How the Christian history was erased
By Michelle A. Vu
Christian Post Reporter
One lone church struggles to http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2763 in a land where hundreds have been damaged or destroyed. But this is no ordinary land; it is the very area where Apostle Paul took his first missionary journey to proclaim salvation through Jesus Christ to the Roman Empire.
Now, 2,000 years later, the small Mediterranean island of http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=1239 is divided into two, with the northern third occupied by Turkey. In the span of three decades under Turkish control, more than 530 churches and monasteries have been pillaged, vandalized, or destroyed in the northern area, according to The Republic of Cyprus.
“I cannot say that it (the destruction of churches) is encouraged openly by the http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4395 from that.”Since its 1974 invasion, Turkey has controlled northern Cyprus, which it calls the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.” No international nation has ever recognized this entity except for Turkey. The United States has only recognized the Republic of Cyprus.
Starting in 2003, Greek-Cypriots again were allowed to cross the border between the Republic of Cyprus and the area under Turkish control. It was around this time that scholars and photographers were able to visit northern Cyprus to document the destruction of historic churches and artifacts.
St. Mamas Church in the northwest town of Morphou is the only notable church that is known to be semi-active in Turkey-controlled Cyprus, according to the New York-based Hellenic Times and the Embassy of The Republic of Cyprus in the United States. Turkish officials who rule the area reportedly give permission twice a year for remaining residents – who were there before Turkish occupation – to worship in the church.
Other churches were not so fortunate.
About 133 churches, chapels and monasteries have been converted to military storage facilities, stables and night-clubs. Seventy-eight churches have been converted to mosques, and dozens more are used as military facilities, medical storage facilities, or stockyards or hay barns, according to statistics from The Republic of Cyprus.
Agia Anastasia Church in Lapithos was converted into a hotel and casino, while the Sourp Magar Armenian monastery – founded in the medieval period – was converted into a cafeteria.
A Neolithic settlement at the Cape of Apostolos Andreas-Kastros in the occupied area of Rizokapraso – a site declared an ancient monument by the Republic of Cyprus – was bulldozed by the Turkish Army in order to plant two of its flagpoles on top of the historic hill.
While Muslims make up more than 99 percent of Turkey’s population, according to the CIA World Factbook, Ambassador Kakouris says it’s “not a Muslim-Christian issue.”
“I don’t think the Cyprus problem has ever been a religious issue between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots,” contends Kakouris, who is a Greek Orthodox Christian.
But he added that even though Turkey’s constitutionally secular government may not have given the “green light” for the destruction of churches and artifacts, they have not given the “red light” either.
“So it is … either directly taking place or with their blind eye or whatever you want to call it. But they are responsible for what is taking place there,” says Kakouris.
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