Cyprus-Forum.com

[brother]

About Eupro and its Chairman
In its 12-18/03/05 edition Turkish Cypriot weekly Cyprus Today newspaper published the following:

One of the things that we are insistent upon is that the Greek Cypriots stop treating this country, the people and the government here as if they dont exist.

Shelley White, a US attorney from Houston who moved to Karaman (occupied Karmi) in 2002, is outlining the ethos behind the new European Property Association of Northern Cyprus (Eupro), which has already attracted more than 300 members less than a fortnight after its launch.

Eupro, a limited company incorporated in England and with offices both in London and North Cyprus, was set up to represent the interests of foreign property owners in the `TRNC´. It aims to counter Greek Cypriot propaganda on the property issue in the North.

Mrs White explains: It is very infuriating to pick up a Greek Cypriot newspaper and read `pseudo government´ and `pseudo minister´ and I guess we are all `pseudo voters´. It is not as if this state exists on a cloud. It is a reality and it is, for lack of a better term, a de facto government. The people obey the government here, the government is functioning, it is in control of the country, and it has a perfectly legitimate right to regulate its own affairs. That includes governing title to its own property. The English court has been very well aware of that since 1978 because there is case law in England going back to 1978 saying that the Greek Cypriots cannot bring a suit to England over these properties. Now that they (Greek Cypriots) have joined the European Union they are trying to make a back door around that decision. They are saying `wait a minute, we can´t get a British court to do anything about it but what we will do is to get a judgement in the South and then we will try to get the English court to recognize the judgement under the EU Protocol of Recognition of Judgement´.

This is propaganda. And what confirms to me that it is a political issue a true propaganda approach and not a real situation is that if they bothered to read the EU Protocol of Recognition of Judgement they would know that it states very clearly that it is not applicable to real property because only the locality can deal with real property. A French court cannot deal with titles to British property. And it is the same here. The protocol is clear on that. It also says that if you are talking about public policy matters, public policy issues, and political propaganda is not something which is right for recognition by the judiciary in another country of the EU. And that is what we want to recognise in this situation.

They just cannot act with disregard to the law. They (the laws) dont just exist on the side of the Greek Cypriots.

The association says it is retaining counsel in the UK to advise it on a number of legal issues relating to the overall property issues in the North, the recent high-profile campaign conducted against foreign property owners in the `TRNC´ and the Orams case in particular. We are engaging counsel in the UK to see what we can do about the threat that Mr Candounas has made about taking the Orams decision to England and having it recognised there, said Mrs White.

We are also in a bit of a quandary about what he can do with a judgement that, I assume, will come on May 11 in favour of the former Greek Cypriot owner of the Orams property. They have never served David Orams, only Mrs Linda Orams, so how do you execute the judgement to tear down a property when it only deals with 50 per cent of it? What do you do? Tear down the front two rooms and leave the back? It doesnt even work. It is impractical, which just enforces the fact that the whole case is a political propaganda done deliberately to try to harm the economy in the North.

It all sounds very simple and logical when Mrs White talks about it, so why did no-one tackle these issues before?

I think the government here recognized that it is political propaganda but, until somebody does something, all the government can do is to talk about it. And they really dont have a voice because the media, in England particularly, are very sympathetic to the Greek Cypriot side. They dont even call a Turkish Cypriot journalist and ask about their side. You dont see this side offered that at all, and I think that somebody needed to organise the foreign property owners here so that we could stand up and say `You are going to have to take us on as a group´.

It is too easy to pick us off one at a time, but if we all get together we are much more powerful. One of the realities here is that people tend to be retired, they came for a quite life, and they came here because the rustic beauty of the North appealed to them.

Getting involved and rocking the boat is not what they want. You have to feel really threatened before you are willing to do that.

And fortunately or unfortunately, Mr Candounas has made enough for us. People are now saying `Poor Linda Orams. It might be me next time. I dont want to wait until they come knocking on my door. I want to do something about it now´.

So it is not that the things havent been done properly in the past. I would rather say that the focus hasnt been there and now it is. And we have Mr Candounas to thank for this.

[Kifeas]

Poor Mrs White ....Propaganda is what those people who made you buy a stolen property had served you with!

[magikthrill]

They just cannot act with disregard to the law.

LoL. So only Turkey is allowed to do that Mrs. White?

EDIT:
So only Turkey AND you are allowed to that Mrs. White?

[Main_Source]

`Poor Linda Orams. It might be me next time. I dont want to wait until they come knocking on my door. I want to do something about it now´.

Just remember, 30 years ago it was the Turkish army knocking on the same door..not with an arrest warrent but an AK47.

[brother]

Just remember, 30 years ago it was the Turkish army knocking on the same door..not with an arrest warrent but an AK47.

No thats a gun the greek army uses, the turks use something different but can't remember its name at the moment but its at the tip of my tongue..lol

[Kifeas]

Just remember, 30 years ago it was the Turkish army knocking on the same door..not with an arrest warrent but an AK47.

No thats a gun the greek army uses, the turks use something different but can't remember its name at the moment but its at the tip of my tongue..lol

Now the Turkish, Greek and the GC National guard use a German rifle called G-3.

In 1974 when Turkey invated they were using a Belgian F-N rifle. The GCs had to use some first World War rifle called "Martini" because EOKA B had stolen during the coup all the AK47 (which aparently is the most advanced of all) and hide them in the Troodos mountains.

[brother]

Yep that is the one G3, one bullet fom that in the leg and your leg falls off, the bullits are around 3 inches long.