Turkish Cyprus slams property arrests, rejects tripartite meeting
NICOSIA
Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar on May 26 rejected the possibility of a tripartite meeting with the Greek Cypriot leader and the U.N. envoy, citing recent arrests over the long-standing property issue on the island.
After meeting with U.N. special envoy for Cyprus Maria Angela Holguin, Tatar condemned the arrests, calling them “terrorism” and insisting such acts must stop immediately. These arrests targeted people accused of selling Greek Cypriot-owned properties in Turkish part of the island.
“I said there was no need for a tripartite meeting. I said that a meeting with [Greek Cypriot President Nikos] Christodoulides could not be held in such an environment, that there was discomfort on the issue of property and that it would not be right to create such an environment without resolving these issues,” he said.
“The Greek Cypriot leadership’s terrorizing steps are destroying the grounds for talks,” Tatar told reporters.
For his part, Holguin said that she “listened very carefully” to Tatar’s concerns. She said the two also discussed confidence-building measures agreed in March’s Geneva talks.
Tatar’s concerns come amid growing cases involving Greek Cypriot properties in the north, including the recent sentencing of two Hungarian nationals for promoting property sales near Kyrenia. Property remains a core dispute in decades of stalled U.N.-led peace talks.
The European courts have recognized Greek Cypriots’ ownership rights while supporting a Turkish Cypriot property commission to handle compensation or restitution claims.
Meanwhile, a boom in luxury real estate developments in Turkish Cyprus has led Greek Cypriot authorities to crack down on developers and realtors, accusing them of illegal land usurpation.
