Turkey ordered to pay €90 million compensation for Cyprus invasion

Ankara reacts with fury to European Court of Human Rights ruling, 40 years after it annexed northern part of the island

Turkish Cypriots cross the Green Line into the Greek side of the divided capital Nicosia in 2004 Photo: AFP/GETTY

Europe's highest court yesterday ordered Turkey to pay €90 million (£63 million) in compensation to the victims of the 1974 invasion that left the island divided between Turks and Greeks.

Turkey reacted angrily to the landmark judgement declaring it would not be bound by the ruling and warned the intervention would damage a recent efforts at reconciliation.

^{The Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (AFP/GETTY)}

The European Court of Human Rights found that Turkey was liable for damages, despite the passage of 40 years since its military invasion in response to a Greek-led takeover of the island's government.

The court ruled that Turkey should pay €30 million for the suffering endured by relatives of people who went missing during the invasion.

A further €60 million in fines was imposed for the suffering of Greek Cypriots who live in the Karpas peninsula - an enclave within northern Cyprus.
Turkey supports a breakaway Turkish republic on the north of the island, where it maintains 30,000 troops. 

Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's foreign minister, warned last week that the prospect of securing a peace deal would be harmed by the court ruling. 

"Not only is it legally problematic, its timing is wrong," he said. "It's going negatively affect the psychological atmosphere." 

Turkey has partially complied with earlier rulings from the court while defying its judgements outright in other cases.
^{Turkey paid 1.12 million euros in compensation to Titina Loizidou (AFP/GETTY)}
 
The Strasbourg court ordered Turkey to pay Titina Loizidou compensation in 1998 for depriving her of property in the seaside city of Kyrenia. It was the first case in which a Greek Cypriot successfully sued Turkey over the invasion and earned the right to compensation. 

Turkey paid the money in 2003, but has yet to comply with an earlier European Court decision ordering Ankara to allow Loizidou to reclaim her property. 

Nikos Christodoulides, a spokesman for the Cyprus government, called on Turkey to comply with the ruling. 

"Despite the fact that the persecution and hardship that they have endured cannot be measured in money, the Cyprus government welcomes the fact that the court again condemns in this way Turkey's policy of violating the human rights of the enclaved," he said. 

By Damien McElroy,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/cyprus/10825981/Turkey-ordered-to-pay-90-million-compensation-for-Cyprus-invasion.html