Cyprus-Forum.com

[paliometoxo]

Church taking Turkey to European Rights Court




By Philippos Stylianou


THE Church of Cyprus is going ahead with a decision to take Turkey to the European Court of Human Rights over its continuing refusal to allow access to the Christian Orthodox places of worship in the occupied areas belonging to it.

The application when launched, will be the most massive faced by Turkey since invading the island in 1974, as more than 500 churches and monasteries have been looted, desecrated, destroyed and alienated from their refugee congregations.

"We are in the process of setting up a team of legal and other experts and we are meeting next week to lay the groundwork for the action at Strasbourg," Archbishop Chrysostomos told The Cyprus Weekly in an exclusive interview yesterday and added:

"It will be a dual claim both for being prevented by the occupation army to repair and restore our churches and for being deprived of our right to practise our religion in those churches."

He, nevertheless, said that the application could be withdrawn if Turkey changed its policy and allowed access to the occupied Orthodox places of worship.

The European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols, implemented by the Strasbourg – based European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), protects amongst other the right to religious freedom and the peaceful enjoyment of one’s possessions, while outlawing overall discrimination on religious grounds for the parties to the Convention.

Violation

The ECHR has repeatedly found Turkey in violation of property rights of Cypriot refugees and made to pay on one occasion alone compensation close to £800,000.

"We have realised that the Turks want to uproot everything that is Greek, everything that is Christian in the occupied areas. Well, we shall not accept this.

“The Church of Cyprus cannot accept the prevailing situation of not being able to restore and maintain its churches in the occupied part and celebrate mass there. These are our churches from which we have been forcibly expelled, as the inhabitants have been expelled from their homes and properties," the Archbishop said.

He noted that in the Karpass, where there are few Christians left, there is only one priest for all the villages and parishes as far as Apostolos Andreas, yet the occupation authorities would not allow the Church to send more priests.

He stressed that the Church would not only claim the abandoned churches back but also those, which have been converted into mosques. "If they want more mosques, let them build their own," the Head of the Cyprus Church said.

Asked what prompted the decision to apply to the ECHR, Archbishop Chrysostomos said that the Cyprus Church was disappointed at a rapprochement attempt with Turkish Cypriot religious leader Ahmed Yonluer on the initiative of visiting President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly Rene van der Linden in February last year.

Delaying

"When I raised the question of restoring the churches in the occupied areas," he said: "Yonluer proposed that we restore one church there and one mosque in the free part of the island at a time.

"I pointed out that all mosques in the government-controlled areas had been fully restored and invited Yonluer to name me one that had not, so that we may repair it immediately on our expense.

He still insisted on one church to one mosque and I then said that even if the mosques had not been repaired, it would take half a millennium to restore all the churches, since there were more than 500 of them in the occupied areas, while there weren’t enough mosques to go round. It was obvious they were simply following delaying tactics and had no intention of restoring the occupied churches."

The saddest thing, the Archbishop remarked, was that Rene van der Linden, present at the meeting, did not intervene once to ask if the mosques had really been restored and what the Turkish Cypriot religious leader had to say about that.

On the other hand, the Cypriot Primate noted that in his various contacts in Europe since taking office he was encouraged to take compelling action against Turkey for the restoration of the occupied churches.

In response to another question if the recourse to Strasbourg meant that the Cyprus Church would abandon efforts to come to an understanding on the issue, Chrysostomos said:

"If they show that the have the good will – which I believe they don’t – we are open to a serious and positive commitment. But the application to Strasbourg will continue unless they let us go and repair our churches. If that happens, we might withdraw the application."

Coinciding

The launch of the complaint against Turkey is scheduled to coincide with the establishment of an official delegation of the Church of Cyprus in Brussels, the Archbishop said. The delegation is expected to assist the attorneys who will present the case of the Church at the ECHR.

The Church Delegation will be housed in the former four-storey building of the Permanent Delegation of Cyprus to the EU, which it has bought. According to Archbishop Chysostomos, the final contract will be signed soon.

Regarding the staffing of the Delegation, he said that it would be headed by Suffragan Bishop Porfyrios, an academically qualified member of the Church, assisted by another cleric and four laymen.

Following next week’s meeting with the legal team, Archbishop Chrysostomos will make an official announcement and give out the names of the lawyers who will represent the Church at Strasbourg.

