THE SLEW of property cases across the Green Line is posing a serious threat to relations between ordinary Greek and Turkish Cypriots, UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan said in his latest six-monthly report on Cyprus.
In renewing the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) until December, Annan commented on the hundreds of Greek Cypriots cases pending before the European Court of Human Rights and the new phenomena of EU arrest warrants against foreigners buying or selling Greek Cypriot property in the north.
Coupled with the response by the Turkish Cypriot authorities in threatening the arrest and detention of those attempting to serve court summonses, Annan said property rights continued to be an extremely sensitive issue on both sides. Annan said it was widely believed that only a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem could bring closure to this issue.
“The area of property has opened up new fronts of litigation and acrimony,” Annan’s report said. “The prospect of an increase of litigations in property cases on either side poses a serious threat to people-to-people relationships and to the reconciliation process.”
In his report, Annan also said there had not been any improvement in relations between the two sides and that he would not be appointing a new full-time envoy to Cyprus for the foreseeable future.
“I do not believe that the time is ripe to appoint a full-time person dedicated to my Good Offices,” he said. “However, I intend to dispatch on an ad hoc basis a senior official from the Secretariat to visit Cyprus, Greece and Turkey to assess the situation on the ground in light of recent political developments.”
Annan said the overall situation in Cyprus remained stable, although the official contacts between the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot sides, which had ceased since the April 2004 referenda, had not been resumed and there was little sign of improvement in relations.
The report said that as of May 20 more than seven million crossings by Greek Cypriots to the north and Turkish Cypriots to the south had taken place, “with remarkably few incidents”.
“The situation in Cyprus has been calm, but, in the absence of a viable political process, the distrust between the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot side has persisted, as has the military posture and the concomitant perception of threat,” he said, referring to increased crime such as smuggling, drug trafficking, illegal immigration and human trafficking.
“These problems are implicit in the expanding inter-communal contacts, which though positive, have also the potential for adverse consequences if the present lack of co-operation between the sides persists,” said Annan.
He also said that discussions at the regular monthly meetings between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot political party leaders, held under the aegis of the Embassy of Slovakia at the former Ledra Palace hotel, illustrated the differences on core issues of the Cyprus problem and had produced no tangible progress “beyond general declarations of support for a just settlement”.
“There was no substantive change in the position of the sides on my mission of good offices,”’ Annan said.
He also commented on the trade issue, saying that so far it had been limited by “technical and political hurdles”, with goods worth less than half a million Cyprus pounds crossing the line since the EU’s Green Line regulation came into effect last year. He added that the Greek Cypriot side still continued to oppose direct trade between the north and the EU.
The government indicated yesterday that it was generally satisfied with the report.
Acting Government Spokesman Marios Karoyan, in a preliminary response refrained from an in-depth assessment of the report, saying that the government would study the contents and then make further comments. However, he said there appeared to be several aspects that could be open to different interpretations by both sides.
For instance, Karoyan said that Annan’s assessment that the time was not yet ripe to appoint a full time envoy was made before the recent consultations with the UN began.
Commenting on Annan’s statements on the property issue, Karoyan said he disagreed with Annan’s view that a rise in litigations in property cases on either side posed a serious threat.
“We consider the right of every individual to claim his own property indelible. It is safeguarded by international conventions, and is a fundamental principle of international law,” he said.
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