In the 20-year-old case of Greek Cypriot Rodothea Karaviotou, acting on behalf of Antonakis Solomonides, who died 12 years ago, the ECtHR ruled that the owner of the property “was denied access to and control, use and enjoyment of his properties” and that the respondent had to pay 1.4 million euros as compensation for the plaintiff’s loss of use of property in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC). The amount the court decided was almost half what the IPC offered for Solomonides -- 2.18 million euros, the Anatolia news agency reported. Through the ruling, ECtHR automatically confirmed the method of calculation for the compensation of Greek Cypriot properties in the KKTC.
Solomonides requested 23 million euros to compensate for the loss of use of his properties of 343,295 square meters in Girne, Mağusa, Güzelyurt and Lefkoşa. The properties had a market value of 600,000 euros in 1974.
While the case was pending at the European court, the plaintiff applied to the IPC -- later the case was withdrawn – which then put his case in danger. Turkey requested that the ECtHR dismiss the case because the applicant was pleading the same case elsewhere. The court rejected the request, arguing that the issue had been raised after an application had already been declared admissible by the ECtHR.
