Cyprus-Forum.com

[Bill]

I wonder how many Greek Cypriot refugees really want to go back to their old homes if there is a solution to the existing problem.

I'm not talking about folk that own hundreds of donums -- just the ordinary home owner.

It's been over 30 years now -- are they so settled in the free area that they may not want to move.

I know it probably depends on how the solution is resolved .

I'd be interested in your comments.

[andri_cy]

I believe that a big percentage would like to return and an even bigger would like to have a say to what happens to their properties. I am sure a lot of them wouldnt mind selling them.

[despo]

I believe that a big percentage would like to return and an even bigger would like to have a say to what happens to their properties. I am sure a lot of them wouldnt mind selling them.

I am wondering exactly how this would happen. For example, say you're living in Larnaca right now. You have a decent job, a decent house. Your kids go to school, you have good local medical services, doctors, dentists. You know where to go and pay your taxes, where to buy your milk, do your shopping, call the plumber when you need one. Basically, you live in a developed community with all the commercial, medical, educational and government services you need around you. You also have all your neighbours, decent roads, good municipal services. More to the point, you left your village in northern Cyprus when you were 5, you don't remember it but you had a romantic vision of your house. But, when you went to see it last year, it was absolutely tiny and to be honest, a bit crappy. The village is also a total mess. There are a few Turkish Cypriots living there now who used to live in a village outside Paphos. For you to go back, they have to return to their village first. Or there are some "colonists," as we like to call them, from Turkey, who've lived there pretty much all their lives for the past 30 years. They have to be shipped back (if they've ever been there) to Turkey or the new villages have to be built for them first.

So, yeah, I can just imagine, a big percentage packing their place up in the south almost immediately to go and live in houses that, to be honest, they think are pretty crummy, in a village which at the moment is nothing more than a ghost village with a few people already living in it, with no goods, hospitals or services around them. Hmm, perhaps that's why any UN settlement will have transitional periods in it and people won't return (the few who are planning on returning) immediately, because the place where they are returning to doesn't actually exist yet.

[rotate]

Bill, I suggest that you attend the annual get togethers of the refugee's or read the back pages of this forum. The desire to go home and regain control of their lives remains as strong as ever amongst the refugee's!

I'm not a Cypriot but did lose my Famagusta home in 74 as did all of my Cypriot wife's family. I still harbour a deep resentment at losing that house even if I did own it for only two years. Imagine how bad it must feel for those whose property has been owned by their families for perhaps generations, I make no differention here of those from either side of the great divide.

As in any crisis some will do well while others will continue to suffer, thats just human nature, opportunity or the luck of the draw refugee's being no exception. But to know that which is legally and morally yours lays abandoned and inaccessable (as in my case) or is occupied by others who have been imported into Cyprus fuels a bitterness that casts a long shadow. To discover that your expropriated property (as in the case of some of my wife's family) has been 'sold' on as a holiday/retirement home to ex-pats who have been warned against the purchase by their own governments absolutely beggers belief.

No if's or but's, the decision of who should live in your property or otherwise is by any standard of decency and legality yours and yours alone to make!

[despo]

I lost my house in Famagusta in 1974 too, and would really like to reclaim it (what I'd actually do with it is another matter). The problem, however, is that it is unfortunatlely the Greek Cypriots who blocked the possibility of our return, by rejecting the UN settlement in April 2004. If we had not done this, then we would have had the right to go back already from August 2004.

[miltiades]

Despo , I did not , and neither did the overwhelming majority , block the possibility of returning to the lost lands. Can you please re study the plan and inform us of how incorrect we were in interpreting the plan as a non starter .
How many Cypriot refugees would be allowed to return , what percentage ?

[Issy1956]

Guys,
Maybe I am wrong but I really cant imagine huge numbers actually wanting to return-from either side not in the short term anyway. Perhaps a good indicator is the numbers of TC's who are returning to reclaim their properties in the south. There are some cases you read about but the numbers are not huge are they? The GC government isnt stopping people from returning to their properties and nor is the Turkish Army stopping people from leaving the north so they could easily do so if they wished. My own experiences being TC's living in London who lost our properties in the south was that when we returned to visit we were not exactly made to feel welcome quite the opposite in fact-we were treated with hostility by the local Muhtar. However being able to reccover their losses in the form of compensation or sale is a different thing-but not to actually live in the midst of each other community-not for a long time yet anyway.

[miltiades]

Hope you are wrong ISSY 1956 . Hope we can live , as we do in the UK , in peace with each other , and that what unites us is far more solid that what divides us.
I know that you , living in London , do not consider the Greek Cypriots as your enemy , the same as G/Cs also living in London do not hate their Turkish compatriots.

[andri_cy]

Guys,
Maybe I am wrong but I really cant imagine huge numbers actually wanting to return-from either side not in the short term anyway. Perhaps a good indicator is the numbers of TC's who are returning to reclaim their properties in the south. There are some cases you read about but the numbers are not huge are they? The GC government isnt stopping people from returning to their properties and nor is the Turkish Army stopping people from leaving the north so they could easily do so if they wished. My own experiences being TC's living in London who lost our properties in the south was that when we returned to visit we were not exactly made to feel welcome quite the opposite in fact-we were treated with hostility by the local Muhtar. However being able to reccover their losses in the form of compensation or sale is a different thing-but not to actually live in the midst of each other community-not for a long time yet anyway.

I think I expressed what I wanted to say wrong. I guess what I should have said is this: A lot of them want to return. Most probably want. But they would like to be the ones to decide what to do with their own land. Decide how much they want to sell it for if thats what they want to do. Or use it for a summer home or something. But that should be the legal owners' decision not some guy Called Annan that has no interest whatsoever in this as its only his job. Of course, the same should go for the TC's that own land in the south.

[Issy1956]

No matter how you look at it there has been an exchange of populations and its going to be nearly impossible to reverse this. This by the way is nothing new-there have been huge population exchanges in the past between Turkey and Greece-I read a recent novel (Birds Without Wings by Louis De Bernieres) which is set in background of the Greco-Turkish War of the 1920's when Greece invaded Anatolian Turkey. There really only remains for the financial accounts to be setted as it were. I know that many on both sides would wish that it were not so and that we could return to were we were in the past but its not going to happen anytime soon.
Militiades-No I dont hate GC's at all but unfortunately some of them hate me enough to put that little seed of doubt in my mind that I could not go and live in South Cyprus amongst them-Thats all I am saying. I am happy enough to have them as neighbours in London but I wouldnt entrust my security to the GC state anymore than GC's would feel safe with the Turkish Army. Sad but true.