Kifeas wrote:iceman wrote:Tim Drayton wrote:BOF wrote:Not being Cypriot and having no axe to grind against either side of the green line i have visited areas of the occupied north to look for myself at the countryside and villages that were once mixed communities.
I want to know why such disgraceful behaviour on the part of the occupiers took place??
I refer to the destruction and desecration of Christian churches and even worse in my mind, the destruction and vandalism of Christian Graveyards.
What were you afraid of? the dead can harm no one. They represent no threat yet you have destroyed graves and vandalised them - for what?
Used them as goat pens....these are the actions of Barbarians.
You want tourism, but mainly from christian countries i suspect, and this is how you treat the dead?
I also note that in the South the Mosques there i have visited are in good order and some have even been renovated.
Is this the way your God tells you to respect others? Eternal Shame on you.
I think that Turkey wishes to perpetuate the myth that Cyprus has always been divided into a Turkish north and a Greek south, and in order to perpetuate this myth requires to remove all evidence that contradicts this. I think Turkey is succeeding in creating this impression. Speak to many foreigners who have a casual acquaintance with Cyprus and you will find that they believe that the island has always been divided along ethnic lines as it is now, and that the north has always been populated by Turks.
Tim
You are fairly new to Cyprus so naturally you wouldn't know..This "removing the evidence of other communities past" has been practiced by GC's long time ago..
Up until the end of 19th century there used to be only muslim villages occupied by ancestors of TC's in Cyprus.Each and every one of these villages had a small or a large mosque and a cemetery...Where are they now?
Captain H.H Kitchener's Trigonometric map of Cyprus dated 1882 is an excellent evidence for the above claim.
Iceman, I am not quite sure I understand what exactly you are talking about. Can you be more specific and give us some examples of such villages, and also a link to the said map? So far I knew that a good number of mosques in Cyprus were previously Christian churches, and this is also evident by their architectural style, beside other historical accounts, but it’s the first time I hear that exclusively Muslim villages were overtaken by Greek Cypriots and their mosques destroyed.
Kifeas
During Ottoman occupation in Cyprus,there used to be villages with mix population there were also villages occupied by either only Christian population or only Muslim population..
H.H.Kitcheners map published in 1882 clearly states these villages and their population status by religion..(as well as their names use by each population)
Some of the place names Turkish administration started using after 1974 are the names which had been used for centuries..some examples are Chatal Keuy (Ayios Epiktitos) or Arap Keuy (Klepini) Ay Ghroush (Ayios Amvrosios) these villages in Kyrenia region used to have mixed population at the time the map was made but later on Turkish population and their remains vanished from these villages.
Plenty of examples i cannot remember individually now..examples of only TC villages which in time the TC population vanished and they became only GC villages with no sign of the TC's ever existing there..Like Akathu...Not many people know Akathu was a TC village..
Anyway...the H.H.Kitcheners map is not online but i have a detailed copy of it on a CD..
If interested in a copy send me a PM..
I cannot upload all of the map because its made up of loads of files (146 to be more precise) but i am uploading the index to give you an idea of what i mentioned about displaying population info as well as names used by both communities..