Archaeologists Unearth Oldest Temple in Region

(Cyprus Weekly) - ITALIAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNEARTH OLDEST TEMPLE IN REGION

EXCLUSIVE By Demetra Molyva

Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe is the most ancient religious site in Cyprus and unique to the Mediterranean

The one of a kind, triangular shaped temple at Pyrgos-Mavroraki, outside Limassol, dates back to around 2,000 BC - beating previous discoveries by a thousand years.

It was unearthed by a team of Italian archaeologists led by Rome-based expert Maria Rosaria-Belgiorno of the Archaeological Mission of the Italian National Council for Research.

“This is the first evidence of religion in Cyprus at the beginning of the second millennium BC,” she told The Cyprus Weekly from Rome.

“The temple is the most ancient found in Cyprus and of a unique triangular shape. The finding sheds new light on the existence of religion on the island, since the oldest temple found in Cyprus before that was Kition and Enkomi, both dating to 1,000 BC,” she added.
The temple is not a rural sanctuary, but part of an urban, industrial settlement.

“We found no statues, although there is evidence that it is a monotheist temple. The most important thing is the altar and the blood channel running on two sides.”

The site is not Aegean-like, but resembles temples in Palestine and of the Canaanite religion, and has links to descriptions in the Bible.

“Among the finds we found stone horns which are more ancient than the consecration horns found in Kouklia, Enkomi, Kition, and Myrthou (Pighades) seven centuries later,” Belgiorno said.

The temple was brought to light during excavations in 2008, south of the industrial complex discovered previously.

The religious purpose of the building is confirmed by the materials found, including four calcarenite horns and bones from sacrificed animals.

The mission’s excavations at Pyrgos-Mavroraki began in 1998, and brought to light a protopalatial architectural unit of 4,000 sq. m of the third millennium BC.

Of particular importance was the discovery of an industrial zone, focusing on the production of olive oil, wine and aromatic essences.

An exhibition entitled “Cyprus, a site 4, 000 years old and experimental archaeology on the olive oil, perfumes, metallurgy and textiles of Pyrgos/Mavroraki” opens at the Etrusco National Museum in Viterbo, Italy on April 2.

Warning about purchasing in the "TRNC"

This web site was setup by disgruntled British property buyers in the north occupied part of the island.

Prominent Greek Americans send letter to President Obama and VP Biden

Greek American leaders send letter on the eve of the White House Greek Independence Day Celebration asking US leaders to reverse decision of administration officials to meet with Mr. Talat.

The letter:

March 20, 2009
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The Honorable Joseph Biden
Vice President of the United States
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Obama and Vice President Biden:
It has come to our attention that certain officials in your Administration are considering actions that are on the verge of extending the Bush Administration doctrine even further by establishing a Cyprus policy that contradicts both of your clearly articulated views on the issue. Please intervene before they cause America problems that will take years to correct.

Your Administration has not yet held high level contacts with either the President or the Foreign Minister of Cyprus. Thus, we are shocked to learn from a statement by the Turkish-Cypriot spokesman in Cyprus that they are now on the verge of establishing this Administration’s de facto recognition of an illegal entity in Cyprus’ militarily occupied area, while ignoring the internationally recognized Cyprus government. We understand that they plan to do this through high level Administration meetings with the leader of the pseudo-state before meetings with the President or Foreign Minister of the Republic of Cyprus.

You said to us in 2007, Mr. President, that America was “able to rely on Cyprus in the War on Terror and we were able to rely on Cyprus during the Lebanon Crisis.” Cyprus again demonstrated its support for U.S. security efforts by recently stopping an arms shipment from Iran to Hamas at U.S. urging. The last time Cyprus took such an action, Syria retaliated by taking a step toward de facto recognition of the occupied area of Cyprus by establishing ferry boat service to the north. If the people in your Administration follow through with these meetings, particularly before meeting with the government of Cyprus, our country will have punished Cyprus in the same way Syria did, by taking a step toward de facto recognition of the occupied area.

