[MSN] Cyprus: European Parliament backs funds for study on churches in the north

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European Parliament backs funds for study on churches in the north 
By Alexia Saoulli

THE EUROPEAN Parliament's Committee of Education and Culture this week gave
the go-ahead to funding to prepare a report on the state of churches in the
occupied areas.
The report's aim is to record the number of churches destroyed in the north
since 1974, estimate the cost of what it will take to repair them, and where
necessary the money might that be used to save buildings at risk of
collapse. 

The committee members' decision to allocate 500,000 euros to the project was
unanimous and should be approved at the parliament's plenary session next
month.
"The main point is that the European Union has intervened in a matter which
does of course involve culture and civilisation, but will also have
political repercussions because the Turkish Cypriot so-called authorities
will have to accept solutions for the practical application of this
decision," said DISY MEP Panayiotis Demetriou, who first suggested that the
budget allocate funds to investigate the situation of the island's occupied
churches.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail from Brussels yesterday, Demetriou said the
money would be allocated in the 2007 EU budget.

He said: "From the moment the European Union became involved in this problem
I don't think it will stop. After the relevant study, the EU will most
likely utilise its interest in the practical field of things, that is to say
how the protection and preservation of the churches is to be achieved."

A total of 407 MEPs had in July signed a written declaration prepared by
Demetriou and Italian MEP Iles Braghetto, condemning the pillage of Greek
Orthodox churches and monasteries and the removal of their ecclesiastical
items. 

The declaration called on the European Commission and the European Council
to take the necessary actions to ensure respect for the Treaty and the
protection and restoration of the affected churches to their original Greek
Orthodox status. 

It also called on the Commission and the Council to examine this matter
under the relevant chapters of the negotiations with Turkey. 

According to the Archbishopric, over 500 churches, chapels and monasteries
located in the occupied areas have been destroyed, 45 churches have been
converted into mosques, 27 are used as military depots and one hospital, and
several others are used as storehouses. 

Athanasios Papageorgiou, who is heading a Church project to prepare an
archive of the cultural heritage of Greek Orthodox churches of Cyprus, told
the Mail numerous ecclesiastical items, including 10,000-15,000 icons,
gospels, murals, and sacred vessels had been illegally removed and sold
abroad. 

"The most important and most valuable items were exported by Aydin Dikmen, a
man from Turkey who lives in Munich. The occupying regime gave him
permission and the items were sold to art dealers and private collectors all
over the world; in America, England, France, Switzerland, even as far as
Australia and Japan."

Dikmen, a Turkish art dealer, was arrested in 1998 for trying to sell
Eastern Orthodox art that had been looted from Cyprus during the invasion.

Papageorgiou said the antiquities had been sold without the permission of
the Antiquities Department and the transaction had therefore been illegal.
He also said a 1970 UNESCO Treaty obliged the return of all stolen
artefacts, a treaty which had also been signed by Turkey. 

Asked to comment on the news that funding had been allocated to go ahead
with the project, Papageorgiou said: "The Church is co-operating as much as
possible with the MEPs in order to succeed in this goal." 


http://www.cyprus-mail.com/