This process of politicising a thread on buying Homes in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (recognised only by Turkey) perfectly illustrates the complexity of the current political situation and recent political history.
However, it also illustrates the danger of over simplification. Phrases like "concentration camp", "ethnic cleansing" and "invasion" are terribly emotive and in fact, some might regard them as offensive. Indeed, official Turkish sources including the in flight magazine you will read on your flight to Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (via Turkey) refer to the events of 31 years ago as "the 1974 Peace Action".
Moreover, it is factually inaccurate to state that:
quote:
"After swapping peoples and other "ethnic cleansing" policies, no christian greek cypriots live in the northern territories."
as there are several Greek Cypriot villages in the "northern territories" - although this term in itself is not defined in the posting - in the Karpas peninsular, also known as "the panhandle", because of its shape, in the English speaking community. Indeed, there are still to this day, regular food convoys to these villages, currently run by the Slovenian army under UN mandate, essentially because a minority of Greek Cypriots in the Karpas peninsular
chose to remain and they therefore come under the UN's protection, even though actual fighting ceased many years ago. Moreover, there is also a
mixed Turkish / Greek Cypriot village at Dipkarpaz in the Karpas peninsular.
I have used the Anglicised version of place names. When you travel on your inspection visits, you will probably realise that any maps bought in well known map shops in the UK will be next to useless - particularly if they have Greek and / or English names only, as these have been removed from the north and replaced by Turkish names. To state an obvious example, the Turkish name for Kyrenia is Girne. Local people will regularly use both Tukish and English names, often in the same sentence. Additionally, the roads are not numbered and there is a lack of GPS data for civilian purposes on the island.
Once you have worked your way through such idiosyncracies - which in fact perfectly illustrate why Cyprus is so fascinating - you might like to consider some of the following strategic and logistical points (this is by no means exhaustive, there is as always no substitue for doing your own research.)
Whilst driving (on the left) you will see lots of boards advertising property for sale "pre 1974 deeds" and they state this for a reason. Anything bought with deeds issued by TRNC authorities is a risk, in terms of future political developments.
There will have to be some form of political (and property) settlement at some point in the future. The recent opening of the border crossing points means that every Greek Orthodox bank holiday car loads of families come over to view their former residences, take photographs standing in their garden. Indeed, I happened to take the photograph for just such a family during the Greek Orthodox Easter bank holiday this year, in Kyrenia. A 98 and 96 year old couple and their whole extended family, numbering some 27 people altogether. Of course, the old couple had tears pouring down their faces because they had been obliged to leave their home all those years ago, but are the younger members of that family ever going to give up what they see as their rights to their family's property? Would you ? How would you feel if you lived in the great city of Manchester and had been forced to go to live in Dagenham for 31 years? When you visit the Karpas peninsular, where there is currently a proposal to make part of it a "national park" and thus restrict future development, you will notice the wild donkeys - these are the descendants of those animals left behind when some of the Greek Cypriots were forced to leave in 1974.
One of the common practices of unscrupulous developers is to sell a house, but to retain the land on which it is situated and to use that as security to raise finance for future development projects. Some people have found that they have been unable to sell their properties on in future years, for this reason. Thus, you need to buy the land as well as the actual buildings.
Additionally, there are other minor matters such as frequent water shortages on the island: often in the summer it is on only for a few hours a day. Electricity is much more stable now than it used to be.
All that said, however, you will find the local people incredibly helpful, kind and generous (the hourly rate of the waiters at the restaurants adjacent to Kyrenia harbour is c 50 pence an hour) and there is a British expatriate community numbering in its thousands which would probably also be a source of assistance. You could also try Jeff who runs the English language television programme on cable there.
No doubt all of these issues are common place elsewhere and there are probably even magazines which you can buy which deal with them - I would not know, I do not read them. I apologise for rambling on, I hope this is of some help and best wishes to anyone who ends up buying a property there. It is a stunning and beautiful island and the fact that just about any civilisation of any significance in the entire history of the northern hemisphere, including the British Empire, has "occupied" the island during its history, perfectly serves to illustrate what a significant island it has been - and still is, in many ways.
Best regards
---
Postings contain the use of sardonicism and irony, where appropriate
Aspiring to be on the Forum long enough to have a meaningless multi-line signature longer than any of my actual posts (although still within the C4 Forum rules)
