I was sorry to learn that Mr Tom Vella (The Sunday Times, May 8) had a panic attack in Northern Cyprus and a very negative experience in a hospital there. He was however mistaken to attribute his negative hospital experiences to the 'sanctions' on the north.
The sanctions are mainly on the export of agricultural products from properties that legally belong to Greek Cypriots, and on direct trading via ports and airports in the occupied north. Indeed there is now much greater freedom of movement of goods and people between the two parts of that divided island, often for export.
Turkish Cypriots have been leaving the island primarily because they have become a minority in their own country due to Turkey's policy of encouraging illegal migration of mainland settlers to the island, and giving them Greek Cypriot properties.
As Mr Vella's Turkish Cypriot friends must surely have indicated to him, there is a big cultural divide between them and Turkish settlers who are thoroughly resented. Turkish Cypriots also have the right, denied to them by their own TRNC "government", of obtaining Republic of Cyprus passports and thus free movement and settlement in the EU. Until very recently Turkish Cypriots risked imprisonment for treason and serious harassment by their own authorities if they dared disclose they had official Cypriot passports.
Mr Vella's experiences were unfortunate and he has our sympathy. But to attribute them to the sanctions is mistaken. He was in Girne (Kyrenia, to those who remember it by its Greek name), a lovely town, and he spent over eight hours waiting for treatment (I have no idea of comparable waiting times in Malta but is it unusual to wait for some four hours at St Luke's?).
On being told that he had to wait so long, he could have considered being taken to Nicosia, a mere 45-minute drive away, and obtain treatment in the Republic. There he could have presented an E111 form freely available to EU citizens for treatment. Indeed Turkish Cypriots obtain free medical treatment in the Republic of Cyprus as they are rightly considered citizens of Cyprus. I am surprised that his Turkish Cypriot friends did not suggest this.
It is unclear from Mr Vella's letter whether he entered Cyprus through the north (i.e. via Turkey) which is considered an illegal point of entry to Cyprus - in which case he could have been arrested or deported at the 'border', an unlikely scenario - or from the Republic. Visitors to Northern Cyprus via Turkey should be advised to have their entry stamped on a separate sheet of paper attached to their passports.
Immigration officials in the TRNC will not do so unless asked to. They are quite aware of the risks posed to visitors, but reason that any potential discomfiture (including arrest and/or deportation of third parties from Cyprus or Greece) will assist them in highlighting the anomalous situation there. (Perhaps a similar strategy over medical treatment was being played on the unfortunate, unsuspecting, Mr Vella? Why take him to a public Turkish hospital well known for their super-efficient medical care instead of to a private clinic of which there are many in Northern Cyprus?)
Visitors to Cyprus or Greece should thus be aware of the risks they face if they have TRNC entry stamps in their passports from previous or current visits there. The risks do not stop there. For example, any purchase by EU nationals of property (land and houses) in the north, illegally expropriated from their Greek Cypriot or (British and other) expatriate owners, risks prosecution by their original owners through EU courts. The owner can use new provisions under EU law that rulings in one member state (e.g. Cyprus) are enforceable in others to seek redress (eg. in a UK or Maltese court), including an order on the purchasers' home property to pay compensation to the original owner. Such cases are currently under way.
The owners are quite able at discovering who has illegally purchased their properties. They visit the north and pursue their investigations. Clearly, this is not enforceable against Russian mafia money now being laundered there through property purchases, as Russians are not EU citizens, but it does apply to EU nationals.
The same principle of restitution applies to antiquities, works of art, and icons looted from museums, private homes, and churches by the Turks. Indeed, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office cautions visitors to the TRNC on the health and safety problems in visiting a state that has no international recognition and under military occupation, and particularly on purchasing property there. It would be helpful if our Foreign Ministry did likewise.
The above points may be tangential to Mr Vella's letter, but I have mentioned them because they may interest readers and potential visitors to Northern Cyprus from Turkey, or even potential purchasers of property. They highlight the complex difficulties that arise out of the Turkish invasion and its (still) illegal occupation of Cyprus, the only member of the EU whose territory is occupied by an applicant country.
Thousands of ordinary people suffered as a result of the invasion (quite apart from those killed and missing) and Cypriots (both Greek and Turkish) are still suffering. Interested readers could be directed to a monograph I have written on the subject (Bodies of Evidence. Burial, Memory, and the Recovery of Missing Persons in Cyprus) just published by Berghahn Academic Books (Oxford and New York).
A solution will be reached when people on both sides feel that their rights (including restitution of stolen property, and return of their hidden killed relatives), and security can be respected. Mr Vella noted that he saw "people suffering in silence". I too have often noted that on my research visits to Northern Cyprus since 1985, and they too have my sympathy.
The tragedy is that the Turkish Cypriots have been silenced for some 30 years by a political regime that brooked no opposition and erased their lives, their hopes, and their future with the brutal support of the Turkish army. For example, this March the European Court of Human Rights (in Strasbourg) ruled that the 1996 murder of Turkish Cypriot Opposition journalist Kutlu Adali and its subsequent cover-up "did give some support" to his widow's claim that he had been murdered by state agents because of his work as a journalist, and awarded Mrs Adali €95,000 in damages and costs. His murderers have never been brought to justice because of army and mainland Turkey protection. Fortunately the Turkish Cypriots are now finding their voices. Many want the Turkish army and the settlers to leave.
Mr Vella is quite right in wishing for a just resolution to the Cyprus problem and I certainly join him in this sentiment.