Cyprus: Portrait of a Christianity Obliterated
In the northern part of the island, occupied by Turkey, the churches have become stables or mosques. The diary of a trip beyond the wall
by Sandro Magister
ROMA, March 9 2006 – The island of Cyprus was the first destination of the “special mission” that the Holy Spirit entrusted to Paul and Barnabas, according to what is written in the Acts of the Apostles, in chapter 13.
On the island they found a Roman governor, Sergius Paulus, “an intelligent man who wanted to hear the word of God and believed, deeply shaken by the teaching of the Lord.”
But if Paul and Barnabas were to return to Cyprus today, to the northern part of the island, they would find not the Romans as governors, but the Turks.
And instead of a Christianity being born, they would find a dying Christianity, with the churches and monasteries in ruin, or else transformed into stables, hotels, and mosques.
This is documented in a startling report from Luigi Geninazzi, who was sent to Cyprus by “Avvenire,” the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference.
Cyprus became part of the European Union on May 1, 2004. But this was true only for the southern part of the island, which is Greek and Christian.
The northern part was occupied by Turkey in 1974, with 40,000 soldiers. The Turkish occupation caused death, destruction, and a forced relocation of populations. About 200,000 Greek Cypriots of the Christian Orthodox faith who lived in the north of the island fled to the south. And likewise, the Turkish Cypriots of the south, Muslims, moved to the north.
In 1983 Turkey consolidated the occupation by creating a Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is internationally recognized only by the government of Ankara: 180,000 persons live there, 100,000 of whom are colonists originally from Anatolia.
A wall guarded by the blue helmets of the United Nations divides the two parts of the island and cuts through the capital, Nicosia. In April of 2004, the UN placed before a referendum a plan of confederation between the two states, but this was rejected by the Greek Cypriots of the south, who are four times as numerous as the Turkish Cypriots of the north.
The Islamization of the north of the island has been concretized in the destruction of all that was Christian. Yannis Eliades, director of the Byzantine Museum of Nicosia, calculates that 25,000 icons have disappeared from the churches in the zone occupied by the Turks.
For a Turkey that aspires to enter the European Union, its actions in the north of Cyprus give a terrible impression of itself.
And what it has done in destroying the Christian presence begun by Paul and Barnabas is described in the report that follows, published in “Avvenire” on Sunday, February 26:
"They did not even spare the stone altar..."
by Luigi Geninazzi
Europe ends here, in the most beautiful island of the Mediterranean, torn by a wall that splits it in two. Europe ends abruptly along a barrier of barbed wire, cement, and military turrets that splits Cyprus along its entire width and divides Nicosia, a capital wounded in its ancient heart.
For the UN, which guards over it with its blue helmets, it is the “green line.” But here the people continue to call it the “Attila line,” from the name that the Turks gave to the invasion.
The scourge has left its marks. It has struck Cyprus, the site of the most ancient Christian community on European soil, in its artistic, cultural, and religious treasury: stupendous Byzantine and Romanesque churches, imposing monasteries, mosaics and frescoes of inestimable value. It is a heritage that in the northern part of the island, under Turkish occupation, has been sacked, violated, and destroyed.
To realize this it is enough to cross the “Attila line” at the checkpoint of Nicosia, and there you are in the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which greets the visitor with a large banner on which is written a topsy-turvy welcome: “How happy I am to be a Turk!” (a famous phrase of Kemal Ataturk). The nationalist pride of the descendents of the Ottoman empire has also modified the natural countryside, carving the crescent moon and the red star on the side of the Pentadattilos mountains, which dominate the wide plains.
The Turkish flag billows on the façade of the church of Agia Paraskevi, in the once Greek Orthodox village of Angastina. A sign says that work is underway to transform it into a mosque. The bell tower, which no longer bears a cross, is a strange minaret with the loudspeaker of the muezzin fixed upon an archway.
Christodoulos, the young archeologist accompanying me, is visibly shaken: “I was baptized here,” he says in a voice hoarse with emotion. He is one of the 200,000 Greek Cypriot refugees who, thirty years ago, lived in the north of the island and were chased out of their homes.
Christodoulos kneels on the spot where he was once baptized and lights a candle. The Turkish construction workers, squatting in front of the apse for their lunch break, look at him curiously: “Every time I come back to this area, it’s always worse,” he sighs.
We stop at Trachoni, where a jewel of the Renaissance once stood, the church of the Panagia, Our Lady. Now only the walls are left; the interior bears the signs of vandalism that has not spared even the stone altar, the pieces of which have ended up in a hole dug recently to search for who knows what treasure.
