President Tatar: Close to 3,000 Greek Cypriots expected to file claims to IPC for Maraş properties
NEARLY 3,000 Greek Cypriots are expected to file claims to the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) for property in the fenced off seaside resort of Maraş, President Ersin Tatar said on Monday.
The number of Greek Cypriots who have applied to the IPC to date regarding Maraş, also known as Varosha, is 344, Mr Tatar stated.
In a statement issued on Monday, following initial confusion of the number of applications made, Mr Tatar said that the “sovereignty and administration of the Maraş region belongs to the TRNC”.
He continued: “The priority issue for our state is the opening of this region, which has been closed for 47 years, under its own administration for the benefit of the whole island, and in this sense, we cannot take a step back.
“This area is 3,525,175 m2 (2,634 dönüms) and we expect about 3,000 applications to the IPC in the context of private property. To date, 344 applications have been made to the IPC regarding closed Maraş.”
Mr Tatar stressed that “all rights holders” in Maraş, including Evkaf, the charitable organisation that says it still holds the “freehold” to Maraş, will be able to “seek their rights within the framework of TRNC legislation”.
In an interview the day before, Mr Tatar had said that “property and land” in Maraş will be returned to their “original owners in accordance with international law” after parts of it were reopened to the public last October for the first time since 1974.
“A lot of clean-up work has been done there,” he said. “As it has been closed for 46 years, there were inhuman sights and conditions in the Maraş region.”
Underlining that Maraş is within the Gazimağusa district, Mr Tatar said that a significant part of the region is open and a “large portion” of it belongs to the Cyprus Foundations’ Administration (Evkaf).
Maraş has remained closed for “many years” due to the lack of a solution to the Cyprus issue.
The IPC started work in 2006 in line with a European Court of Human Rights ruling in the case of Xenides-Arestis v Turkey that called for an “effective domestic remedy for claims relating to abandoned properties in Northern Cyprus”.
According to the IPC’s website, around £318 million has been paid out to Greek Cypriots in compensation over the last 15 years.
As of 22 June 2021, 6,856 applications have been lodged with the IPC, of which 1,227 have been concluded through “friendly settlements” and 34 through “formal hearing”. The IPC has ruled for “exchange and compensation in two cases, for restitution in three cases and for restitution and compensation in seven cases”.
In one case it has delivered a decision for restitution “after the settlement of Cyprus issue, and in one case it has ruled for partial restitution”.