Is it time to set up a charity for TRNC property victims?

At last a chink of light for the beleaguered Kulaksiz 5, a very small chink, hardly visible to the naked eye. For the first time a legal decision that wasn’t an absolute NO has been handed down. It would be so easy to grab at this as a life buoy but common sense and experience tells us the fight will continue.

In Akfinans Bank Limited we have an adversary who will fight us with everything it has, and let’s be honest, their resources, their financial resources make our meagre fund look pathetic. That right is on our side, I have no doubt but I also am a realist; being right is not always enough. Life is littered with those who were right but who ended up the losers.

We have to prepare for the fact that Kulaksiz 5 could find themselves homeless and penniless. I have been thinking about this a lot of late. Should we for instance put the International Red Cross or the Red Crescent on notice that we may shortly be needing their assistance? The spectre of people aged 63 to 88 living in tents is not a pretty one;, dependent on charities for a roof over their heads. If Akfinans Bank Limited are allowed to do this then other Banks will follow. We could have a village of tents springing up, or will the Government take the easy option and deport their victims? There is always a chance that without sufficient means to support themselves, Kulaksiz 5 purchasers will find themselves deported when their temporary residence renewals’ are refused. It has happened before.

It was suggested in a letter to Cyprus Today, that alongside the collection tins for other deserving cases, there should be a collection tin for the victims of the Property Scams, because in the not too distant future, theses victims will need aid. You see I am not the only one thinking along these lines. I know that it is illegal for non-citizens to collect for charity in the TRNC but perhaps citizens would help? Perhaps a UK-based charity could be set up and advertised in the TRNC media, both English and Turkish language. Fund-raising could be via a UK-based website and money collected using PayPal?

Those of you reading this may think I am being fanciful. I assure you I am not. None of us believed that the mortgages put on our properties by unscrupulous builders/landowners after we have Contracted to buy and paid for our homes would be ratified in law. We all believed that a legal challenge would have the charges on our homes made null and void. Quite the reverse happened, we were told the mortgages were legal.

We all believed that the Government would not sit back and watch our homes be sold from under us to satisfy a debt that was not ours; they did. We all believed that the Bank would not be allowed to, arbitrarily and without legal sanction, break into homes and illegally repossess them. You have all seen the backside of someone going into Eva Mcluskey’s villa and have read about the break in and attempted assault on Mr Smith with a motor vehicle. No-one would have believed this could happen in the 21st century. Not only did the Bank carry out these illegal actions, they got away with it. Where does the blame lie for that?

This week the Bank were thwarted when they tried the same tactics on yet another villa in Demokrasi Sokak. This time right prevailed. The reason, apparently, was that there was more furniture in this villa. There was furniture in Eva Mcluskey’s villa; admittedly not much. There was a sunbed on the roof terrace of my villa. The hob in the kitchen is mine, bought and paid for two years after I moved into my villa. Some clothes were still in there, some blankets and other items, heaven only knows what happened to them. My villa was fully secured against intruders.

Why then would it be such a stretch to believe that helpless, frail, vulnerable and terrorised pensioners would be thrown out on to the streets with their belongs at their feet? We have exhausted our financial resources, the kitty is empty. Some have had to borrow from friends and family to get this far in our legal battle. We are decent ordinary folk,, we never thought we would need charity. During our working lives we set aside money and saved it for our old age. Having paid for our homes, we had enough put by to provide for a comfortable, but certainly not luxurious, old age. We never thought to be a burden on the state, our families or friends. We are the generation who believed charity is there for the less fortunate, we never in our wildest dreams believed we would be amongst their number.

If Justice is not to found in the TRNC then as you all know we have our case with ECHR. The wheels of Justice turn exceedingly slowly so how many of us will be alive to see Justice done?

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