Washington is Pressing Turkey on the Ghost Town of Varosha

(incyprus.philenews.com) - Washington is pressing Turkey to allow experts funded by the US to carry out reports on how the ghost town of Varosha can be transformed into a livable eco-friendly resort.

But the Turkish side continues to raise conditions that cannot be met, insiders told The Cyprus Weekly yesterday.

"They won't even allow the experts funded exclusively by the US to get in and start the project which will take at least six to nine months to be completed, anyway," one source said.

"They want to get conditions met first, and their conditions seem to always lead to the same unacceptable demand for recognition (of the breakaway regime in Turkish-held north)," added the inside source.

One of the Turkish demands is that Famagusta port comes under their control once it opens, and not under the European Union's as proposed by President Anastasiades.

Also, when it comes to the occupied airport of Tymbou or 'Ercan', Nicosia agrees to its full operation but under the condition that it is under the Cyprus Republic's FIR.

Except for the last 20 kilometres when it would be under Turkish Cypriot guidance and this is due to safety reasons and a standard procedure for most regional airports.

"For example, a plane landing in Perth, Australia, is under the FIR of the federal state until it is 20 kilometres away from its destination. Then it comes under Perth, Western Australia's FIR, for safety reasons," an informed source said.

Anastasiades insists on the immediate return of Famagusta to its lawful Greek Cypriot inhabitants and its re-opening under UN and EU auspices. He argues that this is a confidence-building measure that will certainly boost recently re-launched UN-brokered efforts to reunite the island.

A master plan on the re-opening of the port city - whose infrastructure has crumbled over the years - was drafted by the island's Technical Chamber a few years back.

But technocrats agree that the Chamber's master plan would need to be updated.

Nonetheless, the Chamber has been kept completely in the dark when it comes to this new initiative by the US, informed sources said.  

"A group of US experts were on the island recently, visiting Famagusta and holding workshops but that's all we know, the Chamber was not asked to contribute with ideas or relevant information," a source said.

Some Hope for the Greek Cypriots Enclaved in the Occupied North

A landmark case at the European Court of Human Rights has safeguarded the rights of relatives of Greeks in Istanbul to inherit property even if they are not Turkish nationals.  And this raises hopes for the Greek Cypriots enclaved in the occupied Karpas peninsula where the non-inheritance policy is also applied by the Turkish regime.

This is the view of Achilleas Demetriades - one of the lawyers in the case of late Polyxeni Foka whose blood brothers were awarded five million euros by the Strasbourg-based Court on October 1, 2013.

“I believe this is an important case because it repeats the rights of ‘Romioi’ in Istanbul to have their properties inherited by their heirs who may not necessarily be of Turkish nationality.”

He added: “And it also has a link to Cyprus because a similar policy of non-inheritance was applied with the Karpas enclaved persons who, when they pass away, their relatives living in the government-controlled areas are not allowed to inherit.”

Ekaterini-born Polyxeni was adopted by Apostolos and Elisabeth Bitsika, wealthy Greeks of Istanbul, or Romioi (Greek: Ῥωμαῖοι/Greek: Ρωμιοί, "Romans") as they were branded by the Turks, back in the mid-50s.

She lived there happily and in very comfortable surroundings and when the father died in 1981, the mother inherited the family property.

The mother died in 1987 and Polyxeni actually inherited the property – both movable and immovable property.  But later on the Turkish state decided that this inheritance was contrary to the existing law because she was not a Turkish national.  By that time, she was not very well and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital called Zentiburul with the authorities appointing a guardian.

Meanwhile, her two blood brothers from Ekaterini wanted to help and began contacting Polyxeni who passed away in hospital in 2000.  That’s when the brothers’ interest in the inheritance led to the launch of a litigation in Turkey but their bid was unsuccessful.

So, in 2002 an application was submitted before the ECHR claiming the inheritance rights of the brothers.  The case was successful in 2009 when the Court accepted that a violation had occurred and their right to the property was established.

On October 1, 2013, the judgment for just satisfaction was announced awarding the brothers the sum of €5 million for loss of use and for expropriation and moral damages they had suffered because of these violations.

---Applicable to the enclaved---

Amendments to the ‘inheritance law’ in the occupied areas are already underway and the matter is being discussed before the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, said Achilleas Demetriades.

“It is expected to be finally resolved in June 2014. That is when the Committee of Ministers will issue a decision whether the ‘law’ is in fact adequate remedy to satisfy the actions taken by Turkey remedy the breaches which have been established by the 4th interstate application,” Demetriades said.

“I understand certain memos were generated but it’s a matter handled by the Attorney General’s office…I think the properties in Istanbul may very well be the subject matter of a new immovable property commission set up by Turkey to deal with this dormant for quite some time issue,” he added.

Demetriades wondered whether any of the enclaved people will initiate legal proceedings to challenge the new ‘law’ in the occupied areas and then in Strasbourg.  “The matter of the enclaved is part of the interstate application and the government should deal with it,” he said.

Turkey's commitment to European values questioned

Editor's note: Theo Sommer is a German newspaper editor and intellectual. He has been at Die Zeit since 1958, rising to Editor-in-Chief and Publisher. He is considered one of Germany's foremost authorities on international relations and strategic issues.  The opinions expressed in this commentary below are solely his.

