Cyprus-Forum.com

[samarkeolog]

Presumably he means that it was Lusignan, but became Greek Cypriot, so it was a Catholic church converted into an Orthodox church, so Greek Cypriots/Orthodox converted others' religious sites the same way Turks/Muslims did.

If you're going to put a link....atleast read the content first.

After the Turkish conquest in 1570, the abbey was given to the Orthodox Church. The buildings were neglected and fell into disrepair, but the abbey church was used as the parish church for the village that grew up around the monastery (presumably populated by descendents of the monks).

Unlike my friend Deniz, I'm not so easily impressed by half-researched and half-assumed opportunistic attempts to soften the blow of infamous Ottoman FORCEFUL religious conversions as opposed to the Orthodox Church’s takeover of an ABANDONED Abbey in accordance with your link…

King Hugh IV lived in the abbey between 1354 and 1358 and added apartments for himself, but in 1373, Bellapais' glittering treasure attracted the attention of the Genoese, who robbed the abbey of everything light enough to carry. After this, the abbey spun into physical and moral decline. By the mid-16th century, the strict Norbertine rule had been virtually abandoned at Bellapais, with many of the canons taking a wife (or two) and accepting only their own children as novices.

The monks had abandoned strict Catholicism. The monks were still at the abbey. The abbey still existed, still worked, and was still Catholic. But it did not practice strict Catholicism.

Better luck next time.

To you too.

Were the GC churches given to the ottomans to create their mosques?

I don't think so

No, I don't think so either. I think, as I said, the previous occupying power's Latin churches were taken by the Ottomans and converted into mosques.

I wish you would read either what I say or what the sources you quote do.

And yes, GR!, there may have been some forced conversions, and there may have been some "encouraged" conversions (from taxation, etc.), but the island wouldn't be more than 80% Orthodox Christian if the Ottoman Empire had been this Evil Islamic Empire that you seem to think it had been. And as I was told in a village in Cyprus, I'm heretikos. I'm not going to deny or defend or protect forced religious conversion, am I?

It was inappropriate for Samarkeolog to try to capitalize on this takeover the way he did, and for some of you to foolishly go along with it… bad show the lot of you!

Samarkeolog, you have attracted unkie GR’s attention so I’ll be keeping an eye out for you. Now let’s see how you fa[re]...

And please, no more talk of over-attentive uncles eyeing me. I needed to shower after that.

[samarkeolog]

Regarding the Greek Cypriots taking over places abandoned by the Venetians: Firstly it was the Turks who killed the Venetians, not us. Secondly we just took back what was ours to begin with.

Well, the Lusignan Abbey of Bellapais was originally... Lusignan. So it wasn't yours to begin with. And as Greek Cypriots obsess over the conversion of Latin churches into Ottoman mosques, they should object to the conversion of Latin churches into Orthodox churches, too.

When someone quickly takes something we've left, we ask, "would you jump in my grave so fast?" The Orthodox did jump in the Catholics' churches quite fast, didn't they?

[Get Real!]

Regarding the Greek Cypriots taking over places abandoned by the Venetians: Firstly it was the Turks who killed the Venetians, not us. Secondly we just took back what was ours to begin with.

Well, the Lusignan Abbey of Bellapais was originally... Lusignan. So it wasn't yours to begin with. And as Greek Cypriots obsess over the conversion of Latin churches into Ottoman mosques, they should object to the conversion of Latin churches into Orthodox churches, too.

When someone quickly takes something we've left, we ask, "would you jump in my grave so fast?" The Orthodox did jump in the Catholics' churches quite fast, didn't they?

I’m afraid this whole Abbey debacle has backfired on you because as your link says it was “given” by the Ottomans… surely they didn’t offer it to the Orthodox Church with tenants included!

[Piratis]

Regarding the Greek Cypriots taking over places abandoned by the Venetians: Firstly it was the Turks who killed the Venetians, not us. Secondly we just took back what was ours to begin with.

Well, the Lusignan Abbey of Bellapais was originally... Lusignan. So it wasn't yours to begin with. And as Greek Cypriots obsess over the conversion of Latin churches into Ottoman mosques, they should object to the conversion of Latin churches into Orthodox churches, too.

When someone quickly takes something we've left, we ask, "would you jump in my grave so fast?" The Orthodox did jump in the Catholics' churches quite fast, didn't they?

No mate. Nothing in Cyprus belongs to the Lusignan, who were nothing more than a foreign ruler dynasty. Cyprus belongs to the Cypriot people not to any foreign ruler.

Take today for example. Turkey occupies our lands, and builds in our properties. We never gave them any permission to build in our land, but they do it anyways. When we will take back our land we will take what it has inside as well. If the Turks didn't want this to happen, then they should be building their buildings in their own land, not in ours.

[Get Real!]

I can almost hear the Ottoman offer…

“Guys… you can have this place of worship but there’s still some half-baldled weirdoes roaming around in there we like to call chattels!”

[zan]

Regarding the Greek Cypriots taking over places abandoned by the Venetians: Firstly it was the Turks who killed the Venetians, not us. Secondly we just took back what was ours to begin with.

Well, the Lusignan Abbey of Bellapais was originally... Lusignan. So it wasn't yours to begin with. And as Greek Cypriots obsess over the conversion of Latin churches into Ottoman mosques, they should object to the conversion of Latin churches into Orthodox churches, too.

When someone quickly takes something we've left, we ask, "would you jump in my grave so fast?" The Orthodox did jump in the Catholics' churches quite fast, didn't they?

No mate. Nothing in Cyprus belongs to the Lusignan, who were nothing more than a foreign ruler dynasty. Cyprus belongs to the Cypriot people not to any foreign ruler.

Take today for example. Turkey occupies our lands, and builds in our properties. We never gave them any permission to build in our land, but they do it anyways. When we will take back our land we will take what it has inside as well. If the Turks didn't want this to happen, then they should be building their buildings in their own land, not in ours.

How far back have you traced your family tree...

[Get Real!]

How far back have you traced your family tree...

This is the bit where Zanny comes to the "rescue" of Kellogg's cornflakes with a classic derailment of the issue at hand!

[zan]

How far back have you traced your family tree...

This is the bit where Zanny comes to the "rescue" of Kellogg's cornflakes with a classic derailment of the issue at hand!

What..By asking the right questions....

[Get Real!]

How far back have you traced your family tree...

This is the bit where Zanny comes to the "rescue" of Kellogg's cornflakes with a classic derailment of the issue at hand!

What..By asking the right questions....

Right or relevant questions would be anything to do with the Abbey not a member's family tree!

[zan]

How far back have you traced your family tree...

This is the bit where Zanny comes to the "rescue" of Kellogg's cornflakes with a classic derailment of the issue at hand!

What..By asking the right questions....

Right or relevant questions would be anything to do with the Abbey not a member's family tree!

He might be letting his Lusignanian ancestry down....If you see what I mean.....A remnant of the people that persecuted him