There has been such a profusion of articles and letters about the iniquities of title deeds and immovable property tax that there can now be no doubt in the public mind that there is and has been corruption, injustice, and at the very least, procrastination, all on a grand scale over many years in Cyprus.
The fact that the great majority of those without title deeds are Greek Cypriots who actually have little interest in paying for deeds and acquiring them is beside the point.
The principle of living in a property yet possessing no title deeds is manifestly wrong, and no amount of government spin can possibly get around that basic precept.
But as all too many letters and article have recently made clear, although the public antics and protestations of pressure groups like CPAG have unquestionably raised the profile of the issues, and have forced the government into paying attention, the concomitant political irritation and the self-evident damage to the overall property market has been little short of disastrous. Who sensibly welcomes this extra element when the economy worldwide is in freefall?
Campaigns typically start by being admirable (and I was among those strongly in support at the beginning), but they too often proceed by being foolish and end up by being dangerous. And this is precisely what has happened with the CPAG pressure group.
This body has escalated the media interest, built on individual and plainly distressing emotive examples, and deliberately and misguidedly raised the temperature of the public sentiment.
This has in turn pushed the Cyprus Government into defending itself even when the justification for criticism is crystal clear, so that utterly predictably, the administration has dug its heels in and has refused to be told by an expatriate-led assembly how to conduct its affairs. CPAG has completely misread the Cypriot culture while evidently believing it is doing the public a significant service.
The initial aims and objectives of CPAG and the several other allied pressure groups were and remain beyond reproach, but ask yourself what has actually been achieved? Have any more title deeds been issued? Has the attention which CPAG deliberately draws to itself, and the line in the sand it has crossed, gained by its aggressiveness? Answer: only too obviously no.
By contrast, the enemies made and the damage and fall in property values (yes, allied of course by the overall economic situation) have most regrettably been highly visible here and far beyond Cyprus and will take years to offset and repair.
Clive Turner,
Paphos
