NICOSIA – Some 48 years after the unlawful invasion of Cyprus, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers urged Turkey to pay “just satisfaction” awarded by the European Court of Human Rights to relatives of nine Greek Cypriots who disappeared, said Kathimerini.

That call comes 12 ½ years after that finding that has been ignored by Turkey, whose hopes to join the European Union have been put on hold and which refuses to recognize Cyprus – a member of the bloc – and bars its ships and planes.

The EU court in September 2009 found Turkey violated the European Convention on Human Rights due to the failure of the Turkish authorities to conduct effective investigations into the fate of the people involved and the inhumane treatment of their relatives but nothing happened over it.

The Court ruled that Turkey was to pay a total of 108,000 euros ($117,871) in damages and 72,000 euros ($78,5810) in costs and expenses to the relatives by Dec 18, 2009 but didn’t, no further penalties either.

In an Interim Resolutions week, the Committee of Ministers said it was concerned over the loing delay that it said deprived the victims of compensation and violated international laws Turkey had signed onto.

The panel was so upset it said it would meet again in a year to think about it again and make another push although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long snubbed his nose at the EU and been allowed to do so.

Turkey seized the northern third of the island in two invasions in 1974 and it’s still occupied by Turkish-Cypriots, backed by a 35,000-strong standing Turkish army that Erdogan said would never be removed.