We know that you want, as you said to us, a “solution to the situation in Cyprus…based on the rule of law, not on force, one that is based on UN resolutions passed on the Cyprus issue, and on the very principles and standards of the EU….” Yet, the occupied area of Cyprus, with which your people are aligning you, is an anathema to those principles -- forced into place by more Turkish troops on that little island than America has in Afghanistan. Such de facto recognition will further solidify Turkish insistence on unreasonable Cyprus settlement provisions that virtually all Democrats on the Senate European Affairs Subcommittee objected to and which even a majority of the Republicans on that Subcommittee called “unacceptable to western democracies” in a letter to President Bush.

We understand that the Administration supports Turkey’s eventual accession into the European Union, as does the Republic of Cyprus. Pursuing anything that suggests de facto recognition of the occupation regime would not only be contrary to countless UN Security Council resolutions, but it would perhaps force the Republic of Cyprus to reconsider its stance with regard to Turkey and the EU.

Please overturn these misguided actions by people in your Administration. The Greek-American community that has been so committed to your Presidency and Vice Presidency, and the hope that they believed it would bring to the militarily occupied nation of Cyprus, will be devastated.

Sincerely,

Andrew A. Athens
Philip Christopher
Andy Manatos
Peter Papanicolaou
Nikos Mouyiaris
George Tsunis
Tasos Zambas
Endy Zemenides
Zenon Christodoulou
George Dovellos
Michael Galanakis

Turkey has to allow Christians to repair their destroyed churches

(Cyprus Weekly) - Church opens Brussels office

If Turkey wishes to have a European future, it has to allow Orthodox Christians to repair their destroyed churches and give them the opportunity to visit them whenever they wish, Archbishop Chrystostomos said in Brussels this week.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the Office of the Representation of the Church of Cyprus to the EU, in the heart of the Belgian capital, Chrysostomos said the Church has the obligation to inform its EU partners about the continuous destruction, looting and desecration of the Greek Orthodox religious sites by the Turkish army in the Turkish-held north.

“Our churches have been looted and destroyed and despite everything, our efforts to be allowed to repair them at our own expenses have been fruitless. On the contrary, their own holy sites in the government controlled areas have been maintained by our government. And they are allowed to use them whenever they wish,” Chrysostomos said.

The Archbishop stressed that 50,000 icons, frescoes, religious mosaics and other religious relics have been stolen from the places of worship in the occupied areas, since the 1974 Turkish invasion.

Some have been located in European and other auction houses and coordinated efforts by the church and the government have led to the repatriation of some of them after paying huge amounts of money.

Chrysostomos warned that the Church of Cyprus will go to the European Court of Human Rights and claim all legal remedies.

The office is headed by Bishop of Neapolis Porfyrios who also represents the Church in the EU.

Present at the inauguration ceremony were European officials including EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou, MEPs, ambassadors from various countries, various representatives of Orthodox Churches and Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou.

Denial of the Armenian Genocide ... what more excuses can Turkey come up with?

(IHT) - Turkey warns US on Armenian genocide resolution

ANKARA, Turkey: Turkey's foreign minister says a resolution by the U.S. Congress calling killings by Ottoman Turks genocide could harm his country's efforts to improve ties with Armenia.

Ali Babacan says that Turkey and Armenia are already discussing the 1915 killings and "steps that could be taken by third countries on the issue would not bring any good but harm this process." He spoke Wednesday.

Babacan says "we hope parliamentarians, parliaments become aware of this process and act responsibly."

The resolution introduced Tuesday could undermine efforts by President Barack Obama to win help on key foreign policy goals from NATO ally Turkey. Obama will visit Turkey early April.

It was unclear whether the resolution has sufficient support to pass in the House of Representatives.

Marios Matsakis on Turkish Troops (Video)

A brief speech by Cypriot Member of the European Parliament Marios Matsakis on the role of NATO in the security architecture of the EU (transcript below):

Marios Matsakis: Madam President, NATO is the backbone of European defence, and we do rely on NATO forces for the security of our Union. But NATO forces in Cyprus – Turkish NATO forces – are not a force of freedom, but one of occupation: occupation of EU territory. These Turkish forces not only have they caused death and destruction to the island when Turkey invaded in 1974, but they today continue to keep an EU Member State divided, causing fear and oppression to both Greek and Turkish Cypriots and obstructing the current negotiations between the two Community leaders on the island.

