SEVERAL hundred mainly British and Turkish Cypriot protesters yesterday marched on the British High Commission, UN offices in the buffer zone and the EU Commission’s office in the north to voice their opposition to a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the Orams property case last April.

The ECJ ruling in April paved the way for EU courts to prosecute foreigners who purchase Greek Cypriot-owned land in the north. It remains however to be seen whether a British appeals court will be the first to follow the ECJ’s recommendation and uphold a Cypriot court’s ruling to prosecute British couple Linda and David Orams who are accused of trespassing on land belonging to Greek Cypriot Melitis Apostolides. The protesters hope to persuade the British court not to implement the ruling.

Apostolides and his family were forced to abandon their home in Lapithos when Turkey invaded in 1974. The Orams currently reside in a villa they built on Apostolides’ land.

Wearing black clothing under the baking sun and chanting pro-‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)’ and anti EU slogans, the protesters called on the EU, Britain and the UN to see property disputes in Cyprus as a political, rather than legal, issue.

They handed a petition, which they said has been signed by some 10,000 supporters, to representatives of the UK, EU and UN accusing the ECJ of “ignoring human rights” and undermining the bizonal framework of ongoing UN-sponsored negotiations on solving the Cyprus problem. The petition concluded with a warning that if the ECJ’s ruling was upheld by the UK Appeals Court later this year, it could result in the group asking the Turkish Cypriot leadership to pull out of current reunification negotiations.

“Under these circumstances, we are obliged to state categorically that if the ECJ ruling on the Orams case is carried forward, as a demonstration of solidarity we reserve the right to ask our president to reconsider our commitment to the negotiations and our relations with the EU,” the petition said.

Head of the Turkish Cypriot Estate Agents Association Hasan Sungur, who lent his support to yesterday’s demonstration, said the protest sent a clear message to the EU that “foreigners and Turkish Cypriots would stand together to oppose the ECJ ruling”.

Sungur and fellow agents have seen the north’s property industry driven into the dust by legal cases brought by Greek Cypriots angered at seeing their properties sold off to foreign holiday home buyers.

The current global recession has also meant that thousands of properties, mostly built on Greek Cypriots lands, remain empty. Sungur said however that his greatest worry was that legal rulings, such as the one from the ECJ, could “jeopardise forty years of UN-backed negotiations aimed at solving the Cyprus problem”.

Irish national and head of the Kyrenia American University’s (GAU) law department Shel Halek said he gave his full support to yesterday’s demonstration because he believed the ECJ’s ruling was “ultimately, fundamentally and significantly flawed”. He said also that the ruling served to undermine the bizonal framework already established as the basis for an agreement on how to resolve the Cyprus problem.

“The rights of Greek and Turkish Cypriot property owners are being dealt with through negotiations under the auspices of the UN. These negotiations are being hijacked a court ruling that is ultimately unfair,” he said.

It is expected that the UK’s appeals court verdict on the Orams case will be delivered in Autumn.