The Green Party on Friday said it had delivered to police 33 new cases involving the usurpation of Greek Cypriot properties in the north.
The data was delivered to CID in Nicosia by a delegation of party members. The Greens said the information concerned cases of illegal exploitation, advertising, buying and selling.
It said the move was part of its coordinated effort to strengthen the implementation of the penal code and other relevant legislation in relation to the exploitation of Greek Cypriot properties and to protect the rights of refugees.
The party said it was “tackling the faits accomplis that are consolidated through the illegal trade in real estate in the occupied areas”.
It called on the government and the competent authorities to utilise the evidence and proceed with the required criminal actions “in order to put a definitive end to the usurpation”.
The delegation consisted of members Kyriakos Tsimillis, Oz Karahan, Panikos Kyriakides and Elena Kozakou Lymbouri.
Karahan, who has spoken out in the north against the exploitation has received threats over his support for prosecutions, which have been condemned by the Green Party and also socialist party Edek.
Speaking after the visit to CID, Tsimillis, said the data collected was publicly available.
“If every organised group had collected at least 15 names every month over the years, we would certainly have almost zeroed out the current crime that has taken on huge dimensions, with possibly thousands of usurpers involved in one way or another in this ongoing feast at the expense not only of the properties and rights of the owners, but also of the prospects for a solution to the Cyprus problem,” he said.
He said what was going on was creating faits accomplis “that render useless the main remedy for the property issue” – the return of refugee land.
Connections with people in the government-controlled areas have also been recorded, he added.
Tsimillis said that the submitted data concerns companies in the north that are mainly Turkish and Turkish Cypriot, with a few foreign companies.
“Certainly, there are companies operating in the occupied areas that have their tentacles in foreign markets from where they draw in largely unsuspecting people,” he said.
“They should not have been unsuspecting however because they know or should know where they are buying and what they are buying, but they are investing in the passage of time…”
In his comments, Karahan said that 50 years had passed since the Turkish invasion and “unfortunately our state, the Republic of Cyprus, only criminalised this in 2006 and the first punishment came only last year, thanks to our efforts as a party and the efforts of active citizens.”
“We know Turkey’s goal, which is the complete colonisation of the occupied areas and the continuation of the occupation,” he added.
“Today’s action is an important step to stop the engine.”
Asked to comment on an article in the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Volkan, the mouthpiece for the extremist ‘Grey Wolves’ in which he was described as a “traitor”, Karahan said: “This “is a badge of honour for me”.
“Of course, they are hurt because we are hurting their engine, hurting their pockets and damaging their plan to colonise Cyprus.”
So far, two Hungarian nationals have been handed prison sentences over the matter after admitting to promoting and advertising the sale of houses near Kyrenia on the internet.
Meanwhile, the case regarding Simon Aykut is ongoing, as is the case of a German national who reportedly spoke about selling property in the north to Elam MEP Geadis Geadi during a flight to Larnaca.
The Cyprus government says the arrests are not political but a protection of “basic human rights”.
President Nikos Christodoulides has insisted that the arrests “will certainly not stop, adding that “illegality cannot be justified in any way”, but also somewhat distanced himself from the arrests, insisting that “we do not interfere in the judiciary”.
On Thursday, Turkish Cypriot press reported that nine new arrest warrants had already been issued for “big names” in the Turkish Cypriot real-estate sector, though this has not been confirmed by the Cyprus government.
Both Star Cyprus and Dialog carried front-page stories that, at the request of the Republic of Cyprus, arrest warrants had been issued for nine Turkish Cypriots citing information from the Turkish Cypriot contractors’ association.
According to CNA, Star Cyprus published the initials of the nine individuals while Dialog wrote about “nine important Turkish Cypriot names”.
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