Titina Loizidou comes from Kyrenia, a city in the northern part of Cyprus. She lived in Kyrenia up until 1972 when together
with her husband, they moved to Nicosia temporarily with the intention of settling back to Kyrenia at a later stage.
However, the Turkish invasion in 1974 denied her access to her hometown and subsequently to the property, which she had inherited from
her family. She tried to go back several times during the peaceful demonstrations of the movement "Women Walk Home".
In the last march on 19 March 1989 the Turkish armed forces stopped her
and along with other women held her captive for participating in the march.
In July 1989 she applied to the European Commission of Human Rights in
Strasbourg by filing an individual application against Turkey. She had then started a long
complicated and difficult process, which lasted nine years. The European Court of Human
Rights delivered 3 different judgments on the Loizidou case, which established the fact
that Turkey was indeed the party responsible for the inability of the applicant to
peacefully access and enjoy her property in Kyrenia. The Court found Turkey
guilty of
violating Loizidous's property rights (according to Article 1 Protocol No. 1 of the
European Convention for Human Rights) and responsible for reversing such an illegality.
Furthermore, Turkey was held responsible (according to the Court's July 28 1998
judgment)
for paying Loizidou pecuniary damages -just satisfaction- which amounted to C£ 300.000
($US 600,000). The non pecuniary damages were estimated according to the Court's award
to a C£20.000 (US $ 40,000) amount. The deadline for payment of this amount was 28
October 1998.
The Applicant has placed her trust in the legal system developed by the
Council of Europe to ensure respect and protection of property rights and of human rights.
She has argued her case and obtained 3 judgments by the Court.
Nevertheless Turkey has showed no sign of intending to comply with the
Court’s monetary award nor has it in fact complied with the Court’s judgment of
18 December 1996 so as to allow the Applicant to return to and peacefully enjoy her
property in Kyrenia.
"It is now up to the Committee of Ministers of the Council
of Europe to ensure that judgments of the Court are enforced and the Public Order of
Europe is preserved.
In fact the Committee
after an exchange of letters with the Turkish Government, has on 6 October 1999 adopted an
Interim Resolution (DH (99) 680) which, inter alia:
"Strongly urges Turkey to review its position
and to pay the just satisfaction awarded in this case in accordance with the conditions
set out by the European Court of Human Rights so as to ensure that Turkey, as a High
Contracting Party, meets its obligations under the Convention."
It is perhaps interesting to note what the Cyprus
Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1999 by the U.S.Department of State mentions
in relation to this case:"
