The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that UK courts should enforce rulings in Greek Cypriot courts about property disputes in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus.
The ruling, issued on Tuesday (28 April), means that Greek Cypriots who owned land in the north before the Turkish invasion of 1974 can demand that their claims against current, de facto owners in the north be enforced across the European Union.
The Turkish Cypriots are worried that the ruling opens up any political agreement that the two sides might reach on the reunification of the divided island to legal challenges by individuals.
‘Ambiguous case'
A source said that the European Commission had tried to reassure the Turkish Cypriots on this point but that the Commission's legal service presented only an “ambiguous” case.
According to Protocol 10 of Cyprus's accession treaty with the Union, EU law does not apply in territory that is not controlled by the Cypriot government. The ECJ has now ruled that this does not preclude the enforcement in another EU member state of a Greek Cypriot court decision relating to the north.
The ECJ ruling concerned a British couple, David and Linda Orams, who acquired land in 2002 and built a holiday home in the Turkish-controlled north of Cyprus. A Greek Cypriot court ordered them to demolish their villa, return the land to its original Greek Cypriot owner and pay rent for the time during which they used it. If they fail to do so, they could have their UK-based property seized. UK courts had previously decided in the Orams' favour, but the ECJ ruling is binding and no appeal is possible.
Nationalist forces
It is estimated that between 5,000 and 10,000 EU nationals, many of them from the UK, have property in northern Cyprus, a large proportion of which could be judged to belong to Greek Cypriots who fled Turkey's invasion in 1974.
The ruling will “strengthen the hand of nationalist forces on both sides” of the divided island, a source close to Mehmet Ali Talat, leader of the Turkish Cypriots, said. He also predicted that it would have a “catastrophic effect on economic life in northern Cyprus”.
Hugh Pope, an analyst with the International Crisis Group's Istanbul office, said that it was now “urgent” to reach a comprehensive and legally valid political settlement. Talat and Demetris Christofias, the president of Cyprus, have been engaged in reunification talks since last September. They have agreed on the principle that property disputes should be settled through a combination of compensation, restitution and exchange.
