Sevil Erkuş ANKARA
Turkey will not pay a fine imposed on the country by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the Turkish military’s 1974 intervention in Cyprus, officials in Ankara 
have announced.
“In terms of the grounds for this ruling, its method and the fact that it is considering a country that Turkey does not recognize as a counterpart, we see no necessity to make this payment,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said at a press conference on May 13.
The ECHR’s ruling consists of some “legal contradictions” and therefore Turkey does not see it at as binding in terms of payment, he said.
No court can force Turkey to pay a penalty to a state – Greek Cyprus – that it does not recognize, the minister said. “The court has exceeded its authority in intervening into a state-to-state problem.”
Turkey previously refused to pay similar penalties on the ECHR’s Cyprus rulings over individual applications by Greek Cypriots, Turkish diplomatic sources said, also referring to a separate ECHR ruling that Russia did not carry out.
In this case, the Council of Europe Ministers Committee could issue a condemnation against Turkey for implementing the ECHR order.
Ankara will inform ECHR about its decision to not pay the fine, outlining its reasons, according to sources.
In its ruling on a lawsuit filed by Greek Cyprus in 1994, the ECHR found Turkey guilty on May 12 of violating European human rights agreements, stating that the whereabouts of 1,491 Greek Cypriots was still unknown and that 211,000 Greek Cypriots were forced from their homes after Turkey’s intervention in Cyprus in 1974. The ECHR ordered Turkey to pay 30 million euros to be distributed to the living relatives of the missing people, while it said 60 million euros in damages should be paid for “the enclaved Greek-Cypriot residents of the Karpas peninsula.”
Davutoğlu described the timing of the ruling as “not well-intentioned.”
“The ECHR should rule on all the missing people cases, including the Turks in Turkish Cyprus,” he said.