THE PROPERTY ISSUE IN THE CYPRUS NEGOTIATIONS

The property issue has obviously a great political significance: how the rights to properties and housing are to be resolved is regarded by the two Cypriot sides as a major factor that will predetermine the meaning of bizonaUty, ostensibly a universally accepted principle for a Cyprus settlemenl. This seems to be what makes the property issue one of the most contentious aspects of the Cyprus conflict Now, it has been a common complaint that the Annan Plan\\'s property regime was, apart from being extremely complex, widely divergent from either community\\'s demands and from what had been argued for by their leadership during the preceding negotiations. The implication was that it contained arrangements that were largely unforeseen. An even more widespread criticism, linked with the first one, has been that the Plan was a product of \\'extemal forees\\', by means of which they hoped to impose their own \\'solution\\' on the Cypriots.