Claims that Varosha/Maraş is Evkaf property are untrue, Doğuş Derya, member of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) has said.
Speaking at the assembly on Thursday, she said that the principle of prescription was valid even in religious law. The prescription period for the Evkaf properties in the TRNC was 36 years she said.
Derya recalled that the late Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktaş had committed himself to return Varosha to its former owners.
[In July 1978, Rauf Denktaş, four years after Turkey’s military intervention in Cyprus and under pressure from the US arms embargo on Turkey, offered to return 35,000 housing units in Varosha as an act of goodwill because he wanted to start peace negotiations in return. The Greek Cypriot side rejected the proposal. The suggestion was presented in the morning, Greek Cypriot leader Spyros Kyprianou refused the offer in his speech at a rally held that evening. Ed.]
Derya accused the Evkaf of failing to allow independent researchers access to the Evkaf’s archives thus preventing the truth to come to light.
