North Cyprus property dispute comes to London

ANGRY property buyers confronted officials at both the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus London Office and the UK Turkish Embassy last week, protesting at the lack of progress in the AGA Developments case.

The protest was organised by the AGA Buyers Action Group who say people have lost money in property developments in the Amaranta housing development near Arapkoy in North Cyprus.

The protesters met in Central London, at the Offices of the London TRNC Representative and formally handed in a letter to be passed on to new TRNC Prime Minister Dervis Eroglu. The group also leafleted shoppers in nearby Oxford Street warning of the perils of buying property in North Cyprus.

The group protested outside the Turkish Embassy and handed in a copy of their letter before travelling to Downing Street to hand in a third copy to the British Government.

The AGA Buyers Action Group are furious that they have handed over thousands of pounds for homes which have yet to be completed in North Cyprus and also at the lack of action since assurances that the homes would be finished.

One of the directors of the company building the development, Garry Robb, was stripped of his TRNC nationality, deported to the UK and arrested in January this year.

But the protestors say that millions of pounds worth of investment funds are missing and work to complete the development has stalled again amid a mess of legal actions.

A spokeswoman from the AGA Buyers Action Group said they would not give up until the homes are either completed or their money refunded.

“We won’t go away, we need to know what’s happened to this money and why court judgements in the TRNC have not been enforced. And this isn’t just about Garry Robb, there are two other Turkish Cypriot directors of AGA Developments. We simply want the money returned or our homes completed.”

 The protesters were even joined by a couple from the USA who also lost out and added their voice to the protests.

The letter handed in to the TRNC offices asked a number of searching questions including the disappearance of AGA Development assets seized by the TRNC government and why the other directors of the AGA Development company have not been prosecuted for their involvement in the property scandal.

Serap Destegul, the recently appointed TRNC Consul in London, confirmed that the protesters had been invited in to meet with her and she was presented with the letter for Prime Minister Eroglu.

MS Destegul said the matter had been extensively reported on and there were hopes that the building could resume on the AGA development.

She told London Turkish Gazette that the letter had been sent on to Mr Eroglu but added it was a matter for the TRNC government and that she could not comment further.
 

By Suzan Nuri and Fatih Cansiz - LondraGazete.com

16.08.2009