Taking Restitution Claims to the European Court of Human Rights

In November 2004 BADIL Resource Center organized a study tour of Cyprus for Palestinian refugee activists (See Majdal 24, December 2004). During the visit participants met with Ms. Titina Loizidou, a tour guide and displaced person from the northern Cyprus port town of Kyrenia. After the division of the island in 1974 Ms. Loizidou became active in a movement called ‘Women Walk Home’ which held regular demonstrations calling for a united Cyprus, return home and human rights for all.

In the 1980s she decided to submit an application against Turkey to the European Commission on Human Rights based on the denial of her property. The case was referred to the European Court of Human Rights in 1993. In 1998 the Court ordered Turkey to pay Ms. Loizidou $640,000 in compensation for denial of access to her property. Ms. Loizidou’s peaceful enjoyment of her property (restitution) is pending. The following interview was conducted in November 2004 in Nicosia, Cyprus.

Why did you decide to file a petition about your property with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)?

Well, I come from Kyrenia, which is in the northern part of the Cyprus. It’s the town where I grew up, where I have my family connections, and it’s the place that I identify with. I was deprived of this place in 1974 [after the Turkish invasion], and my application, I would say, symbolizes the fact that no one has the right to deprive me of the place that I come from.

The decision to file the petition was more than an issue of property. I felt that I was deprived of all those experiences and all those people that I would have liked to be with, and whoever was the aggressor, whoever deprived me of these things, if I had the chance to do it, I would file the application.

Like anything you do in life, there are pros and cons, however, I felt that I would try to to use those mechanisms of the Council of Europe available to me as a citizen of a member country of the Council. I was fortunate enough to be able to make use of a system which is unique in the world, as it examines violations of human rights on a regional basis.

What was your primary goal in taking your case to the ECHR?

I think that the primary objective was that an individual, whoever that person is, should not be deprived of the basic human right to live where they want to live. I think people should have the possibility to decide on their own where they would like to be. I think it was a very important issue and it was underlined in my application.

What was the reaction from the community when you filedthecase?

First of all, I had the full support of my family, my husband, my children, and, of course, my father who was already in his seventies. He was very supportive. Some people were skeptical because of the ongoing division and presence of Turkish troops in Cyprus. However, when we had the firstdecisionand the second decision, I think this gave hope to people that something could be done on the legal level that will eventually help on the political level.

What do you think about the process today given the fact that you still do not have access to your property?

Yes, my rights have not been fully restored, however, I feel that the property issue is so important for the solution of the Cyprus problem. And I feel pleased in a way that this case has set a precedent regardless of what plan is proposed to the Cypriots. Property rights cannot be dismissed. So I feel that this case has contributed to that.

The relationship between your case a solution to the Cyprus conflict raises an interesting discussion about whether law is an obstacle to a political solution. How do you see the role of law?

I am not a lawyer, I am an individual, I am a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus. I am a person who has seen Cyprus divided, divided not only physically, but I have also seen people divided. Turkish and Greek Cypriotsused to live together. I feel that law can be supportive of a political decision not to discriminate between people. It can give respect to people within the framework of human rights. I am not saying this in a strict way, I am saying this in a wider perspective, because without a system to promote and protect human rights, I do not think things will develop well. I am talking about law in many aspects, securing human rights in everyday life. I am not only talking about the right to property. Law that will ensure respect between people, because if there is no respect between people then human rights will be repressed again.

Given the rejection of the Anan Plan what are your predictions on how the property issues for both Turkish Cypriots and Greece Cypriots will be resolved in the future?

Well, I think that people should have the right to decide about their properties. I think the very complicated way that the Anan Plan proposed to deal with properties did not take into account the fact that people were attached to their properties sentimentally. Property was a way to identify themselves with the places they came from. I believe that if the plan had been less restrictive and given people more freedom to decide how to use their properties, people would have been happier. I would have been happier myself.

People felt that with the Anan Plan, although the politicians came together in order to reach a solution, quite a lot of the people themselves were kept in the dark. We have gone through very dramatic experiences which needed to be resolved before facing a solution which the people did not know about or knew that the politicians were discussing. People were taking stands for or against it even though they did not know the elements of the solution, and having developed a human rights consciousness, people did not feel that it met their views.

What does Kyrenia mean to you today, and in terms of the future of Cyprus itself?

Kyrenia is my hometown, it’s Cyprus for me. I cannot really divide it from me. I always see Cyprus as a whole. Of course, the situation in Kyrenia has changed [since 1974]. I have no problems to go back to Kyrenia, to live in Kyrenia with a Turkish Cypriot administration. For me it is still Kyrenia. Obviously, the people that I relate to from before 1974 will not be there. It will be a different situation, but I hope I will be able to help build a new situation, and be a link, being one of the old of the older generation now. This is how I would like things to turn out, to be able to share Kyrenia with people who would go back and with people who are there and do not want to leave. For me it still Kyrenia, it is still Cyprus without the people that I loved and that I communicated with, but people are people, and I am prepared to share Kyrenia with the Turkish Cypriots, and they are Cypriots anyway.

For a summary of legal mechanisms and Palestinian restitution see, Fora Available for Palestinian Restitution, Compensation and Related Claims. BADIL Information & Discussion Brief No. 2, by Susan. M. Akram. The Brief is available on the BADIL website: http://www.badil.org.