ECtHR orders Turkey to Compensate Cypriot Company Over Varosha Flats

The amount will be decided after the parties register their claims within three months from now.

The court, convening in Strasbourg, also ordered Turkey to pay expenses reaching €18,000, lawyer Achilleas Demetriades of Lellos P Demetriades Law Office said.

KV Mediterranean Tours had filed a claim with the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) in the north in 2010 for a block of flats in Varosha, after its appeal to the ECtHR in 2005 had been dismissed as a result of the Demopoulos v Turkey ruling, in which the court said the IPC constituted an effective domestic remedy.

Demetriades said that, due to delays at the IPC, KV Mediterranean Tours lodged an application at the ECHR in 2017, having first exhausted Turkish legal remedies in the north.

This decision, he said, follows the precedent in the Titina Loizidou case, a refugee who was the first to be compensated by Turkey for loss of use of her property in Famagusta.

The court referred to Turkey’s failure to implement rulings in the Xenides-Arestis group of 32 cases and some unsatisfactory progress. The cases were grouped together for the purposes of supervision of execution.

The Turkish judge distanced himself from Tuesday’s ruling.

KV Mediterranean Tours is now focusing on the amount in compensation for the loss of use of the seaside ten-floor block of flats and the right to return to the fenced-off city of Famagusta.

The parties have three months to file a referral with the 17-judge enlarged composition of the ECtHR, at which point the ruling will become final.

Demetriades said it was important to view the correlation of the ruling with the procedure before the Council of Europe ministerial committee, which is meeting from June 10 to 12 with an agenda that includes Turkey’s compliance with the ECHR rulings in the Xenides-Arestis group of cases.

Source: Cyprus Mail