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The enclaved

Over the years, the Turkish side systematically violated the Third Vienna Agreement (August 1975), by which it  hade been committed to providing Greek Cypriots enclaved in the Turkish occupied areas  with “every help to lead a normal life, including facilities for education and for the practice of their religion, as well as medical care by their own doctors and freedom of movement in the north.” The total number of the enclaved has fallen from 20,000, in 1974, to less  than 500 today.

Permission for the operation of the occupied Rizokarpasso Greek Cypriot High School was granted as recently as April 2004, and a six-grade high school – attended by 58 pupils – was finally given permission to operate in September 2005. Up until 2005, the occupation regime censored textbooks (by removing the pages at issue).

In 2007, the Turkish occupation regime decided to allow a priest to take up duties in Rizokarpasso. That same year, however, the occupation forces demolished a large number of Greek Cypriot homes in Rizokarpasso. In 2012, there were new violations of the property rights of enclaved Greek Cypriots, including seizures of homes and property in favour of Turkish settlers.

In 2008, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), ruling on the application of Ms Eleni Foka, teacher of the elementary school in Ayia Triada, Yialousa , found Türkiye to be in violation of article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning freedom of expression.

As already mentioned, in May 2014 the ECtHR issued a judgement calling on Türkiye to pay damages in the amount of €60 million to the enclaved.

In September 2020, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, unanimously decided the termination of the supervision of the enclaved persons’ property rights cluster in the framework of the Interstate Case Cyprus v. Turkey (2001), reaching the conclusion that Türkiye has taken all necessary measures, taking into account the establishment of the Immovable Property Committee (IPC) in the occupied areas, which has been found to be an effective remedy by the ECtHR (Demopoulos Case 2010). Cyprus presented a written statement highlighting that, while it conceded to this decision in the spirit of good faith and in order to safeguard the reliability of the supervision of Türkiye, it nevertheless refuses to accept the effectiveness of the IPC, while pointing out that the ECtHR Judgement of 2001 has found other violations of the rights of the enclaved, apart from those related to their properties.