Ours is a sad pilgrimage that at every stop adds to one’s outrage and disbelief, a via dolorosa that retraces the places of Christian memory at risk of disappearing. At the village of Peristerona, on the road to Famagosta, the medieval monastery of Saint Anastasia (see photo) is being used as a stable, with the cows chewing their cud amid what remains of the ancient cells. The tombs of the cemetery have been profaned, and the gravestones broken.
We leave the countryside behind and go to the coast. Here many of the churches have been turned into restaurants, bars, and nightclubs, for the enjoyment of the tourists. At the top of the rock of Lapethos, which juts out over the sea, the church and convent of Agia Anastasia have become a sumptuous hotel with a swimming pool dug into the cloister, and a casino under the bell tower.
Almost the entire artistic patrimony of the Orthodox Church in the territory occupied by the Turks – 520 buildings between churches, chapels, and monasteries – has been sacked, demolished, or disfigured. Only three churches and one monastery, the monastery of Saint Barnabas, which has been turned into a museum, are in a more or less dignified state.
“The ruin is before our eyes, but the European Union prefers to look the other way,” the Cypriot foreign minister, George Iacovou, bitterly tells us. “The only hope is that, in the course of negotiations for Turkey’s adhesion to the EU, someone might pull out the dossier of shame.”
The Byzantine Academy of Nicosia has gathered detailed and meticulous documentation on the occupied churches in Cyprus. And for two years an attempt has been made at religious dialogue, with the support of the Orthodox bishop Nikiforos of the historic monastery of Kykko: “We have met with the Muslim leaders headed by Lefka, and I told them that respect for our places of worship is the basis for cooperation.” Nikiforos is moderately optimistic: “I encountered a lot of understanding. Errors have been made on both sides; we must overcome the divisions of the past and walk together.”
But the last word belongs to the politicians. Huseyn Ozel, a government spokesman for the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, displays great cordiality with the foreign journalist. The destroyed and sacked churches? “There was a war, and bad things happened on both sides,” he explains.
I point out to him that most of the mosques in Greek Cypriot territory have been restored, while his government has authorized the transformation of churches into restaurants and hotels, an insult to the sentiment of believers. “They did this to keep the buildings from falling into ruin, and anyway, these are decisions made by the preceding government, which I do not share,” Ozel counters.
I insist: what do you have to say about the churches that, still today, are being turned into mosques? The Turkish Cypriot functionary spreads his arms wide: “It is an Ottoman custom...”
It as a tradition that, unfortunately, continues. An unsettling calling card for a Turkey that aspires to enter the European club.
__________
The Greek Orthodox bishop: "Europe, intervene!"
An interview with Chrisostomos Englistriota
In Cyprus, the head of the Church has always been an ethnarch, too, a leader of the people. This directly political role was exercised by the famous archbishop Makarios, the charismatic leader of the rebellion against the English domination during the 1950’s, and the first president of the independent republic of Cyprus.
“Our Church doesn’t practice politics anymore, but its authority has not diminished,” recalls the bishop of Paphos, Chrisostomos Englistriota. Since His Beatitude Chrisostomos I was struck by a grave illness, the bishop of Paphos has carried out his functions as leader of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church on the island.
Q: Your Excellency, Cyprus remains divided. Can the Greek Orthodox Church foster dialogue between the parties?
A: “It is a situation that saddens us deeply, the result of a completely illegal military occupation. A true dialogue is impossible, because the Turkish Cypriots do not enjoy any autonomy, the last word belongs to the government of Ankara.”
Q: Are there contacts among the religious exponents?
A: “Some of our bishops have met with the leaders of the Turkish Cypriot Islamic community. It’s important to us to have good relations with them, but then when it comes time to discuss concrete matters, like the problem of the sacking and profanation of our churches, they don’t know what to say, they refer everything to the political authorities.”
Q: Have you tried to raise the question in international circles?
A: “Yes, of course. We have repeatedly turned to the European Union to ask for their intervention. The last time was in the autumn of 2004, after Cyprus entered the EU.”
Q: The results?
A: “Nothing so far. My personal conviction is that the European governments should exert pressure on Turkey, above all in this phase of the opening of negotiations for the entry of Ankara into the Union. But they don’t want to take advantage of this opportunity. And so the more time passes, the more our sacred places in the northern part of Cyprus are falling into ruin. The Turks want to destroy every trace of Hellenism and of Christianity. Only strong international pressure can stop them.”
Interesting reading, right? Just search the word "destruction" on this site to get an idea of the ongoing cultural obliteration.
So, a great article from Chiesa. Truly amazing and i say this because it is very rare to read such an accurate depiction of Turkey's occupation from the western press as to not upset a key NATO ally. Obviously there are some exceptions. Below are some foreign publications and what they had to say in the past about this so called special "peace operation".
