The House refugees committee on Tuesday discussed the creation of a new national fund to reimburse Greek Cypriots who lost access to their immovable property as a result of being displaced during or after Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974.

The plans had been brought to parliament by Disy, which submitted a bill on the matter to last week’s plenary session, with committee chairman and Akel MP Nikos Kettiros on Tuesday calling for the matter to be discussed and concluded as quickly as possible.

“The bill is being discussed in the first committee session of the new term so that we have time to discuss it and complete it as soon as possible so that no one suspects that this decision is being made to exploit the community of displaced persons in light of the pre-election period,” he said, referring to next year’s parliamentary elections.

He added that some people “may be justified” in believing that plans to create such a fund may be electoral expediency, because “both the current president [Nikos Christodoulides] and his predecessor [Nicos Anastasiades] had payments for the loss of use in their manifestos, but it was never done”.

He then turned to the matter of the new bill, and said, “I have the impression that we will move forward very quickly, because the government’s position, too, from the information I have, is that it will not resist it”.

Additionally, he made reference to the existing Immovable Property Commission (IPC), which was set up in the north in 2005 to handle claims for compensation, restitution of Greek Cypriot-owned property in the north and land exchanges, filed by Greek Cypriots who fled the north after 1974 and their descendants.

Those who have received compensation from the IPC, Kettiros said, will not be authorised to receive money from the new national fund.

“People who go to the Immovable Property Commission cannot come and request compensation for loss of use of properties in the occupied areas,” he said.

Disy MP Rita Superman said the planned national fund aims to “eliminate the injustice” suffered by those who lost properties in 1974, who she said are “de facto second-class citizens in Cyprus and in Europe”.

“Above all, it is a national issue, a matter of justice and morality. Today, the state’s fiscal conditions allow for the creation of this fund, and we ask for the cooperation and the consent of the government for the realisation of this goal,” she said.

Diko MP Zacharias Koulias, meanwhile, described the plan as an “interesting proposal”, before adding that “the burdens of the invasion were borne solely by the refugee community”.