A British Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday that a decision by a Cypriot court, in connection with claims relating to Greek Cypriot owned property in Cyprus’ northern Turkish occupied areas, must be executed. The British Court’s decision was issued in the case of Apostolides v Orams, in which Greek Cypriot Meletis Apostolides took the Orams couple to court, claiming his property rights over his property in the occupied areas where the Orams had built, illegally, their holiday home.

The Cypriot court had ordered the Orams to compensate financially Apostolides, demolish their holiday home which they had built in his property in the Turkish occupied village of Lapithos, halt all intervention on the said property and deliver it to its legal owner. The British Court of Appeal declared that this judgement must be implemented.

Apostolides, in an initial reaction, said he was pleased, adding that today’s ruling was “a vindication of the institutions and the values of the European Union.” He also noted that the judgment relates to all the aspects of the property issue, one of the main parameters of the question of Cyprus, which has been divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion.

Apostolides’ lawyer, Constantinos Kantounas, said the Court of Appeal ruling was “final and there is no right to appeal against it.”