AN investigation was launched in the north yesterday after information about Greek Cypriots who had applied to the Turkish Cypriot property commission for reinstatement or compensation for properties lost in 1974 appeared in the Greek Cypriot press.
“Many departments are now under investigation because information could have been leaked from any one of a number of government offices,” head of the property commission Sumer Erkman told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
She said that because the commission operated “as part of the courts”, cross referencing and evidence between departments was essential.
“As far as possible, we do this without using the names of the Greek Cypriots involved, but somehow information seems to have got out,” she added.
Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat also said on Sunday he believed there were “spies” operating in ‘government’ offices in the north who were intent on obstructing the work of the commission.
With no shortage of controversy, the north’s property commission was established in its current form after an ECHR ruling in December 2005 said Turkey should work to provide a local remedy to Myra Arestis’s loss of her property in Varosha.
Erkman said yesterday she was “deeply saddened” by the leak because it had occurred despite assurances from the commission that applicants’ names would be kept secret to prevent them from coming under pressure not to apply. Feeling is widespread among the Greek Cypriot community that those applying are betraying the national cause. Indeed, the initials of those who had applied were published in Simerini last week under the headline “The List of Shame”. The paper, implying applicants had somehow broken the law, said it had passed the list on to the Attorney-general.
So far, Erkman said, around 190 Greek Cypriots had applied to the commission either to gain resettlement in their properties, secure financial compensation, or to exchange their properties in the north with abandoned Turkish Cypriot properties in the south. To this date, 18 cases have been successfully resolved with three applicants moving back to their properties in the north, and 15 accepting financial compensation.
The commission head said it remained to be seen how the leaking of the applicants’ names would affect future applications.
However, Turkish Cypriot human rights lawyer Emine Erk said she believed applications had continued despite the leak.
“After the so-called list of shame came out, people have apparently still been applying. Maybe there is no such thing as bad publicity,” she told the Mail yesterday.
She added her belief that a “rebellious atmosphere” was growing in the south, with many frustrated at the government’s lack of progress in dealing with the concerns of refugees.
“In 2006, there were around 60 applications to the commission. In the last six months alone there have been around 100 new applications,” Erk said.
The lawyer accused the Greek Cypriot press and government of being deceitful by making it appear the identities of applicants had only recently come to light in the south.
“Some applicants I have met tell me they had told government official in the south they would be coming to the commission in the north. Some had warned the government, ‘Either you do something, or I’ll go to the commission’,” she said.
Commission head Erkman yesterday called on the Greek Cypriot side to take a more positive approach to her office’s work and said it was not the commission’s intention to resolve the property issue in its entirety.
“We want to provide the legal basis for Greek Cypriots who want their properties back or to gain compensation. This cannot solve the property issue; only a comprehensive solution can do that,” she said, but added: “God willing, when a solution happens, the commission will have contributed to it in some way.”
