By a Staff Reporter
THIRTEEN new appeals have been filed against Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), demanding compensation for property seized after Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974.
The appeals have been filed by the Erotocritou and Co. law office on behalf of 13 applicants who own land in the north and are prevented from accessing, owning and exploiting it by the Turkish army.
The plaintiffs, who demand a total of £6.3 million in compensation, join a long list of Greek Cypriot property owners prevented from accessing their land because of the Turkish occupation.
The highest compensation sought involves five of the applicants from the village of Akanthou in the Kyrenia district.
They demand £3 million from Turkey for depriving them of their property, including a large farming unit and huge expanses of agricultural land.
The rest involve three more plaintiffs from Akanthou, four from the Morphou district and one from Kyrenia.
The appeals are based on a similar case in which the ECHR ruled in favour of the Greek Cypriot applicant. In 1998, Titina Loizidou was awarded $640,000 in damages, and another $374,000 in costs. Last September, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe expressed its grave concern about Turkey’s failure to pay Loizidou, and ruled it was disregarding its international obligations.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
