Titina payment case put on hold

A DISCUSSION on sanctions to be taken against Turkey for refusing to comply with an order to pay compensation to Greek Cypriot refugee Titina Loizidou was last night postponed for another week by the chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

Diplomatic sources told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) that various delegations informed the chairman that they had no instructions on the stance they would take on the contents of the document prepared by the Secretariat in the last week.

Because of the seriousness of the issue, the chairman of the Committee decided to postpone the discussion until next Wednesday to allow delegations to become fully informed on the document, the sources added.

The same sources said that in essence, “a small step in the beginning of the procedure” for sanctions on Turkey has begun following the presentation of the document by the chairman of the Committee.

The document includes gradual steps to be taken against Turkey, beginning with painless measures, ultimately reaching expulsion of the country from the CoE.

In 1998 the European Court of Human Rights ordered Turkey to pay over million dollars in compensation to Loizidou for preventing er from accessing her property in Kyrenia and told Ankara to allow her access to her property in the Turkish occupied north.
The CoE had already given Turkey an extra week to comply with the compensation order. Ankara was to pay up or face CoE sanctions by November 19 but was given a week’s extension.

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