The Greek parliament will be presented with a bill later this month which if passed will allow for title deeds to be issued to some of the refugees who came from Asia Minor in 1922. The bill will provide people who have encroached on state land with the opportunity to buy the land at a fair price but under strict conditions.
A senior source in Greece’s ministry of finance told Kathimerini newspaper that the bill would deliver title deeds to the actual owner/occupiers of properties in 28 prefectures and help resolve decades’ old land problems which successive Greek governments had tried to settle through bills that never made it through Parliament.
The new bill will cover properties that were used to house the thousands of refugees who came from Asia Minor. The properties are considered to be owned by the Greek state and the bill seeks to pass the title deeds to the people holding the properties. One of the conditions set out in the bill is believed to be that only people who had lived in or used the property for at least 50 years can lay claim to the property.
The finance ministry source told the the newspaper that all aspects of the bill had been examined in detail to ensure that it would comply with the requirements of the Greek constitution. The justice ministry and the Council of State gave their approval for its submission before parliament.
The source told Kathimerini that the aim of the bill was to correct social injustices and ultimately resolve conflicts and claims on the properties that had arisen over many years.
The bill will also serve to boost state finances, provide an efficient protection for common-use land and lift a burden the state has carried for many years.
