Forty years after Turkey invaded northern Cyprus, and 20 years after Cyprus brought its case to the European Court of Human Rights over the invasion and continuing occupation, the court has ordered Turkey to pay €90 million in compensation.
The Strasbourg-based court, in its largest ever damages award, has belatedly put a price on a decision it took back in 2001 when it ruled that the invasion was illegal – the delay presumably reflected its awareness of the issue’s political sensitivity. The compensation relates to missing Greek Cypriots, the expropriated property of displaced people, and violations of other human rights.
Suggestions from Ankara that the judgment is not legally binding and that it does not need to pay represent a politically foolish and regrettable repudiation of Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights (“The . . . Parties undertake to abide by the final judgment of the Court in any case to which they are parties”). Its refusal, despite previous payment of a much smaller award to one Kyrenian plaintiff, could have consequences for Turkish membership of the Council of Europe and impact on its EU vocation.
The decision also represents an important precedent – cases over the Russian seizure of Crimea and its occupation of South Ossetia are certain to make their way to the court.
Turkey's invasion in 1974 followed an Athens-orchestrated coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece. Large numbers of the Greeks and Turks were displaced, losing family homesteads, and the island has been physically partitioned ever since. The northern administration, very much under the wing and continuing protection of Ankara, has been denied international recognition and the issue remains one of the critical barriers to Turkish EU accession. It has been subject of innumerable international initiatives – the latest round of peace talks resumed in February and US Vice-President Joe Biden is expected on the island next week to try to help the process.