The Times
"It is important to distinguish between random damage that might have been caused by drunks after a night out, and the demolition of crosses, tombstones and heavy marble slabs which weigh several hundredwieht and would need men with sledgehammers to destroy them. We found nothing to fit the first category. In fact, at Dhavlos, on the north coast, now occupied by mainland Turks, even the graveyard wall was partly demolished. Not a single tombstone remained standing...
..the process of obliterating everything Greek has been carried out methodically. The churches and graveyards have suffered severely."
"The Times", 5.27.1976
"The little treasure house of Antiphonitis Monastery, in the mountains north of Lefkoniko, had sustained the most comprehensive looting and damage....the 11th, 12th, and 15th century icons..all had vanished or had been destroyed. The nineteenth and twentieth century icons were smashed, the furniture broken. In the corner were bags of cement and the remains of a fire. Furniture had been lugged outside onto the grass, and the whole place was a strewn with bottles and filth. Somebody was clearly proud of this work, for the wrecked iconostasis the date was chalked March 6, 1975."
"The Times", 5.27.1976
The report (August 9)from the Cyprus Director of Antiquities on the recent looting or desecration of the mosaics in the church of Panayia Kanakaria in the Turkish occupied north of Cyprus has reopened the debate on the fate of churches, monasteries and mosques on that unhappy island.
As a journalist I have travelled widely and freely on both sides of the partition line. In Turkish Cyprus there was large scale damage to churches in the immediate aftermath of the 1974 intervention. That was perhaps understandahle. More recently, historic churches have been seized, stripped and whitewashed and converted into mosques. One example is on the fringes of Nicosia, another outside Famagusta. Others have been desecrated.
Less than a year ago, travelling in the company of Mr. Mustapha Adiloglou, press official in London of the Turkish Federated State of Cyprus we came across a desecrated church in the centre of a busy village between Famagusta and Nicosia. Fresh excrement and urine lay on the smashed altar and the floor. The church Bible had been used as toilet paper and the wall paintings gashed and disfigured. The icons had vanished. From the state of the place it was clear that this was not a single act of violation. The place obviously had been a public convenience for months.
In fairness one should add that some churches (particularly tourist conscious Kyrenia) have been restored by the rurkish authorities and are either open for prayer or tourism or securely locked.
"The Times", 19.8.80
Yenidyzen
"The Turkish Cypriot Arts Society leader, Ali Atakan, in a statement issued on May 20 revealed yet more antique smuggling. According to this revelation, a valuable Byzantine mosaic has been stolen from a Byzantine Church in the village of Lythrangomi. There are two inter-connected churches in the village and the mosaic was stolen from the apse of the older church which dates back to the 8th century..."
Turkish Cypriot "Yenidyzen", 6.1.1982
"You will see chambers cut out of the rocks, lighthouses, the remains of baths, layouts and the military camps set up on the ruins both before and after 1974... Today Lambousa is a military zone closed to tourists. Here are many important churches and the mythological Akhiropietos Monastery. Now you cannot see it because it is being used as a military warehouse. The icons stolen from Lambousa were retrieved while being smuggled out of Ankara airport."
Le Monde
"The antiques are illegaly exported from the northern part of the island, especially rich in archaeological sites'
"Le Monde", 12.27.1978
Bozkurt
"The Cyprus Arts Society in the occupied areas issued a press release saying that the antique smuggling in the occupied areas has reached enourmous dimensions and that measures should be taken to protect the destruction of the antiques."
Turkish Cypriot "Bozkurt", 7.4.1982
The Guardian
"We visited 26 former Greek villages. We found not a single undesecrated cemetery..."
"...The vandalism and desecration are so methodical and so widespread that they amount to institutionalised obliteration of everything sacred to a Greek ... In some instances, an entire graveyard of 50 or more tombs had been reduced to pieces or rubble no larger than a matchbox...we found the chapel of Ayios Demetrios at Ardhana empty but for the remains of the altar plinth, and that was fouled with human excrement... At Syngrasis ... the broken crucifix was drenched in urine.. At Lefkoniko ...the interior of Gaidhouras church... was overlooked by an armless Christ on a smashed crucifix... Tombs gaped open wherever we went...crosses bearing the pictures of those burried beneath ... had been flattened and destroyed.
"The Guardian", 'The Rape of northern Cyprus', 5.6.1976
Ortam
"The trial of the director sic of Kyrenia Museum, Mehmet Rasih, has ended with the case being referred to the "criminal court". The trial is connected with the 3 chests of antiques discovered in Turkey on their way to Germany, on 16.3.1981... The number of the missing icons or substituted icons were 225 ...later it was found that large icons had been sawn down to smaller sizes and thus entered in the books."
