British court rules against couple with Cyprus home

London/Athens - A court in London ruled Tuesday that a British couple with a dream villa on the northern side of the divided island of Cyprus must return the contested property to the original owner. The Appeal court in London said that David and Linda Orams, of Hove, in the southern county of Sussex, must obey orders issued in a court ruling in Nicosia and hand back the villa they built in the Turkish Cypriot part of the island in 2002.

The original owner of the land, Greek Cypriot Meltis Apostolides, was forced to flee to the southern part of the island after Turkey invaded in 1974 in response to a Greek-led coup.

The Court of Appeal, rejecting claims that the judge had close links to the Republic of Cyprus and was biased, upheld an earlier ruling by the European Court of Justice decision against the Orams.

The court ruled that Aposolides remained the rightful owner of the property and the British couple was ordered to give the property back as well as to pay Apostolides damages.

Apostolides expressed satisfaction with the court's decision saying, saying "it is a very good and just decision."

The Court of Appeal's decision could affect hundreds who purchased land in northern Cyprus that once belonged to Cypriots who fled the occupation.

Cyprus has been been split since 1974, ever since Turkey invaded the northern third of Cyprus in response to a Greek-inspired coup.

Greek Cypriots currently live in the south of Cyprus and Turkish Cypriots in the north, divided by a United Nations-supervised buffer zone, or No Man's Land - which runs through the heart of Nicosia.

Intensive peace talks between Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, which began in September 2008, are underway with the hope that 2010 will be the year that the Cyprus problem is finally solved.

Experts have expressed fears that the two leaders have little time left, with elections in the occupied northern part of the island expected to bring to power a hardliner.

More than 60 per cent of the property in the north once belonged to Greek Cypriots and leaders from both communities have suggested that much of their differences lie on how to deal with the thousands of property claims from people uprooted in past conflicts.

EU officials have said that progress at the Cyprus reunification talks will be essential to move Turkey's slow-moving EU accession process forward.

Although the peace talks and Turkey's EU membership negotiations are separate processes, a breakthrough on one is likely to have a positive impact on the other.

Talks are focusing on power-sharing under a future federal structure, the economy, property and EU issues.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/304676,british-court-rules-against-couple-with-cyprus-home.html.