There is No Place in the European Union for This Turkey

HAMBURG - For 10 years, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan built his reputation as a moderate, successful, even exemplary levelheaded Islamist democrat. During his leadership the economy flourished, domestic political stability settled in after a period of shaky coalitions, and the army was put on a leash. When the Arab Spring uprisings began, Turkey's democracy seemed like a shining beacon for the people taking to the streets in the Arab world's crisis crescent.

Those days are over. The economy is stuck in a deep crisis. Share prices and the Turkish lira have slumped. And the AKP, Erdogan's party, has been caught up in a serious corruption scandal. The accused include the sons of three AKP ministers and Erdogan's own son Bilal. Investigators have uncovered millions of dollars stuffed into shoe boxes, money transfers to Iran and construction permits in return for large bribes.

As the crisis has unfolded, Erdogan himself has become more and more autocratic, trying to sweep aside everything standing in his way. Last summer, his security forces launched a bloody crackdown on the protests in and around Gezi Park. Since mid-December, he has ruthlessly pursued all those who would drain the swamp of corruption. Hundreds of police officers, dozens of prosecutors and judges have been fired or transferred because they refused to halt their probes, which had reached the prime minister's inner circle. To put an end to corruption rumors circulating online, Erdogan's government recently blocked access to Twitter and YouTube in Turkey.

Meanwhile, a bitter feud between Erdogan and his ally-turned-rival Fethullah Gülen, has shaken Turkey's political scene. The prime minister rails against the imam, who lives in U.S. exile. He sees enemies and conspirators everywhere.

Turkey's municipal elections held in late March were ultimately about whether the country's awakening civil society or conservatism would prevail. The outcome -- 45 percent for the AKP, 38 percent for the opposition -- demonstrates that Erdogan's power base has not crumbled. Now it's completely up to him whether to run for the presidency in the summer or to disregard the term limits he himself instigated and seek a fourth term as premier.

For 30 years, I have advocated accepting Turkey into the European Union, once the country has fulfilled the Copenhagen Criteria: institutional stability as a guarantee of democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and minority rights, a functioning market economy, and finally the pledge to embrace the goals of the political, economic and monetary union.

If Erdogan continues as he has over the past two years, he will not fulfill these criteria. There is no place in the European Union for this Turkey.

The conduct of Turkey -- a NATO member -- in the Syria crisis is also worrying. A leaked audio recording that has gone viral online reveals Turkey's foreign minister, intelligence chief and deputy chief of staff discussing intervening militarily in Syria after staging a fake attack made to look as if it had been committed by Syrians.

The leaders in Ankara need to be clear that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty requires NATO-wide action only if a member state is actually attacked. If the Turkish government feels like playing with fire on the sidelines of the Syrian civil war, it can do so without expecting NATO assistance. And Germany should promptly withdraw its Patriot missile batteries that are guarding Turkey's frontier with Syria.

This article appeared in The German Weekly on April 4, 2014.

10 Years BirdLife Cyprus ... Protecting Nature, Inspiring People

Cyprus is an important place for birds at a national, European and global level, mainly due to its geographical location. Situated on one of the key migratory corridors of Europe, it is estimated that during migration, around 150 million birds pass through Cyprus as they migrate between Europe, Africa and Eurasia. 

Having been identified as an Endemic Bird Area of World Importance by BirdLife International, BirdLife Cyprus is predominantly focusing on two campaigns at the moment.

BirdLife’s development officer states that “One of our main campaigns is against illegal bird trapping. For this we have a monitoring programme, where a person who goes out into the fields and basically counts how many nets and limesticks he can find. We use that data to lobby for enforcement and to raise awareness.”

“Our other campaign is for the protection of important bird areas in Cyprus, the Natura 2000 network. What we do is we recognise which areas in Cyprus are important for birds and lobby to get them protected. And we have managed to get most of them designated and protected by the Cyprus government.”

But aside this, BirdLife Cyprus also has other interests such as lobbying for a more sustainable common agriculture policy of the EU, organising educational programmes and raising awareness in schools, monitoring appropriate assessment procedures when developments are proposed in the Natura 2000 area and climate change adaptation to name a few.  They also campaign for the "Life Oroklini project" -- a restoration and protection of the Oroklini Lake.

One can assist Birdlife’s activities by reporting incidents of illegal bird trapping and should feel free to approach the association with injured birds or queries. 

BirdLife Cyprus also brings vultures to the island from Crete to strengthen the population.

BirdLife’s development officer states “there’s about ten vultures left in the wild in Cyprus.  Most birds in Cyprus are threatened to some degree mainly by habitat destruction, illegal hunting and trapping.  The raven is on the brink of extinction, maybe one or two are left. People don’t really see them anymore. We used to have the Imperial eagle in Cyprus which is now extinct.  Most of the birds in Cyprus are migratory, around 300 of them, and 40 species stay in Cyprus to breed. We have around 50 resident birds, two endemic species that only breed in Cyprus, the Cyprus wheatear and the Cyprus warbler, both small birds and four endemic sub species that are all forest birds, found in Troodos."

More informations about BirdLife Cyprus can be found on:

www.birdlifecyprus.org