I wonder how many mosques in Greece are still standing?
Luigi Geninazzi? Who is this Luigi Neonazzi? (for that's what his name
Geninazzi means!)
None of this would have happened had the Greeks not pushed the Turks into
a
corner and kept the pressure up from 1963 to 1974. Why, my house was
looted
and burned down on New Year's Day 1964. Who looted and burned down my
house?
The Greeks of course. And why? Simply and purely because I was a Turk. And
that day they looted and burned down 8 Turkish homes in that neighborhood.
I think it is high time the Greeks admitted their follies. They kept
shooting themselves in the foot until they brought it upon themselves.
Can the Cyprus I knew as a child ever come back? I rather doubt it. Too
much
water has passed under the bridge and nobody are willing to accept their
mistakes.
But do I blame all the Greeks? Of course not. I am not stupid. But
co-existing as individuals is not the same as coexisting as communities.
I've said this before and I'll say it again. The only way Cyprus can
really
be united again is if and when Turkey also joins the EU. Then we'll get a
real chance. And even then it will be some form of federation if both
sides
are sensible about the issue. By both sides I mean the Turkish and the
Greek
sides including the motherlands as well as the Cypriot Turks and Greeks.
And Panta, you are not helping by becoming the Internet whore of an
extremist Greek organization. Shame on you girl. You have reached your
geriatric age and are still sowing seeds of hatred and mistrust.
Go and rub yourself, old girl. You might even get more pleasure like that,
you Internet whore! After all it wasn't me but a Greek chap who called you
the "POUTANA (WHORE) OF CAIRO". I don't know why he called you that (<W>)
but you surely qualify for the title "THE WHORE OF THE USENET". A whore
sells her body but you have sold not just your body but your soul as well.
--
choronik
======
"Panta Rhei" <kryos@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:g06keo$meb$4@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://tinyurl.com/3ztm62
>
> "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 sup****t 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 wor****p 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.
>
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