EOP: The address for property ownership problems is the immovable property commission

As the Economic Organizations Platform, we would like to inform the public about the systematic attacks such as filing lawsuits and arrests recently launched by the Greek Cypriot leadership against investors conducting their business in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and to announce the initiatives taken to counteract them as well as the next steps planned to be undertaken.

Turkish Cypriots demonstrated the necessary support for the Annan Plan referendum and during Crans-Montana negotiations, based on their factual belief that all issues, including the immovable property ownership, should be resolved within the framework of an agreement between the two parties. The negative attitude of the Greek Cypriot side halted reaching a solution in Cyprus, and therefore as a consequence, preventing all issues that are part of a settlement from being resolved as well. This situation has led to the maintenance of the unfair isolation that Turkish Cypriots are subjected to. Although there has been a European Union Council decision in support of the removal of this isolation, these decisions could not be implemented to the extent they needed to have been done so.

While the problems arising from the unresolved Cyprus problem persist, attacks against business people in Northern Cyprus, with the encouragement of the Greek Cypriot leadership, have increased tensions which then disrupt peace and raise the animosity between the parties on the island.

The immovable property ownership issue in Cyprus is one of the six main topics of the Cyprus problem and is an issue that can only be resolved through comprehensive negotiations. It is in everyone’s interest that immovable property owners in Northern Cyprus follow the path shown by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) until a comprehensive solution is reached in Cyprus. Therefore, applying such pressure to people investing in Northern Cyprus is contrary to the decisions of the ECtHR. Such problems need to be resolved through the Immovable Property Commission (IPC), which the ECtHR has designated as an effective domestic remedy. The recent acceleration of applications to the IPC and the allocation of new financial resources for the Commission have driven the Greek Cypriot leadership into panic, and this situation has caused them to launch their attacks in order to weaken the economy of Northern Cyprus.

As it is known, the IPC was established in 2005 within the scope of the Immovable Property Law (Law No. 67/2005) in response to the Xenides-Arestis vs Turkey decision of the ECtHR. After the ECtHR ruled that the IPC was compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights with its Xenides-Arestis compensation decision in 2006, and according to the Demopoulos and Others vs Turkey judicial opinion it issued, the ECtHR recognized the IPC as an effective domestic remedy in 2010. While making its decision regarding the effectiveness of the IPC in the Demopoulos decision, the ECtHR ruled that the legislation in the TRNC was in compliance with international law, including the European Convention on Human Rights.

The IPC deals with claims for restitution, compensation and exchange in accordance with the provisions of Law 67/2005. In this context, when evaluating claims regarding immovable properties, the Commission makes decisions within the framework of criteria that also take into account the rights of those who purchased any immovable property in the TRNC, and does not decide on the restitution of such immovable properties whose ownership has been transferred to third parties. Examining these criteria in detail in the Demopoulos decision, the ECtHR emphasized that the rights of the purchasers should also be taken into account when making a decision for restitution, and also underlined that the decision regarding such immovable property should be left to the local authorities, in other words, the TRNC authorities, who are best placed to evaluate the practice, priority and any conflicting interests.

Following the Demopoulos decision, the ECtHR re-evaluated the criteria in the IPC Law in another case, the Meleagrou case, and found the criteria applied by the IPC regarding restitution to be in line with the European Convention on Human Rights, while stating that when restitution is not possible, Greek Cypriot applicants should bring forward a claim for exchange and compensation, and since they had not done so, it ruled that they did not exhaust all domestic law. The ECtHR later continued to confirm the general efficacy of the IPC in its Loiziou decision in 2017 and most recently in its Joannou decision.

Professor Benvenisti, one of the leading influential experts in the field of international law, examined the legal status of the TRNC, its regime regarding abandoned properties, the compliance of this regime with international law and its consequences for the new property owners and for the Republic of Cyprus. According to the report prepared by Benvenisti, although the TRNC is not recognized by any other country other than the Republic of Türkiye, its legislation on abandoned properties (Law No. 67/2005) has been accepted by the ECtHR as providing effective legal remedies that are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

Recalling the EU’s expressed commitment, as stipulated in the 10th Protocol of the EU Accession Agreement,  that the initiatives for the economic development of the Turkish Cypriots cannot be prevented, EU members must intervene against these attempts made by the Greek Cypriots which aim to damage the economy of the Turkish Cypriot side. The Greek Cypirot side is trying to escalate tension with such efforts. The immovable property issue in Cyprus cannot be resolved by filing lawsuits against individuals and arresting them. The international community should intercede against such efforts made by the Greek Cypriots (which the Greek Cypriots do roughly around every ten years) and should know that these actions carried out based on their internal political motivations to raise tension produce no results. This problem will either be resolved by a solution that the two parties agree on or by employing the IPC until such an agreement is reached.

The IPC aims to provide a fair, rapid and effective solution to property claims and thus contribute to the resolution of the Cyprus problem. The Turkish Cypriot side is determined to maintain the effectiveness and the legal basis of the IPC.

As the Economic Organisations Platform, we would like to inform the public that we will take all kinds of measures and provide the necessary responses against these attempts to seriously and negatively affect our country’s economy, which are particularly being carried out against the real estate sector which is one of the locomotive sectors of our country and nurtures dozens of other sectors.