User:ToZero/sandbox

NOte for EditorsItalic text The Article on Northern Cyprus is not strictly incorrect for the time-related information. However, times have changed in Northern Cyprus and over the past 8 years, since the Annan Plan was not ratified a number of factors have affected the economy, and should be added to or replace the economic data in the Economy Section. The entire economy of Northern Cyprus has suffered due to 2 main factors weighing down on the Foreign Home Buying/ Construction industry. The first is "stealth mortgages", which are mortgages placed on sites where villas have already been contractually sold to foreign home-buyers but who have subsequently not received their deeds due to slow administration processes. Those mortgages have often been given with full notice to the bank, of the existing pre-sold villas, and a number of Turkish Cypriot banks have registered their interest at the land registry in Kyrenia, having declared the collateral as "bare-land", and neglecting to mention the pre-sold villas. There is also sufficient evidence to show that Human Rights Violations have been claimed in Northern Cyprus especially by Expatriats living there who face eviction and blackmail, and who have suffered due to a lack of "freedom of press". The Cypriot banks and their owners, have considerable political interest due to the level of borrowing the TRNC government does, openly, and on a monthly basis, to bank-roll their public sector. There has also been a number of claims of influence by the banks over the judicial system. Finally, similar to the Orams Case, a new property abuse case has surfaced over the last 4 years, which is referred to as "Kulaksiz 5". This case is a landmark case and a household name throughout the TRNC as it looks to decide the fate of 17 British Expatriat Home Owners residing in Karsiyaka 18 miles west of Kyrenia, but ultimately, stands as a "Test" case for over 1500 property buyers who have discovered mortgages on their land, taken out without their knowledge or consent, and who were never informed by bank or borrower. In virtually all cases the loan has defaulted, and in some cases sale of memorandums have been granted by courts to the banks, in violation of the "Principles of Natural Justice" and those banks are actively pushing for Public Auction dates, to sell the whole site, including the 3rd Party villas of the Home-Buyers. KULAKSIZ 5 CASE (also known as "Kulaksiz 5" or "Kulaksiz") is residential site of holiday villas, in the KYrenia area of NOrth CYprus. The case is a set of court cases primarily defending against the residents eviction by Akfinans bank ( a local Turkish Cypriot bank) of the residents, but also as Claimants against Akfinans bank alleging Fraud and collusion to commit fraud. The case has been popularised all over Northern Cyprus, and has been brought to the attention of the House of Lords, by Lord Maginnis and other notable politicians. KULAKSIZ 5 SITE Kulaksiz 5 is the 5th Estate built by Kulaksiz Construction, and comprises of 13 villas built in 2004 and finished in 2005. 3 villas were given to the landowner in return for the land, and 10 were sold by the developer Kulaksiz Construction, to 10 elderly couples from the UK. During 2005 Akfinans Bank, gave a loan to the landowner as guarantor and developer as loan applicant. The initial loan was £1600, given on March 16th 2005, but no payments were ever made. A subsequent loan was made of 83000tl, on 11th November 2005, at a 250% interest rate. Neither the bank or the landowner, or the developer informed the homebuyers. The loan was registered by Akfinans at Girne District Lands Office on 11/11/2005, with the description of the land being "tarla", or bare land (in English) despite all the villas having been fully completed, and payments schedules also completed, barring the final payment for transfer of deeds. In 2006 Akfinans Bank filed a case for default judgement as a result of non-payment of the loan although at no point was any of the 3rd parties informed either by the courts or by the bank or the landowner or developer all of whom were party to the case. A judgement was finally given, and Judge Mehmet Turker allowed the two parties to agree the Judgement default interest between them. A figure of 80% quarterly compounded interest was agreed between the developer, the landowner and the bank, and the loan amount continued to increase. Finally, in 2008, the Estate Agency Law was brought into being allowing homeowners to register their contracts at the land registry, whilst they await transfer of title deeds. On arriving at the Land registry in April 2008, some residents and homeowners on Kulaksiz 5 were first informed of the presents of a mortgage on the site, 3 years after the mortgage had been granted. At first the residents consulted their lawyers who were initially confused, others were advised not to worry that the mortgage would be removed. In November of 2008 the residents were informed by a Junior Lawyer at Mentesh Law Office of Kyrenia that a court order was about to be given granting the sale of their properties, if they did not collectively pay off the mortgage at which time was over £113,000. The Kulaksiz 5 residents took further advice and in February 2009 launched a case against the Akfinans Bank, Yuksel Yilmaz the landowner, and Kulaksiz Construction the developer. Over the following 3 years, the local courts in Girne have rebutted numerous applications for an injunction to stop the bank evicting the homeowners, and injunctions to stop them selling on their properties. The courts gave the Kulaksiz home owners no relief, and the main case was set for a 18 months time. In the spring of 2009 a sale date was given for the Public Auction of all the houses in Karsiyaka, with the Notice of Sale itemising the houses and swimming pools, despite the fact the original loan document had only declared a "bare land". On June 6th 2010, the Nations eyes were focussed on Karsiyaka Square where over 400 British Expatriats and over 200 Turkish Cypriots turned out to witness the public auction of the estate. Founding President Rauf Denktas arrived before the proceedings and announced publicly that the Auction was illegal and would be declared so, and asked that no-one