By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
Yiannis Antoniou, the Deputy Government Spokesperson of the Republic of Cyprus, made a statement to the broadcasting organisation Alpha regarding the “troubles” experienced in Pyla…
Antoniou claimed that the issue of Pyla touches upon the essence of the “property chapter” in the negotiations…
I agree…
-*-*-
Based on what I understand from Antoniou’s statement, the issue causing “trouble” in the mentioned region is as follows:
The Turkish side will build the road and the Greek Cypriot side will build some things in the area that was previously closed to investment but that was agreed to be “opened to investment” in return for the construction of the road…
-*-*-
According to the Greek Cypriot press, “In this area where development activities will take place,” there is state land belonging to the Greek Cypriot Administration as well as private land belonging to Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots…
And the problem stems from “private properties owned by Turkish Cypriots” in this region.
-*-*-
Because the Turkish side claims that the vehicles of the Greek Cypriot side “entered Turkish land, which is considered to be state land”!
-*-*-
And what does Antoniou say?
Let’s have a look what he says:
“…We are saying, for example, that this land belongs to a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus, for example a Turkish Cypriot named Ahmet. The Republic of Cyprus has the authority to carry out this work if it wishes for reasons of public interest, and at the same time to compensate the property owner or expropriate the property. However, if the property owner transferred this land in the 1980s, during the Denktash regime, to acquire another house in Varosha, Kyrenia, etc., a practical problem arises here, because the occupying authorities claim that it is state land belonging to the TRNC.”
-*-*-
This knot is very difficult to untie!
But, of course, some “known” facts are interesting as well…
It is quite clear that hundreds of Turkish Cypriots who migrated from the South “renounced” their properties they had left or were forced to leave on behalf of the TFSC [Turkish Federated State of Cyprus] or TRNC state and took Greek Cypriot-owned properties in the North after 1974…
Many among them not only went and sold the properties they left behind in the South but also acquired much more valuable “equivalent” properties in the North!
-*-*-
Ohh, and we also distributed properties owned by Greek Cypriots in the North to as many Turkish immigrants as we don’t know the exact number of.
Those properties may have been sold fifty times over!
And right now, there is a fuss about Israelis buying those properties!
-*-*-
In short, as I mentioned above, we cannot resolve the property issue even on a piece of land as small as Pyla, and most interestingly, we know very well that perhaps more than 95 per cent of the land that is private property in Northern Cyprus is “property belonging to Greek Cypriot citizens”!
-*-*-
We are not willing to return these lands – which we hold in our hands or more precisely the lands we “occupy” with a set of beliefs of “historical imaginary value” such as “spoils” and the “righteousness of the sword” – to their legal owners; it is also convenient for us not to pay compensation to the same legal owners because we do not have the money to pay!
This is the truth!
-*-*-
So what do we do!
We are pushing for a non-solution!
Ohh, do not let the Cyprus problem be solved!
Go Ersin Tatar!
Go Ali Cabbar! [Translator’s note: Ali Djabbar is the Turkish tale of a young clarinet player who is devastated when he finds out he is playing at the wedding of the girl he loves]
-*-*-
In the meantime, we sell what we have stolen, sell it again and again, and shamelessly make a fuss about the “Judaisation” of the stolen goods!
-*-*-
My grandfather used to say, “you can’t always be right, moro mou [my child]!”
However, contrary to what my grandfather said, we continue this absurd and nonsensical order with a narrative of victimhood and dreams, such as “they are imposing an embargo on us, they do not recognise our state, they are imposing isolation; Turkish states and Muslim brother states will recognise us”. Internally, we persist with a status quo that is corrupt, smelling of bribery, and immorality!
-*-*-
The Pyla incident is very valuable for every Turkish Cypriot who has a functioning mind to look in the mirror and see our true self!
Source: A bitter truth revealed in Pyla!
