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Update on the Cyprus section of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) website: a welcome move - 02 July 2009

London based human rights group Embargoed! visited the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office this week to present an open letter on the Cyprus property situation.

It is widely accepted that there are a staggering 100,000 property owners in the Republic of Cyprus [RoC] who, despite paying for their properties, have not yet received the Title Deeds relating to the land. Of these, 30,000 are estimated to be British investors. This Title Deeds scandal has received extensive condemnation by the domestic Cypriot and International media over their government's handling of the situation.

After the FCO highlighted the risks to buying property in North Cyprus, which are based on unresolved political issues on the island, they have finally highlighted the risks to buying in the South of the island after the RoC government and courts have allowed the monstrous shenanigans to occur without recompense for persons who have lost their life savings and are now warning British citizens from against purchasing property there. It is a reflection of the change for which the London-based human rights group Embargoed! has been lobbying so intensely.

Embargoed! Secretary Emel Djevdet said "Embargoed! welcomes the FCO's decision to amend its section on Cyprus which now, though a little convoluted, provides a more accurate and fair reflection of the situation. We are concerned that many of the property buyers who have not received Title Deeds from the Republic of Cyprus may have built on what was formerly Turkish Cypriot land. The Title Deeds scandal reveals another layer of the RoC government's reckless actions relating to property issues on the island where the Orams case is considered, which Embargoed! believes can only equitably resolved through negotiated agreement for a long lasting peace and prosperity on the island and the region and not through the Court rooms of the RoC or other EU member states.


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