TC owners ‘want €40m for Paphos airbase’

[memory man]

A Greek Cypriot man who has attempted to purchase the land currently housing the Andreas Papandreou military airbase in Paphos from the heirs of its Turkish Cypriot origional owners says they want the state to pay them €40 million compensation.

Yiannakis Papas, who is also acting as the heirs’ asset manager and court-appointed administrator, contacted Phileleftheros newspaper with the information after the paper reported the heirs, who have been living in the US since 1963 and are now also US citizens, wanted compensation.

Papas told Phileleftheros he bought the land from the heirs of the Turkish Cypriot owner and even paid the Land Registry, as he said, a fee of €30,000. However, the land has not yet been transferred in its name due to objections raised by the Interior Ministry. As he said, the owner’s heirs now want him to return their property so they can sell it at a much higher price to other Turkish Cypriots.

He rejected information that most of the land on which the base was built belonged to Greek Cypriots and was expropriated, saying he had evidence that much of the land on which the air base was built as well as a significant part of the airport Paphos but also nearby refugee settlements belong to him.

According to reports. Papas was interested in buying a large plot of land in Timi in order to install photovoltaics there.

The Interior Minister at the time, Neoklis Sylikiotis, reportedly told him that the land he was interested in belongs to a Turkish Cypriot, who he contacted in Miami by phone. They met in Turkey and the heir said he did not intend to return to Cyprust and was willing to sell the property.

In a letter to President Nicos Anastasiades, dated February 20, 2015, Papas states that due to the fact that the Minister of the Interior has not handled his case, he has filed two actions that he was prepared to terminate if he could reach agreement with the Republic of Cyprus and sell it the land in question.

http://in-cyprus.com/tc-owners-want-e40 ... s-airbase/

[josef k]

This was bound to happen eventually. Larnaka airport covers a fair amount of Turkish Cypriot land as well. The law states that any Turkish Cypriot who moves to, and resides for 6 months in, the South can claim his/her land back. As time goes on, this could be very interesting indeed.

[WHL]

This was bound to happen eventually. Larnaka airport covers a fair amount of Turkish Cypriot land as well. The law states that any Turkish Cypriot who moves to, and resides for 6 months in, the South can claim his/her land back. As time goes on, this could be very interesting indeed.

I think you will find that Larnaca Airport was build on what was an old RAF landing strip...and any Turkish Cypriot compensation claims were agreed and payed years ago.