PEOPLE OF LEFKONICO Vs TURKEY
| PRESS RELEASE, London January 18th |
THREE CASES AGAINST TURKEY TO BE FILED IN HUMAN RIGHTS COURT London--Three cases against Turkey, citing that country's illegal acquisition of the land of now-absent Greek Cypriots, will be filed in the European Court of Human Rights, using as a precedent the decision in the case of Loizidou vs Turkey in which the Court ruled that it is Turkey that is denying the legitimate owners access to their land in the illegally occupied north of Cyprus. The announcement was made at a press conference, in London, January 18. In the seven-part decision, the Court ruled, among others, that the so-called Republic of Northern Cyprus is not a legal entity; that it is Turkey, through its 35,000-man army that is denying access to the illegally occupied north; that the absence of the owners of the land did not mean that they had relinquished their ownership of the land; and that denial of access to their land constituted a denial of their human right to enjoy their property. The ruling, in December 1996, which awarded Mrs Titina Loizidou Cyp£320,000 (about $640,000), is still being defied by Turkey--the first such defiance of a Court's ruling in its 49-year history. All the property in the three new cases, to be submitted to the Court on January 21, are in Lefkonico village and all are now under runways in a military airport, Gecitkale, built in 1986 by Turkey. Commenting on the three cases, Achilleas Demetriades, the Nicosia-based lawyer who had acted for Mrs Loizidou and who is filing these cases as well, said that "the precedent having been set that the original title-deed owners cannot be deprived of their property by Turkey, we have every expectation that these new plaintiffs will be awarded a similar level of compensation." He pointed out that since ownership of the land still resided with the owners, they can continue to file claims against Turkey annually, if needs be, until access is permitted. Demetriades indicated that he has scores more cases "in the pipeline," and is preparing them to cover a wide spectrum of examples. The three cases are being brought by Greek Cypriots, now nationals
of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States and involve
seven plots of land in Lefkonico. The applications all cite
the refusal of the Turkish army to permit them "to have access to
and peacefully enjoy [their] property" at Lefkonico, which is in
the northeastern part of Cyprus near the area known
The preparation of the applications was co-ordinated, and the
costs underwritten, by Enosis Lefkonitsaton Anglias, a London-based
association of Lefkonico expatriates, with the additional co-operation
of attorney Nicholas Angelides, of Lefkonico.
Contact: Ulysses Karageorgis
Jan 18, 2000
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