Cyprus’ land belongs to its people and not the various conquerors who thought that their conquest secured them the right to ownership, Interior Minister Constantinos Petrides said on Wednesday in response to claims by Turkish Cypriot religious foundation Evkaf that it owns most of Varosha.
The minister said in a written statement that Famagusta’s property status has been clarified and that the closed-off town belongs to its rightful owners.
The announcement follows statements by the head of Evkaf, Ibrahim Benter, who told Turkish daily Yeni Sabah that after bringing in experts to study all title deeds dated between 1571 and 1974, it emerged that most of Varosha belongs to Evkaf since it belongs to three vakifs (religious endowments), the Abdullah Pasha Foundation, the Lala Mustafa Pasha Foundation and a small part to Bilal Aga Foundation.
Benter also said that claims by the Greek Cypriots that the area had been purchased by the British from Evkaf for UK£1.5m were baseless. He said that the money was in fact given for the restoration of vakif properties after the British administration acknowledged that they had let those properties fall in disrepair.
But Petrides countered that the history of the immovable property in Cyprus did not start with the conquest of the island in 1571 by the Ottoman Empire “nor since 1858 with the introduction of the Ottoman land code […] not even in 1878 when Cyprus was rented to the United Kingdom.”
“Cyprus’ land belongs to the permanent residents of this country and not the various conquerors who deemed that this conquest of theirs secured them the right to ownership,” Petrides said.
He said that the ownership status is proved beyond any doubt in the land registry records and the archives of the Famagusta district’s land registry office “which they possess in its entirety since 1974” as well as that of Kyrenia and part of the Nicosia land registry archives which they have possessed since 1963.
In order to verify the ownership status, the Turkish Cypriots ought to allow the open use of these registries and archives. “Through them, the entire history of immovable property of Cyprus and its real owners will be clearly seen,” he said.
Also on Wednesday, lawyer Achilleas Demetriades rejected claims by Benter that the British gave the money for restorations. He said that the former colonial ruler, as part of the independence arrangements, gave the Turkish Cypriot community a large amount of money, UK £1.5m, for complete and final settlement of all of Turkish claims, including those of the Evkaf high council, whose president was Dr Fazil Kutchuk.
The British government had paid half a million pounds on August 1, 1960 in a joint account under Kutchuk and the late Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, as part of a 1.5 million pound settlement which underlined that no claims would be made thereafter by the Turkish Cypriot community. The remaining one million was paid to the Turkish communal chamber, Demetriades told the Cyprus News Agency.
Demetriades said the arrangement is included in a relevant appendix of the Treaty of Establishment of the Republic of Cyprus and a receipt of payment was signed by the two late Turkish Cypriot politicians.
According to Demetriades who researched the issue, the looting of Evkaf properties by the former colonial rule did take place and a committee was set up in 1958-1959 which proved that the colonial government was handling the Evkaf properties as if they were part of a government department.
For this reason, the Turkish Cypriots insisted in the independence negotiations that the British pay four million pounds sterling in damages. But after hard bargaining, the amount was reduced to 1.5 million sterling.