[phoenix]

Heartfelt good wishes to the Church for taking these steps to protect its property and our heritage.

Absolutely disgraceful behaviour by the Turk-TCs to show such total disregard, but sadly only expected, after all the other similar things they have done in the past, and continue to do.

Maybe highlighting this plight in the European Courts will seal the support we deserve from any few remaining countries that still harbour reservations about how truly destructive the Turks are as aggressive neighbours to us on the boundaries of Europe.

[RAFAELLA]

This action should have been taken years ago but as we say it's never too late. Turks should be ashamed of themselves for the situation of our occupied churches.

Cyprus Church launches protest campaign for occupied sites

The Church of Cyprus is protesting strongly the continuing plundering of religious sites, in the Turkish- occupied northern part of the country, condemning the ongoing desecration of Christian churches, some of which have been converted to mosques, military camps, hen houses, mortuaries or silos.

As experts record the overall looting campaign in the past three decades, since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, with about 550 churches desecrated, between 15-20,000 icons missing, believed to be stolen or sold on the black market, a well orchestrated and concerted effort is underway to protest at all international fora this situation.

“We have embarked on a crusade to inform world public opinion through every available means - lectures, literary material, personal contacts, diplomatic channels - presenting indisputable evidence which has been corroborated through careful and professional research carried out on the matter,” Charalambos Hotzakoglu, archaeologist by profession and an expert in Byzantine art working for the museum of the Kykko Monastery, has told CNA in an interview.

He said the goal is to save these religious sites, a task vehemently opposed by the Turkish side which claims that all sites now belong to the Moslem religious foundation EVKAF.

Researchers of the Kykko Monastery, who have visited and photographed some 550 churches in occupied Cyprus, say that 50 of them are now military camps - the church of Virgin Mary Axeropiitou in Lambousa village, Agios Panteleimonas in Mirtou village, the church and monastery of Agia Anastasia in Lapithos village is now a luxury hotel complex, the monastery of Agios Panteleimonas is used as a fuel depot and the church of Sotiros in Chrysiliou village in Morphou district now serves as a mortuary.

“The sight is shocking with bodies lying on the holy altar, it was a hair raising experience for me to have witnessed such practices in a Christian church,” Hotzakoglu said, stressing the need to begin restoring these churches, having established beyond any reasonable doubt and with convincing evidence the scale of the destruction.

Another church, that of Agios Georgios Exorinos in Famagusta is now a theatre and the church of Agios Loukas in Lapithos village has been turned into a dance studio.

“Having all this in mind, it is imperative that we move quickly to restore our churches and to this effect we have already asked the help of experts from abroad, including informing Pope Benedict XVI to whom President Tassos Papadopoulos has given a three-volume publication recording the obliteration of our religious heritage, pointing out at the same time that this matter does not concern Orthodoxy alone but other religious denominations too,” Hotzakoglu told CNA.

There can be little doubt as to who is responsible for this unscrupulous looting, which is none other than the occupying power Turkey that nurtures aspirations to join the European Union where respect of religious and other human rights is a prerequisite for accession, he points out.

Initial indications from the occupation regime to UN calls to help restore the Christian churches and other religious sites has been “steadfastly negative,” he says with regret.

Responding to questions, he said should restoration work begin, with the consent of the occupation regime, an agreement must be reached to ensure that this project is carried through on the basis of certain principles and safeguards.

“We have no intention of channeling millions of pounds to the occupied areas towards this goal, only to find out at a later stage that the occupation regime turns round to claim these sites as theirs or to see them used according to their whims,” he added, stressing that the leadership of the Turkish Cypriots must acknowledge the ownership and sovereignty of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, which is an autocephalous church enjoying special privileges other churches in Christian Orthodoxy do not.

The Byzantine experts said that the survey has established that what the regime describes as “well maintained” churches is in fact churches which have been turned into museums, to serve the tourist industry, whereas other churches now used as mosques, Moslem places of worship, are kept in good working order as far as the actual building is concerned.

On the big issue of illicit art dealing of religious arte facts from the occupied areas, Hotzakoglu said there is a well organized attempt by the Turkish military to remove from churches priceless frescoes and icons, many of which find their way to black markets abroad.

He said once a theft is reported, we have to locate the stolen items and begin a legal battle to prove, if need be, that these belong to the Church of Cyprus and eventually repatriate these items.

