A group of home owners in Esentepe have discovered that, despite assurances given to their solicitor, Koop bank is to auction off their homes. In desperation they wrote an open letter to President Akıncı and Prime Minister Özgürgün in the hope that they will intervene.
It reads as follows:
A desperate plea for help.
President and Prime Minister of North Cyprus, we write to beg you to save our homes which are under attack.
Thirteen years ago we bought homes in Olive Grove, Esentepe, North Cyprus. We paid for them, registered our deeds and lived peacefully.
We are devastated to discover that Koop bank, which your government manages, will auction our homes Olive Grove on 16th April!
This is because Koop bank granted a builder a mortgage on our homes AFTER we paid for our homes and were living in them.
President Akıncı and Prime Minister Özgürgün, you oversee a bank which is ripping innocent families out of their homes for no reason. It will see elderly and frail British and Irish pensioners homeless and out on the street because they trusted the government of Northern Cyprus and made it their home. In court the bank claimed the site was Tarla, an empty field, when it is 31 homes.
Our desperate plea is that you ask your bank to delay the auction on 16th April so the matter can be investigated.
The board of your bank told our solicitor Emine Colak at the start of March “The Bank has absolutely no intention of harassing, victimising or …causing any loss … because of the bank’s dispute with the builder.” Now, a few weeks later they quietly announce the auction of our homes without notification.
If the auction goes ahead, Northern Cyprus will be known as one of the most dangerous places in the world to buy a home since, even more than 10 years later, the Government bank can auction off their home without their knowledge.
Please, please, please accept our desperate pleas to intervene and stop this auction.