bid on the estate. Finally, a bid was made by an employee of AKfinans Bank. The bank purchased the site from Auction, as the buyer and the seller, and so needed only to pay for taxes and administration costs, and aquired the site of 13 villas worth over £1.3 million based on their initial loan of 83000tl (approx £38000). Over the following 3 years, the legal team for the Kulaksiz 5 lodged an early appeal to the European Court of Human Rights siting violation of Article 1, 6, 13 and Article one of Protocol 1. Despite a nationwide campaign to explain the legal facts to both the Government and the public, the Kulaksiz 5 eviction cases have proceeded. The next hearing on the 28th September 2012 will decide whether or not to stay the evictions, pending the outcome of the Kulaksiz 5 owners case against the bank. Whilst in most countries, it is unheard of for courts to allow evictions to take place, before the outcome of a main case disputing the true ownership, in this case, the TRNC courts have stated that evictions can take place before the main case has been heard. Rauf Denktas, before his death claimed that the Kulaksiz 5 case was a case of negligence by the bank, or Fraud, one or the other, and officially reqeusted an investigation by the Attorney Generals office. The Kulaksiz 5 residents also made a request for an investigation but to date no investigation has ever been carried out. The case will decide the fate of over 1500 homeowners, who purchase their homes prior to any mortgage, but where that mortgage has become the over-riding interest with the possability of leading to sale and eviction. ToZero (talk) 10:57, 14 September 2012 (UTC) Todays Zaman a mainland Turkish Newspaper began writing about the tragedy of the British residents of Kulaksiz[1] On the 30th April 2012 the Afrika Gazette published factual documents of the case[2], most specifically the "Akfinans Survey Report" which was a revelation to the entire country, as it proved beyond doubt that the bank were aware of the 17 homebuyers, as their houses (although Partially built) were indeed detailed on the survey report. Akfinans had claimed on their Land Registry documents at the time of registering the mortgage, that the collateral was just "a bare field". The following Newspapers in Turkey: Hurriyet [3] & Todays Zaman have informed the Turkish public of the story of Kulaksiz The following Newspapers in TRNC: Cyprus Today, Cyprus Star, Afrika Gazette, have written extensively on the problem. All of the articles can be provided as sources if necessary. The Kulaksiz 5 Site Case, is the key "test" case for over 3000 foreign homebuyers in the TRNC, who bought homes, and suddenly found themselves the victims of blackmail and stealth mortgages. This blackmail, in turn, is vitally important to explain the sharp downturn in the economy of the TRNC between 2007 and 2012, as the primary rise in living standards in the TRNC was due to an influx of retired European Homebuyers, and the subsequent collapse of so many restaurants, supermarkets and local businesses, is due to those Foreign Homebuyers returning home, as a result of blackmail, stealth mortgages and inability to obtain title deeds. A group(NGO)began lobbying for all residents who live with the threat of eviction, and finally made a short film to highlight just how injust the situation had become[4] The Kulaksiz 5 Residents have attended over 100 hearings and court appearances, and have continue to fight to remain in homes they already purchased once[5] CONSENSUS: The consensus of the problem can be found in the following articles on NorthCyprusFreePress who applied to have the page edited on the 6th October. The following reference is a list of search results all relating to different NCFP articles on the subject. A substantial percentage of the articles site/quote the above national newspaper, and make comment and analysis on the subject. Consensus 1: [3] Further consensus can be found through the website which documents and follows the Kulaksiz Case. The site is included in the reference below: Consensus 2: [4] In addition the NGO Make North Cyprus Better (MNCB), has a number of updates, including judgments regarding the case and comment and analysis of regarding the incredible injustices to Kulaksiz residents and other sites. Most importantly, they sponsored the production of a film, which highlights the problems to all North Cypriot Home-buyers, using the Kulaksiz 5 Case as the central case study. All facts and documents regarding the history are included in the short film (26 mins) The film can be seen on the MNCB website: www.kkg2011.com Consensus 3: [5] BELOW ARE NOTES FROM THE TALK PAGE IN RELATION TO THE EDIT REQUEST: Italic text Today I have provided references and sited a number of sources of consensus on the subject below. I respectfully request that the page be Edited to at least mention the devastating effect of Kulaksiz 5 Residents plight, the extent to which thousands of home buyers are relying on the case to be won by Kulaksiz 5 residents, and the affect on the real economy in TRNC as a result of property and mortgage crimes/abuses by banks, lawyers and the government alike. End of Request — Preceding unsigned comment added by ToZero (talk • contribs) 7 November 2012 Please see this page for the Wikipedia definition of "consensus". I will leave this edit request open for others to weigh in. —KuyaBriBriTalk 19:28, 7 November 2012 (UTC) Agreed with above. Looks there are sources now, but consensus can only be generated by discussion here and agreement by Wikipedia editors. That said, I think the amount of text above is probably undue weight for the subject, so I would not support the change in its current form. —C.Fred (talk) 02:01, 8 November 2012 (UTC) I agree with the undue weight concern, but I think that the info is very important. Two months ago I spent 2 weeks in North Cyprus, and I noticed that along the coast there are literally thousands of newly built houses which are empty. Reading what the user above wrote, I think that at least one reason for this situation is now clear (the other being the financial crisis), and surely this problem deserves to be mentioned (with the due weight) in the article. Alex2006 (talk) 06:56, 8 November 2012 (UTC)