Turkey cries foul over Loizidou case

Turkey says it will no longer attend the Committee of Ministers at the Council of Europe until the Titina Loizidou case file is officially closed, citing €1 million payment to her back in 2003.

Turkish officials walked out of a Committee of Ministers meeting on Friday, citing discontent over a decision to keep the Loizidou file open.

Loizidou, who had won a case in the European Court of Human Rights calling on Turkey to allow her to return to her native home in Kyrenia, Cyprus, has been putting pressure on the Committee of Ministers to see through the implementation of the decision.

In a 1998 ruling, ECHR ordered Turkey to pay Titina Loizidou compensation for depriving her of property in Kyrenia, making big headlines as the first case ever where a Greek Cypriot successfully sued Turkey and earned the right to compensation and restitution.

But Turkey says they paid Loizidou over €1 million in 2003 and further cited the creation of an Immovable Properties Commission in the north which dealt with matters of restitution of property, land exchanges, or money compensation paid to Greek Cypriots in the south who had to give up their properties following the division of the island.

The Secretariat of the Committee had an item on the agenda to close the file, following a request by Turkey. But Loizidou’s letter to the ministers made a case that she was still waiting for restitution to get back to her seaside residence and was asking the committee to help enforce the 1998 ruling.

Turkey has accused Greece and the Republic of Cyprus of taking political advantage of the Loizidou file, which they consider case closed.