David Lidington MP
Minister of State for Europe
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH
1st July 2011
Dear Mr. Lidington,
Following your comments regarding properties in Cyprus purchased by Britons, I am writing to seek clarification of HMG’s official position on the matter, as your comments have raised grave and startled concerns among British Cypriots in the UK.
Comparisons between properties ‘bought’ in the northern part of Cyprus, which is under military occupation by the Turkish army, and in the free areas of the Republic of Cyprus, which is the sole legitimate authority on the island risk confusing two very different situations.
In the occupied north there are properties forcibly taken from their owners during an illegal military invasion by the Turkish army, which has led to a self-proclaimed, unlawful regime recognised by no country in the world other than the occupying power, namely Turkey. This illegitimate administration, which is without any standing in international law and which defies United Nations Resolutions and the judgments of international courts, has instituted a deliberate policy based on the economic exploitation of properties whose lawful owners were evicted by force of arms during the military invasion of 1974, and have since been denied the right to return to their homes in the occupied northern part of the island.
The Foreign Office’s own published advice on ‘buying’ property in the occupied area recognises the legal and other issues associated with the purchase of such property and expressly cautions British citizens that “Purchase of property in the north that was Greek Cypriot owned or that was subsequently classified as exchange land/property by the Turkish Cypriot ‘authorities’ carries a risk of serious financial and legal implications.” It also expressly refers to established European case law that makes it clear that “owners of property in northern Cyprus prior to 1974 continue to be regarded as the legal owners of that property.”
To suggest – even if only by inference – that the administrative problems one might incur if purchasing a property in the free area of the Republic of Cyprus are akin to those one may undertake if purchasing illegally stolen property in the occupied north, is a false comparison. In the Republic of Cyprus, a recognised legal system within the framework of EU law exists and is implemented. There is both a legitimate legal structure and recognised legal processes for redress.
I am sure you will understand that the property issue is one of the most sensitive aspects of the Cyprus problem since the island’s invasion by Turkey in 1974 and that your comments have, therefore, caused consternation both in Cyprus and among the substantial Cypriot community in the UK. I would be grateful, therefore, if you would take steps to set out a clear distinction between the nature of the two sets of enquiries to which you referred in your statement in Cyprus so that the Cypriot community in the UK and in Cyprus can be in no doubt at all as to HMG’s position on this vitally important matter.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Droussiotis
Federation President
www.cypriotfederation.org.uk <http://www.cypriotfederation.org.uk>
