THE NORTH’S Immovable Property Commission (IPC) has reacted angrily to a report last week questioning whether the 81 Greek Cypriots who have come to agreement with the north over property compensation claims have been paid.
“If there is anyone who has not received the compensation agreed, let them come forward and say so,” head of the IPC Sumer Erkman told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
While not providing any physical proof of funds paid, Erkman added that due to the sheer volume of work since the summer, some applicants were yet to receive their promised funds.
“Since the summer recess, we have finalised around 30 applications, and some of those applicants are still waiting to be paid,” Erkman said.
According to the IPC head, several offices are involved in the payment process, which can take up to two months to complete. Of the 30 applications resolved since the summer, around 20 were yet to be paid. One of the 20 is a Greek Cypriot who last week made the news by agreeing to a GB£12 million compensation offer.
“They will all receive their funds within days,” Erkman insisted, adding that there was no question of deliberate delay or of a shortage of funds. She added that another Greek Cypriot refugee whose GB£9.5 million compensation was one of the 20 still waiting.
Erkman yesterday contested the Mail’s report that the funds for the compensation of Greek Cypriot property claims came from Turkey.
“The funds come from north Cyprus’ budget,” she insisted. A source close to the IPC yesterday told the Mail the funds were being generated through the redirecting rents for ‘state-owned’ lands to the IPC’s coffers.
“All funds are coming from here. Nothing comes from Turkey for this,” the source said.
The north’s IPC was set up in 2006 in answer to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) that Turkey and its subordinate Turkish Cypriot administration were failing to offer an effective local remedy to Greek Cypriots seeking redress for properties they had lost in the north because they did not offer refugees the possibility of returning to their properties.
With the IPC’s establishment however Greek Cypriots were, for the first time, able to apply to the Turkish Cypriot authorities to regain ownership rights, as well as financial compensation or the chance to exchange their property for Turkish Cypriot-owned property in the south.
Accounts of agreement for compensation or records of funds having been paid to Greek Cypriots from the north’s authorities are difficult to come by, with Greek Cypriots reluctant to draw attention to themselves as having made a deal with a body that is not recognised by the government.
That said, the onus still falls on the north’s authorities to prove payment for the ECHR to accept that the authorities there have set up a system that redresses Greek Cypriot demands.