Turkish Cypriot "Ortam", 5.6.1982
Bozkurt
"Two icons estimated to cost arounf TL 1 million were stolen from Kyrenia "Court". The icons stolen from the village church of Karmi 5 months ago were found in the Famagusta district and 4 persons were arrested in connection with the incident. The icons were locked away in Kyrenia "Court-House" to be stolen again."
Turkish Cypriot "Bozkurt", 3.9.1979
The Times
"Confidential United Nations military documents, circulated to officers in the United Nations peace - keeping force in Cyprus, disclose that looting is being systematically carried out on a massive scale by the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot authorities in the north of the island"
"The Times", 12.13.1976
"...historic churches have been seized, stripped and whitewashed and converted into mosques ... Others have been desecrated. ... we came across a desecrated church in the center of a busy village between Famagusta and Nicosia. Fresh excrement and urine lay on the smashed altar and the floor. The church Bible had been used as toilet paper and the wall paintings gashed and disfigured. The icons had vanished. From the state of the place it was clear that this was not a single act of violation. The place obviously had been a public convenience for months. ... On the Greek side all the mosques I have seen are securely locked and protected."
"The Times", 8.19.80
The Sunday Times
"Scotland Yard and Customs Officials are uncovering a highly organized smuggling network behind the trail of antiques looted in Cyprus"
"The Sunday Times", 4.25.1976
OPEN GRAVES, BROKEN CROSSES...
The Times
The above testimony, by a British journalist, member of the crew of a British TV network which visited the occupied part of Cyprus, proved that the places of rest of the dead became targets of the most intense destruction mania. According to this and other testimonies, the crosses on graves were cut away and broken to pieces. Tombstones were also overturned and crushed to bits, while the invaders violated the graves.
"We managed to check 26 villages in all. Some other villages, such as Marathovouno and Pyrga, were sealed by the Army and access to the church itself was not possible. Since graveyards are usually some way out of the village, these were checkable and, in every instance, we found deliberate and usually comprehensive damage. In no village we visited was the graveyard intact"
"The Times", 5.27.1976
The Guardian
"We visited 26 former Greek villages. We found not a single undesecrated cemetery..."
"The Guardian", 5.6.1976
"The next village had been -until the events of 1974- Greek. Now it is deserted but for Turkish refugee squatters. There are two churches in the village. One has been stripped and converted into a mosque. A few Turkish Cypriots kneel, praying, inside it. The other church has been vandalised. The exterior walls are covered with illegible graffiti. Inside, the destruction is complete. The body of the church is bare of pews or chairs. The alter screen, composed of six-inch timbers, has been wrenched out, the icons have been looted. Among the filth on the floor lies the torn remains of an antique bible. ...The altar ... has been smashed. On the remains of the altar are broken bottles, excrement, and what smells like urine. When asked about the desecrated Greek church and the massacre villages, Rauf Denktash, "president of Turkish Cypriots"...ads that it all shows that Greeks and Turks can no longer live side by side on the island".
"The Guardian", 11.30.1979
OLAY
"Illegal digs are being made in all districts. For example, in Kyrenia, in Ayios Epiktitos, in Nicosia, and in the hills beyond Krini. But, Famagusta is the most suitable for illegal digs. Illegal digs virtually cover the whole district. In this district the first settlements were established and since ancient times they had maintained their historical importance.
Illegal digs in the Karpass start from the cliff in the east, from the small islets in the sea, and from the caves of Galinoporni, and extend to the north-west of the Karpass, to Eptakomi, Ovogoros, Galatia and Ardhana".
Turkish Cypriot, "Olay", 1 7.5. 1982.
The Observer
"Vandals have desecrated scores of British graves in Turkish occupied northern Cyprus, some of them dedicated to First World War soldiers ... The wrecking of British gravestones pales beside the destruction in Christian Greek Orthodox cemeteries ... Every cross has been destroyed and the tombs gape open to the elements, the lizards and the robbers, spurred on by the superstition that the Greeks have valuables buried with them"
"The Observer", 3.29.87
OLAY, April 1982.
"Haven't you heard that the 2000 year old Christian church in Cyprus, St Barnabas' Church, has been robbed? Haven't you heard that 35 icons were stolen, that 11 of them were found in Kythrea, that 11 were retrieved at Ankara airport while being smuggled out, and that the rest are lost? Haven't you heard what's happening in Varosha (Famagusta)? Haven't you heard that figurines belonging to the Catholic period and kept in the Archaelogical Museum have been stolen and smuggled to London? What about the icons in the other churches; the mosaics, the private collections, the illegal digs? Why have they stopped the digs started before 1974 at the city of Gastria, which belongs to the geometric age? Do you know what happened since then? The government has issued permits to certain businessmen from Turkey to set up a gypsum factory there. The tombs were destroyed and plundered."
Mehmet Yasin, "Perishing Cyprus" in the Turkish Cypriot Review "Olay", April 1982.
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