CASE OF LOIZIDOU v. TURKEY (ARTICLE 50)
Pecuniary damage - financial award;Non-pecuniary damage - financial award;Costs and expenses award - Convention proceedings;Costs and expenses - claim dismissed
John Freeland;R. Pekkanen
12. The applicant, a Cypriot national, grew up in Kyrenia in northern Cyprus. In 1972 she married and moved with her husband to Nicosia. 13. She is the owner of plots of land nos. 4609, 4610, 4618, 4619, 4748, 4884, 5002, 5004, 5386 and 5390 in Kyrenia. Prior to the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus on 20 July 1974, work had commenced on plot no. 5390 for the construction of a block of flats, one of which was intended as a home for her family. The applicant had entered into an agreement with the property developer to exchange her share in the land for an apartment of 100 sq. m. Her ownership of the properties is attested by certificates of registration issued by the Cypriot Lands and Surveys Department at the moment of acquisition. 14. Since 1974 the applicant has been prevented from gaining access to her properties in northern Cyprus and “peacefully enjoying” them as a result of the presence of Turkish forces there. 15. On 19 March 1989 the applicant participated in a march organised by a women’s group (“Women Walk Home” movement) in the village of Lymbia near the Turkish village of Akıncılar in the occupied area of northern Cyprus. The aim of the march was to assert the right of Greek Cypriot refugees to return to their homes. Leading a group of fifty marchers she advanced up a hill towards the Church of the Holy Cross in the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus passing the United Nations' guard post on the way. When they reached the churchyard they were surrounded by Turkish soldiers and prevented from moving any further. She was detained by the Turkish Cypriot police for a period of ten hours and subsequently released.