courts,” he said, adding: “If you don’t get access to this information, how will you know whether you are buying Turkish or Greek Cypriot property?”
But Kurshat argued that the courts often refused to process applications for pre-1974 data He also contested the view of Kyrenia estate agent Ian Smith that it was always possible to identify the type of property one is buying by the codes on the title deeds issued by the north.
“Some title deeds have information on them telling you if the property was either Turkish, Greek Cypriot property given to Turkish Cypriot refugees, or Greek Cypriot property given to mainland Turkish settlers. But there are also many deeds that do not carry this information. If you can’t carry out a search, you will not be able to know what you are buying,” Kurshat explained.
He added his belief that the ‘government’ in the north was mistaken in taking such a draconian approach over the issue.
“Putting a ban or information does not create a good impression.”
News of the directive comes in the wake of a proposed law, again originating from the north’s ‘interior ministry’, banning the sale of properties to foreigners. If the law is enacted, non-Turkish Cypriots will no longer be permitted to buy freehold properties and will instead be granted 125-year leases on the properties.
Once the 125 period has transpired, the property will become the property of the ‘state’.
Kurshat is scathing about the law.
“It seems to be the fate of the Turkish Cypriots that whenever a certain sector of the economy picks up the government either taxes it out of existence or introduces laws to ban it.”
He added that many foreign buyers had now pulled out of deals to buy property in the north.
Others in the north have derided the ‘government’ over the law questioning why – if the long-term aim was the declaration of the Annan plan’s ‘Turkish Cypriot State’ – it would make laws that envisage the existence of the ‘TRNC’ in 125 years time?
Officials from the ‘interior ministry’ were unavailable for comment yesterday.
