TURKISH Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash yesterday condemned the European Court’s decision to award damages to Kyrenia refugee Titina Loizidou, saying it closed the door to any peace talks with the Greek Cypriot side.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on Wednesday ordered Turkey to pay a total of £320,000 Cyprus pounds in damages to Loizidou for depriving her of the use of, and access to, her property in Kyrenia.
The court held that Turkey, as the occupying power, was responsible for developments in the north and it rejected any legal status for the Turkish Cypriot breakaway state.
But Denktash yesterday said the decision amounted to the “total closure of all doors” between Turks and Greeks on Cyprus.
“Until this decision is reversed, there will be no discussions with the Greek Cypriot side on bi-communality,” Denktash said, referring to repeated calls by the United States and the European Union for him to resume UN- chaired reconciliation talks.
“The court’s decision closes its eyes to the realities of Cyprus, to the 35 year-old situation,” Denktash said.
“(The decision) ignores the laws, disrupts human rights at the root, is biased and politically-motivated,” he said.
On Thursday ,Turkish Cypriot ‘Foreign Minster’ Taner Etkin had described the ruling as “unacceptable and totally stripped of the facts”, repeating his side’s contention that the Cyprus problem could only be solved on the basis of the existence of “two sovereign, independent and equal states”.
Etkin said that the property issue could be settled through exchange and compensation — “as proposed in the 1992 Set of Ideas and accepted by both sides”.
A statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry likewise rejected the ruling on Thursday, maintaining that responsibility for events in the north lay with the so-called Turkish Cypriot state.
Ankara’s reaction to the ruling was yesterday described as “audacious and naive” by Attorney-general Alecos Markides.
He said Turkey would very soon face a dilemma, “because it is forced to respect and bide by the decision. If it doesn’t it will have to leave the Council of Europe”.
His sentiments were echoed by Government spokesman Christos Stylianides who underlined that Ankara’s attitude “proves the audacity with which it handles international decisions and decisions by recognised international courts”.
According to Stylianides, “the Council of Europe has a series of sanctions it could take, including expulsion”.