Such religious arte facts have been found in the possession of a Turkish illicit art dealer Aydin Dikmen and were eventually located in a Texas museum, which now have to be repartriated.

Another case concerned the return, after lengthy legal proceedings, of four mosaics from the church of the Virgin Mary tis Kanakarias in the village of Lythrangomi, dating back to 520-530 AD, found in the possession of an American art dealer.

Replying to questions about mosques in the government-controlled areas of the Republic, he said there is a restoration project, drafted on the basis of respect of religious freedom. He pointed out that Ankara has to follow suit and act in a similar manner.

“We are not politicians, we want to resolve this religious issue that concerns the cultural heritage and we are ready to overcome the past. If they feel they belong to this land, as they say they do, they ought to move on through cooperation with us,” he said.

He explained that restoration work can only proceed once archaeological studies are carried out, statistical surveys and plans, including costs.

Hotzakoglu said that one of the problems the researchers team had to face was the absence of a proper list of churches, temples, monasteries, small and big, as they existed prior to the Turkish invasion. A huge effort was undertaken to recover this information, corroborate it and record it, he explained, adding that photographs taken from occupied churches have now been matched with the corresponding church they belong to.

“At present we are working on a multi-language publication, aimed at the public at large and not the specialist expert, outlining the research we have carried out and once this is done then we shall publish a multi-volume publication to include photographic material and all date we have collected relating to this ambitious research,” he concluded.
CNA AAG/MM/GP/2007

http://www.cna.org.cy/website/english/subject1.shtm#ekl
Click on the link to see the photos of the church that was turned into mortuary by the Turks, the church that was turned into stable etc.


The church of the occupied Ag. Amvrosios village.
Once used to be a holy place, today a stable.

"We cannot turn a blind eye to the destruction of churches or other religious sites in some countries, as we see it happening in the northern (occupied) part of Cyprus"German Chancellor Angela Merkel

[Jerry]

Better late than never I suppose. The thing that surprises me is that there are many wealthy GCs who can easily afford to take Tukey to court but have not bothered. A few multi-million pound lawsuits and the bad publicity that would follow could put serious pressure on Turkey and halt the sale of GC land, perhaps its too late now.

[Nikitas]

They should put the photographs of the desecrated churches next to shots from the Turkish mainland tourist board campaign photos. Those photos promote Turkey's ..... Byzantine tradition. Considering that the majority of tourists who spend money there are Christians it makes good business sense to have pritine churches in your campaign. Everything for a buck, that is the bottom line.

There is something else the archbishop said on RIKSat news which I did not see in the article. He said that if the TCs want to remain in the north that is their choice, but not in GC homes, the Cyprus Church is willing to finance the building of homes for them, but GC properties must be returned.

[Viewpoint]

They should put the photographs of the desecrated churches next to shots from the Turkish mainland tourist board campaign photos. Those photos promote Turkey's ..... Byzantine tradition. Considering that the majority of tourists who spend money there are Christians it makes good business sense to have pritine churches in your campaign. Everything for a buck, that is the bottom line.

There is something else the archbishop said on RIKSat news which I did not see in the article. He said that if the TCs want to remain in the north that is their choice, but not in GC homes, the Cyprus Church is willing to finance the building of homes for them, but GC properties must be returned.

This may have the opposite effect and the Brits or Israelis may try to buy these churches as well

[RebelWithoutAPause]

Even better - more exposure you theiving cunt.

[zan]

OH BOOHOO!!! Churches being destroyed Shame you don,t cry as much for all the TCs you massacred hey!!!!!

[RebelWithoutAPause]

shame you werent one of the ones massacred Zan. Im sure there were nicer Turkish Cypriots who were killed that you should have taken the place of.

Zan, do you even KNOW that Turkish Cypriots massacred Greek Cypriots too? Or is this not in Turkish text books for infants that you read?

[zan]

shame you werent one of the ones massacred Zan. Im sure there were nicer Turkish Cypriots who were killed that you should have taken the place of.

Zan, do you even KNOW that Turkish Cypriots massacred Greek Cypriots too? Or is this not in Turkish text books for infants that you read?

Stop trying to convince us that you can read Rebel...We know better than that... When you came to kill us what did you think we would do re!!!!!!!You got killed for starting the massacres.......Seems a bitter pill to swallow for you hough....