Cyprus-Forum.com

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‘Maybe now they’ll know how it feels’
By Jean Christou


THE GREEK Cypriot man who won a judgment against a British couple that built a holiday home on his land in Lapithos said yesterday he hoped his case would make other foreigners in the north realise how it feels to have one’s home taken away.

In an interview with the Sunday Mail, Meletis Apostolides, an architect at the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, said the couple involved David and Linda Orams, aged 60 and 58, were trying to portray themselves as naïve by having purchased Greek Cypriot property.

He said that Linda Orams had even suggested to him that “it was all a long time ago”.

“I thought people of that age, and British, knew about the Cyprus problem from the beginning. It’s very strange to come forward with an excuse like that and saying Greek Cypriots ‘swapped land’ with the Turkish Cypriots.

“She told me this to my face and that it was all a long time ago. I’m sorry but it’s not. My mother is still here and I lived on that land for the first 24 years of my life. The field next to it has been in my family since 1860. It’s not just another piece of land,” he said.

Since 1974, Apostolides had visited Lapithos in his capacity as an architect with an escort in 1993 and again on a few other occasions before 1996 as part of a UNOPS project. “I have many Turkish Cypriot friends and I have developed an understanding about Turkish Cypriots living in my house,” he said.

However he cannot accept foreigners building a house and living on his land. “There is less of an excuse for that. You can understand when something is political, it demands political solutions. But the point is with these people I find it difficult to understand their speculating on the land the way they have done.”

It wasn’t until the checkpoints opened in 2003 that Apostolides returned to his house and saw the house built by the Orams on his family’s piece of land. “When I saw the construction I felt that this was somehow an irreversible development and I felt very strongly that I should do something about it,” he said.

He said he visited several times before actually bumping into the Orams. “I was with my wife and some friends. Linda Orams reaction was that it had all happened a long time ago. It didn’t upset me as much at the time as it did my wife.”

That’s when Apostolides decided to do something about it and began looking into the Orams` background.

“It was clear in my mind that these type of things would destroy any possibility to unify this place. The only possibilities for Greek Cypriots to return even to a small percentage of land would be destroyed because there would be nothing left and there is no doubt in my mind that nobody would want to go back to a place if his roots there were gone. And this is the sort of situation where foreigners find it so easy to take advantage. My instinct says things had to change.”
Apostolides consulted several lawyers who said nothing could be done. When Cyprus joined the EU on May 1, the opportunity came along with a new amendment that allows court judgments in one member state to be carried out in another.

On November 9, the Nicosia district court ruled that the Ormans must demolish the house and return the land to its pre-1974 state. They must also pay compensation of around £7,000 to Apostolides.
David and Linda Orams are fighting to have the ruling invalidated. If unsuccessful the ruling could lead to a judgment against their UK property.
If the British courts were to move on the defendants’ UK properties, it would prove a landmark case, affecting any non-Cypriots who have bought Greek Cypriot properties in the north.
“The case is quite clear,” said Apostolides. “This is something very important for the refugees to know because it gives them a right.”
“I’m not doing this for the money. The compensation is low. The land is 1,475 square metres. They are making a profit on my property. I didn’t ask for much compared to what they are gaining. I am not interested in that. I’ve lost so much more.”
He said if the Orams were as naïve as they claim to be there might be an excuse.
“But it’s hard to believe,” he added. “They found something cheap and they speculated. But I think they have lost this time.”

Apostolides said he has many British friends in the UK and in Cyprus and said the kind of behaviour exhibited by the Orams and other expats in the north is an insult to other British people.

“Going there and pretending to be ignorant and saying they are suffering because someone is trying to take their holiday home makes me even more furious,” he said adding that perhaps now they will know how it feels to have your home taken away, “people like my mother and father who spent all their lives to manage the fields and the house.”

“To us it’s much more than the loss of property. My mother feels very proud that we can do something. The first thing she says to me when she sees me is ‘when are we going back?’.

“When she saw the house they built she was in tears especially over the trees. For her the building wasn’t important. It was looking for the trees. She was crying because she couldn’t see any. It’s just bare land now.”