Nikitas wrote:How and why does anyone plunder a collapsed roof?
Halil please explain your reports on these observations which are confusing me, and others I think.
As for Cyprus having a Greek character, Big OZ, just count how many villages with Greek names the TRNC had to rename, how many Greek Orthodox churches it had to close down, and figure it out. Ownership does not exist as a notion in national terms. People inhabit an area, they do not own it. Greeks have inhabited Cyprus longer than anyone else, and did so continuously despite passing conquests.
I do not egree with the above as an historic fact. Please follow the link to the timeline I provided in my post and you'll see exactly what I mean.
As for changing the names of the villages, it is true the GCs did not have to change that many Turkish village names but that was because they brought total destruction to hundreds of them (there was nothing left to change). Also, have you looked into how many mosques were left in South to be pillaged and bombed since 1963?
Although I believe I saw it reconstructed during my recent visit to South (probably with an EU or UN grant) I was a young boy during 1964 when I witnessed bombing and destruction of the Arabahmet Mosque's minaret on at least two occasions...
This info comes directly from
www.UN.org:
The Greek Cypriot administration, which attempts to present itself as the
champion of conservation of cultural heritage, has, since 1963, been trying to eradicate all traces of the Turkish-Muslim heritage of Cyprus. During the period from 1963 to 1974, mosques, shrines and other holy sites in Turkish villages all around the island were destroyed by the Greek Cypriots. Today the remaining Ottoman Turkish shrines in South Cyprus have been targets of repeated arson attacks. For instance, on 3 December 2000, there was an arson attack on the Ömeriye Mosque, a significant Muslim shrine located in South Cyprus.
Furthermore, owing to the Greek Cypriot administration’s deliberate policy of total neglect, the Turkish-Muslim heritage in South Cyprus is under threat of disintegration. This utter disrespect for the Turkish-Islamic heritage has also been confirmed by independent sources, including Mr. Ymenus van der Werff, General Rapporteur of the Subcommittee on the Architectural and Artistic Heritage of the Committee of Culture and Education of the Council of Europe, who reported the following in his report published as a document of the Council of Europe on 2 July 1989 (AS/CULT/AA (41) (1), para. 5.3):
“We noted with regret the complete destruction of the main mosque in
Paphos. The whole area has since been flattened to give way for a widened road junction and a car park. There is no memorial to the existence of the mosque. Below the road a Turkish bath complex remains hidden in the rubble and vegetation awaiting restoration. The Turkish Cypriot cemetery by the nearby St. Sophia Mouttalos Mosque is dilapidated”.
Quote from US Dept of State web site:
"there are complaints of vandalism of unused Orthodox churches. Turkish Cypriots complain that unused mosques in the south have been treated similarly. Orthodox churches and cemeteries in the north continue to deteriorate due to vandalism and neglect. An unused Orthodox Church in the north is located in the center of a resort constructed during the year 2000 on the ground surrounding the church. Greek Cypriots complain that since 1974, religious icons have been removed from Orthodox churches in the north. A previously unknown Greek Cypriot nationalist organization claimed responsibility for an arson attack on a mosque in the south in August 1999; damage was light. The authorities repaired and built a fence around the mosque and pledged to increase protection of Muslim sites. No one was arrested for the attack. "
Here is a piece of news - only last year in May!
"The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Turgay Avcý has strongly reacted to Saturday’s attack at the Great Mosque in Limassol.
Calling the attack carried out by two unknown assailants as `ugly and hateful`, he said `the attack has confirmed the discomfort felt by the Greek Cypriot Side over the Turkish-Moslem existence on the island.
He criticized the Greek Cypriot Administration and the Limassol Municipality for giving permission to the opening of a bar just next to the mosque, which is open for worship, on a building owned by the Mosque Foundation.
He also criticized the Greek Cypriot officials for turning a deaf ear to many complaints raised by those using the mosque for worship.
Noting that the Foreign Ministry has launched initiatives on the issue, including one at the United Nations Peace Keeping Forces in Cyprus, he called on the Greek Cypriot authorities to take all the necessary precautions, including the shutting down of the bar and to punish those responsible for the attack."
What?
Now accept the facts that you’re just an uninvited Ottoman minority squeezed out by the island’s natural selection process and paddle back home…