So, in discussing NATO’s important role in European defence, it is fair to remember that the EU has not yet put the necessary pressure on Turkey to get its NATO invasion army out of Cyprus unconditionally and immediately. Don't you agree with me, Mr Solana? Perhaps he is not listening. Don't you agree that the Turkish army should leave Cyprus immediately, Mr Solana? Thank you.

Mean Machine

(Click image to enlarge)

Photo of Petter Solberg from Norway and his co-driver Philip Mills driving their Citroen Xsara during the Cyprus rally WRC. The Rally of Cyprus has just finished with Loeb coming in first, driving a Citroen C4, finishing 27.2 seconds clear of second-place finisher Mikko Hirvonen of Finland in a Ford Focus with Petter Solberg of Norway in third-place finish.

Stolen Harvest

A group of Turkish settlers accompanied by Turkish troops trespassed into a Greek Cypriot farm today and stole harvested wheat.

The violation of it all eats at you:

Bodies Found in a Mass Grave

The eight coffins with remains of Ioannis, 77, Christina, 68, Michalis Michael, 42, Margarita, 48, with her daughters Eleni, 25, Cristina, 23, and Iliada, 18, and the two year old Loukas, are seen in a Greek Orthodox church during a funeral service in Nicosia, Cyprus, Sunday, March 8, 2009. The remains of Liassis and Michael family were discovered in a mass grave near the village of Palekythro where they, according to eyewitness accounts, were killed during the 1974 Turkish invasion.

ECHR Ruled Turkey had Violated Property Rights

ECHR ruled Tuesday that Turkey had violated the property rights of a Greek Orthodox foundation on the Aegean island of Bozcaada (Tenedos) by seizing its land and ordered the government of Turkey to pay damages.

The ECHR judgment itself is available only in French, but the Court's press release in English can be found here.

A snippet from the Court's press release below:

The Court held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) of the European Convention on Human Rights, on account of the refusal of the Turkish courts to register the immovable property of the applicant foundation in the land register in its name.

Under Article 41 (just satisfaction) of the Convention, the Court awarded the applicant 100,000 euros (EUR) in respect of pecuniary damage and EUR 5,000 for costs and expenses.

Flamingo birds standing in shallow water

(Click on Image to enlarge)

Flamingos stand in a salt lake in coastal town of Larnaca, some 45 kilometers (28 miles) south of the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Sunday, March 1, 2009. The salt lake in Larnaca is a popular stopping-point on the migration routes of more than 300 species of birds. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Deja vu ... Executing Civilians ... Old habits die hard?

(BBC) - Kurdish 'grave sites' to be dug

By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News, Istanbul

A Turkish prosecutor has ordered the digging up of several sites where it is believed the bodies of Kurds killed in the 1990s may have been dumped.

Hundreds of people disappeared at the height of the fighting in the mainly Kurdish south-east.

Human rights lawyers say many were last seen with security forces members.

The Kurdish conflict, which began in the 1980s when insurgents started fighting for a separate Kurdish state, still continues today.

Close to 40,000 people have been killed.

More than 70 families applied to a prosecutor in the town of Silopi after information emerged suggesting the location of their relatives' bodies.

The prosecutor has ordered the excavation of two old well-shafts behind an abandoned roadside restaurant.

Another site to be dug is on the grounds of a storage facility of the Botash oil company.

Human rights lawyers also want to examine parts of a municipal cemetery where they believe a mass grave of the missing could be found.

Missing politicians

Hundreds of Kurdish civilians have been missing, presumed dead, since the height of the Kurdish conflict in the region in the mid-1990s.

Lawyers began pushing for permission to dig certain sites after a former security officer, now in hiding abroad, gave information about the torture and execution of Kurdish civilians.

They were also boosted by the unprecedented arrest of military members, retired and active, in connection with an alleged plot to topple the government.

Several of the men now in custody were in command in the Kurdish conflict region in the 1990s.

The lawyers argue prosecutors should broaden the scope of that coup trial to include a full investigation of the alleged crimes against the Kurds.

Most recently two politicians disappeared in 2001 after they were called for questioning at the local headquarters of the military police.

In that case and others the European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of violating the right to life, but here in Turkey itself the families of the missing have never found justice - or the bodies of their relatives.