shahmaran wrote:Oracle wrote:Nikitas wrote:Re for GRs question, what can you find in a mosque, the answer is a lot, if you know where to look. Islamic art, excluding as it does any representation of persons, is very rich in decorative motifs tha can be found i removable tiles and paintings. Thankfullly no one has yet tried to trade in these from the RoC.
There is only one mosque of cultural significance (not of the Otto-Turks making) in Cyprus and that is very well looked after ..... so all the
recent Turkish/TC mosques are insignificant as far as cultural heritage goes ...
Some of them would not have had "Planning Approval" in most European countries because of their ridiculousness ...
If our mosques are insignificant than so are your Church, it is a 2 way street Oracle.
Luckily
REAL European countries don't treat Mosques in such way...
Here is some of the transcript from the actual briefing:
http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?FuseActio ... N=90239950In stark contrast to the situation in the North, which I recently had an opportunity to visit, scores of mosques and other Islamic places of worship are maintained by the Cypriot government in the southern part of the country.
...
The looting of Cyprus’ cultural heritage is not only a crime against Cyprus but a crime against humanity. We all are diminished by cultural loss of any kind. As a journalist based in the Eastern Mediterranean, I have seen a great deal of war, the scourge of the world’s cultural heritage. Indeed, we are just picking up the pieces of the wanton destruction of Europe’s
heritage during World War II. What has happened since Turkey occupied northern Cyprus 35 years ago has been even more dramatic than what took place in Europe.
The devastation is comprehensive and has taken place in a small area.
Churches, chapels, monasteries, libraries, museums and private collections of religious art and antiquities were looted. Religious and historical sites have been damaged, ravaged and destroyed. While the focus of this meeting is on the island’s religious heritage, this is rooted in 12,000 years of history which came before St. Paul and St. Barnabas brought Christianity to Cyprus.
...
The pillage was directed by Aydin Dikmen, a major Turkish black market dealer in Munich. He had developed close connections with Turkish Cypriot looters and smugglers well before 1974. The third phase began in 1980 and is ongoing. Today fewer than 500 Greek Cypriots, most of them elderly, remain in enclaves in the occupied North.
...
The direct responsibility of Turkey concerning the occupied area is clearly stated in the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the Fourth Interstate Application of Cyprus against Turkey of May 10, 2001. Its decision – in its decision, the European Court of Human Rights stated inter alia that Turkey, quote “having effective overall control over northern Cyprus, its responsibility cannot be confined to the acts of its own soldiers or officials in northern Cyprus but must be also engaged by virtue of the acts of the local administration which survives by virtue of Turkey’s military and other support.
The movable property of almost every church was looted. Most of the mural or mosaic decorations were stripped away and a considerable number were located in international art markets abroad. Some well-known legal cases, as the Kanakaria case, Indianapolis court; the Antiphonitis case, Rotterdam court; the Dikmen case, Munich court, as well as the published study of Ms. Jansen demonstrate and prove the involvement and activity of Turkish looters in the occupied areas.
Furthermore, cases as the stripped away of 13th-century frescos of the Lysi chapel – now in Houston – and icons of the Koutzoventis monastery demonstrate in the most obvious way the cooperation and involvement of the Turkish armed forces in the illicit trade. Both the above-mentioned churches were situated in areas under the direct control of the Turkish military. And the icons and frescos were located later in the United States, Germany and in Holland.
There is no religious freedom in the Turkish-occupied areas of Cyprus for
non-Muslims since all of the communities I referred to earlier are either not free or severely restricted in their exercise of religious services, praying and maintaining the graves of their ancestors.
...
This is the reality of the situation in the Turkish-occupied area. In total contrast, the government of the Republic of Cyprus, through the Turkish Cypriot Properties Management Service and the Department of Antiquities repairs and maintains mosques and Muslim places of Worship in the government-controlled area, 17 of which, have been declared as “ancient monuments,” allowing the free exercise of their religious services.
...
Now, this particular situation must be compared to what
is going on in the government-controlled areas, where there is complete freedom
of religion for everyone. And I consulted someone who is connected with the
mosque in Nicosia and I said, what is the situation there?
He said there are three congregations in Cyprus in established mosques, which
have been restored and repaired, and there is a fourth congregation in Paphos.
The three established mosques are in Nicosia, Larnaca and Limassol. There is a
fourth congregation in a hall in Paphos. They haven’t yet managed to work out
some sort of arrangement for being placed in the mosque there. Anyway, they
meet every week. They have congregations of, sometimes, two or three thousand
on Muslim feast days in all three of these areas – in Limassol, Nicosia and
Larnaca.
And most of the people who are in the congregations are people who came to
Cyprus in the past decade, two decades. They are of Arab origin or Bangladeshi
origin or Pakistani origin. Apparently, Turkish Cypriots don’t attend the
mosques. So the mosques are maintained. The government of Cyprus provides a
salary for the imam and the congregations take up collections to pay the water
bill, the electricity bill and for small repairs. And that is the situation on
the two sides; it’s quite different. Thank you.
I think that everyone can go there and see it also for himself, what we’re seeing.
Right. In the RoC, you see a Mosque practically everywhere. And in the occupied north, you see desecration.
