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The Loizidou case reminded me of the following:

On 21 December 1963, to save their lives from the Greek Cypriot attacks on Kucuk Kaymakli and other Turkish areas, my deceased mother and father (both were retired teachers) left their home in fear in the Yenisehir area, which was then known as 18 Tepelenli Street (the building which is now the VIVA Floristry on the current Ataturk Avenue) and took shelter in their son’s house in Kumsal, my brother Sermet Tatar, who is now deceased.

They felt bad about abandoning their own house in Nicosia and being forced to become refugees. They lost everything they had. My deceased mother even had to leave her jewellery behind. When they realised that they would not be able to go back soon, they rented a small house in Nicosia for 10 Cyprus Pounds per month. My father’s pension was 25 Cyprus Pounds. He had no other income. There was no more income even from his village, Poli.

When I tried to comfort my father by saying, "Don’t worry, we will support you", he would always say, "You can’t understand my son, I want to live and die in my own house".

Sadly, he also did not receive any attention from the Turkish Communal Chamber. My deceased father’s complaint was the following: "I was kicked out of my own house and forced to live in a rented house. Lawyer Mithat Berberoglu, who used to rent a house in our area, moved to an Armenian house in Koskluciftlik and was living there without paying any rent. Was this justice? Shouldn’t rent have been collected from them so as to help those who were in my situation?"

Desperately, through the UN authorities, I sent a note to Antoniu, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior of the Greek Cypriot administration (whom I had known from the period of the Republic of Cyprus Audit Court) and requested his help in the name of humanity. I informed him about my parents anguish and made the following proposal:

"My mother and father are elderly people. They want to live and die in their own house. I request your help in granting them permission to return to their home on the condition that they obey all rules outlined by the unit of the Greek Cypriot National Guard Army (the unit which occupied the current police station in Yenisehir at that time)".

Antoniou’s reply was this:

"Mr.Tatar, I’m sorry, strategically it is a critical place, permission cannot be given. They can return to their home after a solution has been found to the Cyprus problem".

I didn’t tell this to my father, I tried to comfort him, but his suffering and pain never ended.

And finally, he passed away from a sudden heart attack on 5 September 1970 while we were sitting in the garden with our family. He took his pain and suffering with him.

Our ruined house in Yenisehir, which was saved after the 1974 Peace Operation, was repaired by our state and given back to us, and my now deceased mother moved back to her house after 11 years. However, as an old woman whose heart was full of pain, she could not forget her bitter experiences. She passed away in 1989.

"The mentality that awarded Loizidou 1 million US Dollars in compensation for not being able to use her house after 1974 and forcefully compelled Turkey to pay this amount"…Don’t the hundreds of Turkish Cypriots who also experienced the same compulsory migration deprivation during the 1963-1974 period and who except for the meager financial support they receive from Turkey are obliged to live under severe physical and mental conditions, also deserve the right to be compensated?

Isn’t the assessment of "the conditions for being a migrant", which was the result of a political problem that began with the Greek Cypriots attempt to destroy the Republic of Cyprus on 21 December 1963, different from what it was before and after 1974, and evaluated in such a way so that it is against the Turkish side, a reason for anxiety with regard to our future on this island within the European community, which Turkey is not a full member of? Will it be possible to avoid double standards being adopted against us?