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TRNC President Rauf Denktas reacted
to remarks made by Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos regarding
territory and property belonging to Greek Cypriots in the North and stated
that these statements are unrealistic.
Referring to Papadopoulos
remarks to the effect that “89 per cent of Cyprus belongs to the Greek
Cypriots and Armenians. We have documents proving this. Therefore, those
people in the South should be allowed to return to the North”, President
Denktas said: “Turkish Cypriot territories usurped by the Greek Cypriots
are uncountable. This will be all be calculated. In return for Greek Cypriot
title deeds our people left in the South that much territory and property.
This territory and property has gained value. Now we grant them the right to
apply to us. There are territories and properties that we should get from
the Greek Cypriots, including the mass graves of our people, even
16-day old babies, who were killed and buried during the events of 1963.
Compensation for this is being kept and stored in files. Now is the time to
speak about the issue of reciprocal compensation. However, saying that ‘89
per cent of territory is ours and 10 per cent belongs to the Turkish
Cypriots’ naturally, is the continuation of the Greek Cypriots’ ploy
being played to ignore our territory left in the South and to portray the
Turkish Cypriots as being without any territory. Papadopoulos is distorting
the figures. It’s unfortunate that he made such a statement and he has
once again put forward his real intention.”
The
TRNC Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defence, Tahsin Ertugruloglu,
responding to remarks made by Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos that
89.3 per cent of the territory in Cyprus belongs to the Greek Cypriots and
Armenians stressed that these remarks are against the realities.
Responding
to questions asked by the TAK correspondent, Ertugruloglu said: “Just like
on all steps of the Cyprus issue, the Greek Cypriot administration is
putting forward unrealistic claims on the issue of the global exchange and
compensation, and, thus, they are trying to deny the existence of Turkish
Cypriot properties, which they illegally usurped after the 1960s”.
Ertugruloglu
said, Papadopoulos in his statement, which was published in a Greek Cypriot
daily, while alleging that 89.3 per cent of the TRNC’s territory belongs
to Greek Cypriots and Armenians in reality was displaying the effort to
portray the island of Cyprus as being a Greek island. The Minister added
that in this way Papadopoulos had not recognized the existence of properties
belonging to Turkish Cypriots, who have been living on the island for five
centuries.
Pointing
out that the usurped rights of the Greek Cypriot people would be defended to
the very end on a legal basis, the Minister said: “The illegal usurpation
of Turkish Cypriot properties in Cyprus started with the seizure of
properties belonging to the Turkish Evkaf during the British Colonial
Administration. As a result of the armed attacks staged by the Greek-Greek
Cypriot duo with the aim of annexing the island to Greece, the Turkish
Cypriot people were compelled to leave behind all their properties, which
they had owned for 11 years, and live in 3 per cent of the island following
the compulsory migration between 1963-74, which was started with the
establishment of the EOKA terrorist organization in 1955”.
Continuing,
Ertugruloglu said the mentality displayed by Papadopoulos is an indication
of the traditional Greek Cypriot policy directed at misleading the
international community on the Cyprus realities and ignoring the equal
sovereign existence of the Turkish Cypriots on the island. At the same time,
this policy is the main reason why a reconciliation has not been achieved in
Cyprus”.
Pointing
out that TRNC authorities have legal registrations regarding the existence
of Turkish Cypriot properties, Ertugruloglu said the Turkish Cypriots would
defend to the very end individual and evkaf properties, which were usurped
through a variety of means, and would engage in all kinds of efforts on a
legal basis in this direction.
He
added: “We evaluate this provocative statement made by Papadopoulos,
during a time when the issue has reached the stage of being taken up on a
legal dimension, as an indication of their worry that they will be caught in
the very act of their offences”.
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