The European Court of Human Rights has awarded damages to 13 applicants who had applied to the court saying that the Turkish occupation of the northern part of Cyprus after the 1974 conflict deprived them of their homes and properties.
 
Previously, in November 2010, the court had found that there had been a violation of the right to protection of property in the case of eight of the applicants and a violation of the right to respect for private and family life in the case of seven applicants.
 
Announcing its January 10 2012 judgment, in the case of Lordos and Others vs Turkey, the court said that it had awarded each of the applicants between 100 000 and eight million euro for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and 15 000 euro jointly to all applicants for costs and expenses.
 
The Cyprus Mail quoted the applicants’ lawyer, Achilleas Demetriades, as having told Cyprus News Agency that the decision was important because with it, the ECHR had set price estimates for the loss of use of property within Varosha, the fenced off area of Famagusta.
 
The Lordos case was originally lodged in late 1989.
 
Meanwhile, the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities will continue to make efforts to reach agreement on core issues when they meet near New York later in January 2012 for talks aimed at reunifying the island of Cyprus.
 
Alexander Downer, the UN Secretary-General’s special envoy on Cyprus, said after a January 4 meeting meeting between Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu that there are outstanding core issues to be thrashed out on governance and power-sharing, property rights, territory and citizenship.
 
Those issues will be the focus of the January 22 to 24 talks at the Greentree Conference Center outside New York, Downer said, quoted by the UN News Centre.
 
The UN-facilitated talks began in 2008 with the aim of eventually setting up a federal government with a single international personality in a bi-zonal, bi-communal country, with Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot constituent states of equal status.
 
In the northern part of Cyprus, there is a "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" which Ankara is alone is recognising.