North’s CTP lists concerns over property sales to foreigners

Political party CTP in the north on Monday finally weighed in on the arrest of Turkish Cypriot lawyer Akan Kursat, whose wife is a CTP ‘MP’, following Kursat’s arrest in Italy based on an EU arrest warrant for selling Greek Cypriot properties in the north.

Speaking during a ‘parliament’ session on Monday, CTP leader Tufan Erhurman said that as CTP, they have been expressing concerns about the sale of real estate to foreigners in the ‘country’ for more than two years.

“We emphasised that these [sales] would create trouble for us both inside and outside,” said Erhurman.

Kursat was arrested on New Year’s Eve at his hotel in Rome, where he was with his wife, Fazilet Ozdenefe, a CTP ‘MP’ and the ‘deputy speaker of parliament’.

Kursat will be brought to Cyprus, police spokesman Christos Andreou had said last week.

A swirling media storm has been created in the north over the issue, linking him to British con man and drug dealer Gary Robb, who had swindled millions of pounds out of prospective Brits who wanted to buy property in the north. The properties were never completed.

Robb had been convicted in the Cyprus Republic and sentenced to ten months in prison by a Cypriot court, after he was extradited for selling Greek Cypriot land to Britons.

Kursat’s law office, established by his father Talat where he is also a partner, was closely linked to the Robb case, which is where the arrest warrants against both father and son stem from.

Complaints filed in the Republic said that between 2004-2005, Robb, as the director of the AGA Company, had promised the construction of 335 luxury houses on 273,800 square metres of land in Klepini, Kyrenia.

The court heard that 261,589 square metres of that land belonged to Greek Cypriots, 4,661 square metres to the Republic, and the remaining 7,550 square metres to Turkish Cypriots.

Commenting further on the matter, Erhurman said: “Unless the Cyprus issue is resolved, predictions regarding ownership cannot be made. It is possible to encounter such problems now as it was after 2004.”

He added that the Republic of Cyprus tried to reduce the issue to an individual problem and gain political advantage through it.

Stating that the situation in question is not something that will contribute to the Cyprus problem process, Erhurman said: “It also reveals the insincerity of the Christodoulides administration, which constantly says we want to return to the table.”