Turkey Heavily Penalised in Greek-Cypriot Human Rights Case

January 11, 2012 | Filed under: Geopolitics

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has awarded heavy damages to Constantinos G. Lordos and others in their claim that their human rights were violated because of the loss of use of their property after the Turkish invasion in 1974 and the continuing occupation of north Cyprus.

Under the ECHR ruling Turkey must pay damages of between 100,000 to 8 million euros to each of the 13 Greek Cypriot applicants for moral and material damages, while the same decision forced Turkey to pay 15,000 Euros for legal costs.

The case concerned the allegation by 13 applicants that the Turkish occupation of the northern part of Cyprus had deprived them of their homes and properties. They relied in particular on Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) and Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life).

The court issued a rule in favour of the applicants on November 2nd 2010 saying that Turkey had violated Article 1 for eight of the applicants; and had violated Article 8 for seven of the applicants but failed to award any damages then because “the parties had failed to provide reliable and objective data pertaining to the prices of land and real estate in Cyprus at the date of the Turkish intervention.”

The Court had dismissed by six votes to one Turkey’s preliminary objections that the applicants had not exhausted domestic remedies and that they had “lack of victim status”.

Constantinos Lordos was seeking 34.4 million Euros in damages for 69 properties he owns in north Cyprus. His claims reflected an amount for loss of use plus annual interest.