Gun shots, punches aimed at those trying to evict illegal users from Turkish Cypriot properties
By Evie Andreou
Punches and gun shots were in some cases meted out to officials delivering eviction notices to people illegally using Turkish Cypriot property, MPs heard on Tuesday while the government will need two to three years to overhaul refugee legislation.
Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides told the House Refugees Committee that met to discuss the management of Turkish Cypriot properties that the overhaul of refugee legislation was imperative as existing regulations were introduced in 1991 “in a patchy way”.
Petrides said that if everyone – parties, the government and stakeholders – exhibited due seriousness and responsibility, a new policy and legal framework could be introduced soon, “to lift injustices and help the whole refugee issue”.
“The refugee policy may have been the most unjust state policy as it never took into account the property in the occupied areas of every refugee,” Petrides said.
Efforts to stamp out irregularities regarding the management of Turkish Cypriot property continue, Petrides said but this does not mean that a review of the existing legislation is not necessary, as it creates inequality, injustice and several categories of refugees.
The focus of the modernised legislation, he said, should be the occupied property of refugees.
In its next meeting, the cabinet is set to appoint a consultancy committee, which has been delayed due political parties taking time to submit their suggestions.
Petrides said he will first wait to listen to the suggestions of the committee regarding drafting the new law, and invited parties to also submit theirs. He also called for unity as this is “a national issue” that concerns tens of thousands of Cypriots.
The minister also announced that, for reasons of transparency, a website would be launched by the end of the year with a list of all Turkish Cypriot property that has not been given to anyone to use, as well as, pending the opinion of the personal data commissioner, a list of those who already use such property and how it is being used.
Deputy head of the service for Turkish Cypriot properties management, Makis Economides told MPs that repossession of such property by those holding it illegally continues but it is not an easy task.
On criticism from MPs that these procedures take place in the presence of police officers, Economides said they are necessary to record items within the property when the eviction notice is delivered, but also to protect officials. Tenants are given 30 days to leave the property, he said.
“The men going to arrange repossessions have been met with gun shots, punches and other forms of violence,” Economides said.
Head of the refugees committee, Akel’s Skevi Koukouma said as new legislation will take two to three years to implement the state should in the meantime support people in need.
The €133 monthly rent allowance refugees receive, she said, is lower than beneficiaries of the Guaranteed Minimum Income get.
Akel MP Nikos Kettiros criticised the change in the government’s stance on the matter.
Last month, Kettiros said, Petrides told them that a private consultant would be asked within two months to proceed with the preparation of a new legislation on the management of Turkish Cypriot properties, but today “we didn’t hear not of a swift procedure but of a reviewing procedure that might take years”.
Following the 1974 Turkish invasion properties in the south abandoned by Turkish Cypriots were put under the protection of the interior ministry’s guardian of Turkish Cypriot properties. Because of the need to house Greek Cypriots who were displaced from the north, it was decided to allocate such properties to them – usually for a token fee – on condition that the owners would not lose their rights.
The government has recently launched a campaign to repossess all Turkish Cypriot property being used illegally, or whose users refuse to pay rent increases announced last year.
