‘BILLIONS OF EUROS’ LOST IN RENT SINCE 1974

EVKAF also owns thousands of dönüms of land in the British Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) of Dhekelia and Akrotiri. Earlier this year the UK and the Greek Cypriot authorities of South Cyprus announced plans to open up non-military areas of the bases to commercial and residential development following an agreement between David Cameron and Nicos Anastasiades in 2014. Last week CyprusToday carried an exclusive report based on our interview with İbrahim Benter on how the deal could create an indirect boon for the TRNC. Here are Prof Benter’s comments in full: “We, as the Evkaf administration, wrote a letter to the administrators of the British bases and to the High Commissioner in Cyprus, saying that there are Evkaf properties in the bases.

“We have all the title deeds proving that those properties belong to Evkaf and we would like to use those properties for non-military projects and developments, investments, and that these properties should not be given to anyone other than Evkaf. It would be illegal to give Evkaf properties to others, whoever they may be, under the 1960 law and international law, because basically you cannot take my property and give it to somebody else without my permission. Right? As simple as that.

“So, the British authorities in the bases wrote back to us saying that all the Turkish properties, you know, the property owned by Turks and Evkaf, will not be given to anyone without the permission of the Turkish owners, or Evkaf.

“So we were happy to receive such a note because the note means that the British administration, officially, agrees not to give our properties to others. Since [then] we have been doing some analysis for the properties in the area, trying to find out what is the situation on our properties there, you know, which buildings are there and who is using our buildings.

“We are investigating such information. The next step would be that we again contact the British authorities and ask them to work with us based on their rules and regulations to begin using our properties and possibly investing, developing those properties.

“In the Akrotiri area there is around 2,400 dönüms of Evkaf properties plus properties that belong to Turks … it is agricultural land and land that has buildings on them.

“There are also properties in Dhekelia and we are also working on those, trying to detail all the properties that belong to us.

“We have a number but it’s not finalised yet. But again, Evkaf properties plus private properties owned by Turks; its hundreds of dönüms.

“We will have a value on that once our analysis is completed, probably in the next month, but [for] Evkaf properties that were in the British bases and all around the island that have been used by others, especially in the South under the Greek administration since 1974, our loss due to uncollected rents is estimated at around billions of euros.

“Especially after 1974 we cannot collect any rents. They [Greek Cypriots] keep saying that we cannot rent out our properties, only after an agreement [between the two sides of Cyprus] is established, then you may be able to rent them [out].

“People can build . . . hotels, restaurants or residential buildings. We are the owners. We are the landlords.

Anyone can come and invest.

“Whatever the British rules and regulations allow us, within those limits, we can do all that.

“There are [Greek Cypriots] interested [in investing in Evkaf land and property on the SBAs]. I could [give you examples] but I don’t want to.

“In London we have a building that we are renting out, so I don’t see any difference from that. This is a British sovereign area and we have property and we just rent it out. So whatever are the rules or regulations in England or in the British bases, we just follow the rules and you invest and rent.

“At this point the British administration has been cooperating with us and we have no reason to believe that they will not abide by what they’re saying. I don’t think they’re going to say one thing and then do something else.”

Prof Benter added: “In addition to Evkaf, many Turkish Cypriots have a lot of properties on the British bases and are concerned about two issues: whether they will be able to freely use their properties and invest in them; and why did the [SBA] authorities designate almost all Turkish properties as agricultural zones [but] Greek properties opened for all kinds of development, such as residential and touristic (e.g. hotels)?

“[Turkish Cypriots abroad], especially those living in the UK, are preparing hundreds of lawsuits.”

Asked what Evkaf could do with any income generated from the SBAs, Prof Benter jokes: “Well, you know we can buy a lot of kebab with it – shish kebab, şeftali kebab, köfte kebab, fırın kebabı [laughs].

“During the recent years Evkaf has been trying to get back to its origins, which is to help the community whenever there’s a need.

“For example, there is a need for a school building in İskele. We are now spending 8 million TL to build the school building, and we have been spending another 2 million TL repairing all the school buildings, governmental school buildings, all over North Cyprus.

“Another project is in the Girne area. We have given a half-finished [private] hospital building to the Ministry of Health to use as a hospital, which is much needed in the area. For that project we gave up rent income, worth 26 million TL.

“During this Covid-19 pandemic ambulances were urgently needed . . . and we purchased five fully equipped ambulances and donated [them] to the Ministry of Health.

“So therefore, when we increase our income due to rent coming from the British bases, we are going to increase such charitable activities for people who are in need and for areas that need to be developed.

“We have a tradition, 449 years of traditional charity, where when we help, we do not discriminate based on nationality, religion, race or ethnic origin.

“If someone comes to us, who needs help, he may be a Turk or a Greek, or Armenian or a Maronite, or whatever, it doesn’t matter to us, we are always willing to do our best to help the person.

“This has been our tradition for all these years. And again, the person may be Muslim, Christian, Jewish, atheist, it doesn’t matter we’re always willing to help.”