British citizens who, despite warnings, have bought property in the Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus may be forced to pay thousands of pounds as damage to the legal owners of the property, the Greek Cypriots.
Let me explain the reason:
• The Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus are occupied by the Turkish army since 1974.
• The Greek Cypriots who used to live in those areas (around 200,000), were forced to flee, thus abandoning their homes and properties.
• The Turkish regime in Cyprus gave that land to Turkish Cypriots and Turkish settlers who illegally took ownership.
Construction in occupied Cyprus has no ending.
• But according to international law and rulings by international and European Courts, the land belongs to the legal owners, which are the Greek Cypriot refugees.
• Despite warnings by the government of Cyprus, many Britons (and other nationalities as well) illegally bought land in the Turkish occupied areas from their “owners”.
The Turkish regime painted its so called flag on the occupied mountain of Pentadahtilos, deliberately overseeing the free areas.
According to The TIMES a European Court of Justice ruling, expected later this year, may cause huge problems to those who illegally bought land in occupied Cyprus.
Usurpers of Greek Cypriot land in the Turkish occupied areas may be forced to pay thousands of pounds in damages to the original Greek Cypriot owners of the land.
If they bought land and then built a house there, they may be forced to demolish their house and pay damages.
A villa for sale in occupied Cyprus, built on Greek Cypriot land.
Supporting illegality is not worth it, is it?
Especially, when Europeans are acting against Europeans.
(24 votes, average: 4.08 out of 5)
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I wonder if same applies to property of turkish cypriots held in South before the separation?
The term “Turkish Cypriot Property” includes every property, movable or immovable, which belongs to a Turkish Cypriot and is situated in the areas controlled by the Republic of Cyprus.
The Republic aknowledges that those properties belong to the Turkish Cypriots.
The turkish cypriot properties which have been abandoned in the south, due to the Turkish invasion, both movable and immovable, have come under the management of the Custodian of Turkish Cypriot Properties of the Republic of Cyprus.
The Republic of Cyprus, in order to protect these properties and also to allocate them on a rational basis in order to serve the basic housing needs and reactivate the thousands of Greek-Cypriot refugees, took over at first the management of the Turkish Cypriot properties since the end of 1974, following the issue for this purpose of a General Order for the Requisitioning of the affected Turkish-Cypriot Properties.
With the lapse of time it became necessary to enact legislation governing the management of Turkish Cypriot Properties.
To this end the Turkish Cypriot Properties Management and Other Matters was enacted.
According to this Law, the Minister of the Interior is appointed Custodian of Turkish Cypriot properties and all the Turkish Cypriot properties come under him and he manages them with the aim of meeting the needs of the refugees and serving the interests of the proprietors.
The Turkish Cypriot Properties under management come under the following categories:
i. Turkish/Cypriot houses which number 5708 and have been allocated to refugees in order to live in them.
ii. Turkish Cypriot shops and business premises which number 2008 and are leased to entitled refugees to use them as business premises .
iii. Turkish Cypriot agricultural land, which is used by displaced farmers on payment of low rents.
iv. Turkish Cypriot places which are in all districts and are leased to entitled refugees for business purposes.
v. Mosques, Turkish Cypriot cemeteries which are maintained, improved and cleaned with funds provided by the Service.
vi. Movable property.
Interesting
British retiree’s and holidaymakers tend to have scant regard for history or local tensions (although to be honest they are often duped by local property agents into believing that everything is A OK). We see a similar thing happening in Spain at the moment, with British homes being demolished by the Spanish Govt, with no recompense, due to local planning guidelines having been ignored by developers. But i suspect that the onus is upon British homeowners to ascertain the precise legal status of the land that they aquire.
Thanks. Mind giving me a link to the full law?
very interesting.
In my opinion there is little more wrong, then to drive somebody from his home, with no prospect of returning.
Beside the theft.
I would very much appreciate if the occupying force would gain no profit by it, by European law.
For Taavet,
http://www.cyprus.gov.cy/moi/citizenscharter/citizenscharter.nsf/dmltestapplications_en/dmltestapplications_en?opendocument#
An interesting article. Should Britons or others end up losing their homes in the occupied areas, I would have little sympathy. Strategically illiterate, they are also acting in a morally dubious manner, although on reflection, I suspect that they are actually just ignorant and victims of poor advice from con-men.
The European Court of Justice has spoken - Britons or other “ignorants” would not only lose their “homes” in the Cyprus occupied areas, but could lose their properties/possessions back in the UK if ordered by Court (in this case Cyprus court order enforced in the UK and everywhere else in EU).
Someone has to inform [e.g. the British Commission has done so [ http://ukincyprus.fco.gov.uk/en/help-for-british-nationals/living-in-cyprus/buying-property ], some others have to stop pretending being “ignorants” on the expense of others.
All well explained @: [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostolides_v_Orams ] - with proper references and articles.
The European Court of Justice Ruling:
[ http://curia.europa.eu/jurisp/cgi-bin/form.pl?lang=en&Submit=Rechercher&alldocs=alldocs&docj=docj&docop=docop&docor=docor&docjo=docjo&numaff=C-420/07&datefs=&datefe=&nomusuel=&domaine=&mots=&resmax=100 ]
Hallo Nicolas,
thank you for your comment. I am aware about the Apostolides vs Orams case and I am preparing a post on thinkaboutit this week.
You completed various good points there. I did a search on the theme and found mainly people will have the same opinion with your ideas! Thank you and best regards!