934th meeting – 6-7 July 2005

Item 2.2

Situation in Cyprus

The Representative of Cyprus made the following statement:

“I promised last time to provide the Committee with some information on the issue of a Turkish Cypriot cemetery in Lakatamia as raised by the Turkish delegation. The facts are as follows:

The Turkish Cypriot cemetery in the said municipality was abandoned during the 1950s. No tombstones or other markings existed. Recently, a small part of the cemetery was required for the widening of an existing road adjacent to it. As in the similar case of a Christian orthodox cemetery in the vicinity, all remains were exhumed by a team of scientific experts and reburied in another spot within the respective cemeteries.

Concerning the Armenian cemetery in the government controlled area referred to by the Turkish delegation, I would like to inform the Committee that all works in the cemetery are carried out by the Armenian Church of Cyprus, in co‑operation with the competent authorities of the Republic.

On a more general note, I would like to inform the Committee that since April 2003 there has been an increase in funds for the reparation, maintenance and improvement of Turkish Cypriot ancient monuments, mosques and cemeteries in the government controlled area. 

In 2004, more than half a million Euros have been used on projects for the cleaning, reparation and renovation of Muslim sites, while for 2005 an amount of 650,000 Euro has been allocated. My government takes utmost care of all Muslim monuments and does not in any way modify their use, whether religious, archaeological or cultural.

In this context, I make an appeal to Turkey to take all necessary measures to redress, even at this very late stage, the sad situation of the religious heritage of the occupied part of Cyprus where there are 502 churches, 17 monasteries and countless cemeteries (Orthodox, Armenian, Maronite and Jewish). These monuments have survived throughout the centuries in order to end up now as hotels and recreational sites; some have been reduced to stables, hay barns and even ammunition depots, or lie bare without their frescoes, mosaics and icons removed and illegally exported and sold, or otherwise badly damaged. 

Surely something can be done to put words into concrete action.”