NICOSIA (Reuters) -Decades-old property disputes stemming from Cyprus’s unresolved division are stirring tensions on the island, threatening to derail fragile progress in United Nations-led reconciliation attempts.
Recent detentions on both sides over disputed property claims have exposed the enduring grievances of tens of thousands of internally displaced people.
“I’m very concerned. I fear the property issue will cause major problems in the coming months,” outgoing U.N. envoy Colin Stewart said in an interview with Turkish Cypriot daily Yeni Duzen.
Five Greek Cypriots have been in Turkish Cypriot custody since July 19 and face charges of trespass for visiting Trikomo, a predominantly Greek Cypriot area before the island was split by a Turkish invasion in 1974, triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup.
Now known by the Turkish name Iskele, it has attracted considerable development in recent years. A property developer active in the region holding joint Israeli and Turkish citizenship has been in custody for more than a year in Cyprus’s south on accusations of cashing in on Greek Cypriot properties. In May, a court jailed two people from Hungary for brokering sales of Greek Cypriot-owned properties in the north.
Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides called the arrest of the Greek Cypriots an “act of piracy”. In response, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar – who had previously accused Greek Cypriots of weaponising the property issue by prosecuting the developer – criticised Christodoulides for showing disrespect to Turkish Cypriots and the judicial process.
Both are key players in a U.N.-backed process to foster trust-building between Cyprus’s Greek and Turkish communities, but progress has been slow.
The cases highlight the complexity and sensitivity over territory on the island, where the seeds of partition were sown after independence from Britain in the early sixties, when a power-sharing administration fell apart. Most people who fled communal conflict could never return, and in many cases in the north properties were re-distributed.
“This underlines the need for a settlement, because the only way to address the property issue is to solve the Cyprus problem,” a diplomatic source told Reuters.
(Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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