Iranian stripped of residence rights after selling north properties

An Iranian national who held permanent residence in the Republic has been stripped of his residence rights after being found to have been facilitating the sale of Greek Cypriot properties in the north, according to reports.

Reports in newspaper Politis had suggested the man had been granted permanent residence in 2016 after having made investments in the Republic.

However, it turned out later that he had been selling land owned by Greek Cypriots in the north to third country nationals with the help of his ex-wife, who works as a real estate agent in and lives full time in the north.

In addition, a possible link between the Iranian man and Turkish Cypriot lawyer Akan Kursat, who was arrested in Italy in connection with the sale of Greek Cypriot land in the north and is currently objecting to extradition back to the Republic, is being investigated by the authorities.

Meanwhile, former Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Sibel Siber on Friday spoke to newspaper Kibris about the issues surrounding Kursat’s arrest and the sale of properties to third country nationals in the north.

She said that “holding individuals responsible for a situation created by the lack of a solution [to the Cyprus problem] will not only not solve the problem but will also deepen distrust by creating tension between the two communities.”

“We know that there is no compromise, and the culture of conflict is prevailing, but I want to believe that common sense will prevail on this matter,” she added.

Speaking on the matter at large, she said “the TRNC and the Greek Cypriot administration have created their own property regimes regarding abandoned properties in both the north and the south.”

“We all know that many mistakes were made while implementing the post-1974 settlement policy in the TRNC and that unfair practices are still continuing … It is a fact that we cannot say the Greek Cypriot side acted lawfully and was innocent regarding property belonging to Turkish Cypriots,” she said, referencing court cases filed by Turkish Cypriots who own land and property in the Republic.

She added that another problem faced regarding people who own property on the ‘other’ side of the island is the pace at which the Immovable Property Commission (IPC) operates.

She described the creation of the IPC in 2005 as “one of our most important achievements in the international arena,” but noted, “while many Greek Cypriots applied to the IPC regarding their properties in the north, we could not conclude these processes quickly.”

“The greatest problem we faced was creating the resources to pay for reparations,” she said, adding that while initiatives had been made to source those funds, “populist approaches” had got in the way of concrete steps being taken.

She also spoke positively about the so-called “Acapulco law”, passed in 2008, which stipulates that those who rent Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north from the north’s ‘government’ can acquire official deeds recognised by the Republic should the north’s ‘government’ compensate the property’s original owner through the IPC, and should the original owner accept.

The law’s moniker came from the Acapulco resort near Ayios Epiktitos, part of which was built on Greek Cypriot-owned land and was the first notable example of the above mechanism being used.

Siber said that she had in 2013 drafted a bill which would have expanded that mechanism to include those who buy land, but that it had been rejected by the UBP ‘government’ of the day, which was at the time led by Irsen Kucuk.

The ‘government’s’ reasoning had at the time been that such an amendment would “lead to the validity of title deeds granted by the TRNC being called into question”, but Siber argued that if the ‘government’ itself is already making compensation payments through the IPC, individuals doing the same would not be any less damaging.