Forgive me if I use the Dome Hotel in Kyrenia as a convenient example to ask a question. There are many other hotels in the Occupied North which fall into a category of Stolen Hotels for which this post applies. They are listed at
http://www.cyprusembassy.net/home/index ... odule=page
The Dome Hotel, Kyrenia features in a number of travel sites based here in GB and elsewhere which offer holidays to the Occupied Areas and where visitors can stay at a large selection of hotels. Increasingly these visitors are flying in to LCA on non-stop flights and are being bussed through the cease-fire line to their final destinations.
Must say straightaway that no discussion on the Dome Hotel, Kyrenia is complete without a reference to its use in the weeks after the Turkish Invasion as a concentration prison, where several hundred people, pows, but in the main refugee families forced at gunpoint from their homes were held and as you can imagine they weren't given the Honeymoon Suites.
On this subject, from the ECHR ....
(c) The Commission, by ten votes against two with two abstentions, finally concludes that, by the confinement of Greek Cypriots to the Kyrenia Dome Hotel after 14 August 1974, Turkey has again violated Art. 5(1). (....that's the Right to Liberty article ....)
No discussion on The Dome, Kyrenia is worth having unless we raise the question of ownership. Well it belonged, it belongs and always will belong (until such time as they decide otherwise) to the Katsellis Family and is one of the some 1,400 cases still pending before the ECHR.
But according to the Volkan newspaper, post 74 it passed to the ever-present Evkaf and they in turn passed it over to a firm by the name of BEGA (Cyprus) Trading Co of which a Ozan Ceyhun is a shareholder.... (as reported to CF by our Rafaella) ....
"Volkan reports that Former German MEP of Turkish origin is owner of occupied Dome Hotel
To whom Dome Hotel was given?” Turkish Cypriot daily Volkan newspaper (15.12.07) reports the following in its column “Baykus”
“Plenty important news continues to come from our owls. According to information, Dome Hotel which is property of Evkaf was given without bidding to a company by the name ‘BEGA (Cyprus) trading Company. According to investigation made by our owls, the former parliamentarian of the European Parliament, Ozan Ceyhun is among the big shareholders of the BEGA Company. According also to information given by our owls, there are very close relations between Ozan Ceyhun and CTP General Chairman, prime-minister Soyer. http://www.moi.gov.cy/moi/pio/pio.nsf/A ... enDocument
Which begs a question (not the question, be patient), what determined that this company got a lease on the Dome? Can't help but be of the opinion that this is an illustration of the endemic corruption in Tnucland with the richer pickings going as rewards for political loyalty to senior members of Tnucland parties or in the Mainland parties whilst the rest of the tissies are left to endure the tear-gas of the Turkish-paid 'police" to get decent living wages.
Now as far as Roc law goes, the situation is very, very clear. Not only does the Katsellis family own the Dome, those who interfere with their ownership are committing criminal acts....
This from .... http://www.cyprusembassy.net/home/index ... odule=page ........
..."Under Cyprus Law, Greek Cypriot property owners may bring legal actions before the competent Courts of the Republic against trespassers to their properties in the Turkish-occupied area, claiming damages and other legal remedies available to them under civil law. Judgments issued in favour of lawful property owners shall be recognized and enforced against property/assets of the defendants/judgment debtors in any EU member State, under the provisions of EC Regulation No.44/2001.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus conveys a strong warning message to foreign citizens who wish to travel to the occupied part of Cyprus, that staying in the listed Greek Cypriot owned hotels or in hotels which have been built on Greek Cypriot property without the consent of the owners, is illegal and contributes and/or assists in the illegal exploitation/usurpation of Greek Cypriot properties contrary to domestic and/or International Law. Such foreign citizens are, therefore, advised to seek accommodation in hotels and other establishments lawfully owned by Turkish Cypriots...."
We are increasingly seeing that the increasingly long arm of the law of the Republic is reaching in to the other EU countries. This is a situation which will be much enhanced by the new facilities offered by the system of European Arrest Warrants coming to a place near you in the Spring of next year.
These warrants will not apply to some or all of the Hotel Stealers, who for will remain out of direct reach, but they will apply to almost all their customers. Clients, travellers and holiday-makers, who, as said, are increasingly landing at LCA. At present, of course, no travellers are being searched for travel documents that may show stays in Stolen Hotels, no holiday-makers are being arrested, and here (at last!!!) is the question... ...are some travel companies not being honest with their customers, not making them aware of the potential problems their stay in the north may cause for them, by placing these customers at risk of being arrested for criminal trespass?
(The list of hotels at the top link also gives a list of tissy hotels, I have no problem with tissy-owned hotels and neither, according to the link, does the RoC)