Property companies operating in the Turkish occupied and military controlled north area of the Republic of Cyprus have been banned from exhibitions in some Scandinavian countries after protests by Greek Cypriot developers, Overseas Property Professional magazine has reported.

The report said the Turkish Cypriot developers had been banned from a host of exhibitions across Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland following complaints from Greek Cypriot companies. The decision was purely commercial, according to event organisers Fair Media, which feared that Greek Cypriot developers would withdraw from the exhibitions.

“At a previous show in Norway, we had sold stand space to someone with a Turkish billing address and assumed that this was a Turkish developer coming to the show” said Sven Kallstrom, Chairman of Fair Media. “It was in fact a Turkish company from the northern occupied area of Cyprus and halfway through the show, a collective group of representatives from Pafilia, Aristo, Leptos and other Cypriot developers from the northern [free] Cyprus government controlled area, came over and asked us to remove the company from the exhibition. For me it was fine to have them there and I hadn’t 100% decided on a policy for this situation, but they threatened to boycott any future events. I am losing money on ignoring legitimate Cypriot companies now and we are getting a lot more enquiries, but I would lose even more money if I allowed them in so we have made our decision”.

The article also quotes Russell Price, Managing Director of Property International, a company in the occupied north as saying he understood the decision. “At the end of the day, the exhibition company has made a commercial decision and I respect that” he said. “I don’t necessarily disagree with companies that sell a range of title in Turkish occupied and military controlled north area of the Republic of Cyprus. However, we only sell pre-1974 titles so this isn’t fair on companies such as ours that wish to  sell property in the occupied north of Cyprus to international buyers”.

Another representative of the same company said “This practice of judge and jury is giving south Cypriot developers an unfair advantage and misinforming the public. There is a strong demand for property in the Turkish occupied and military controlled north area of the Republic of Cyprus, which is 50 per cent cheaper than the south”.

The Republic of Cyprus has been divided since July 1974, when Turkey invaded Cyprus and since then occupies the north area of the Republic. The south area of Cyprus, controlled by the Greek Cypriot Government is internationally recognized, while the occupied north area is currently under Turkish military control and recognized only by Ankara.

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