The Exhibition

For almost thirty years after the Turkish invasion into Cyprus, information about the condition of Christian monuments in the occupied part of the island or the fate of their mobile relics (icons, manuscripts, consecrated vessels, old-prints etc) was very scarce.

Isolated information that became available at times talked about great destruction, looting and vandalism of churches, desecration of monasteries, conversion of churches into stables and the stealing of their icons and holy vessels. These reports began to be substantiated when byzantine icons from churches in occupied Cyprus, as well as other antiquities (the Hatziprodromou collection for instance) were located in art-markets of Western Europe and America. Looted Byzantine treasures from Cyprus then surfaced as far away as the Far East (e.g. the iconostasis doors of the Hagia Paraskeve Church in the village of Peristerona, Famagusta, was found in Osaka, Japan), while the discovery in the United States of the detached mosaics from Panagia Kanakaria in Lythrankome shocked the world scientific community. There followed the detaching of the frescoes from the church of Hagios Ephemianos in Lysi and their transportation to the Menil Foundation in Texas, as well as of many other wall-paintings and mosaics found in private collections abroad.

            The Church of Cyprus and the legitimate authorities of the Republic of Cyprus, as well as private individuals and institutions have since been active in repatriating many objects still appearing in illegal overseas art-markets or in international Auction-Houses. Reports drawn up by experts appointed by the Council of Europe after visiting some of the occupied monuments have officially confirmed the destruction sustained by the monuments as such.  In their writings they underlined the magnitude of the destruction and sounded the alarm for the need to restore and preserve the monuments, something which has never come about.

            With the partial lifting of movement restrictions across the occupation line (Easter 2003) Kykkos Bishop Nikephoros has actively expressed his concern about the fate of religious cultural heritage in the occupied areas. The Museum of the Holy Monastery of Kykkos has included in its research programmes the first systematic and scientific accumulation of information, including an inventory, a photographic recording and the architectural depiction of occupied Christian churches. A team of experts has been set up to undertake this task.

            Today, as the photographic recording of Christian monuments has been completed, the Museum of the Holy Monastery of Kykkos is holding this exhibition in order to present both to the wider public and to the scientific community, the magnitude of the destruction inflicted and continuing to be inflicted on the cultural heritage of the country.

            The findings on the basis of data collected during a field investigation are shockingly tragic. Monuments of world-wide cultural significance have been violently stripped of their sacred depictions, their screens and icons. A ring of antique smugglers has deliberately sawn off byzantine mosaics and wall-paintings and channeled them to foreign art-markets. The looting was carried out in an unprecedented scale. Apart from the mobile equipment of churches, church bells were also stolen, doors, window shutters, roofs, church floors, even the electrical installations of churches were also dismantled. Tens of belfries were demolished so that Christian churches would not be conspicuous in the villages, while the occupation regime did not even hesitate to demolish mediaeval churches decorated with byzantine frescoes (e.g. the Avgasida Monastery). Following the eviction of the Greek population from their ancestral homes, the colonization by settlers from the depths of Anatolia or the Black Sea and the illegal change of the ancient place names of Cyprus for Turkish ones, there is an ongoing campaign to wipe out completely the only remaining visible sign of Christian presence in the northern part of the island, the churches.

The exhibition presents the actual situation of Christian churches in occupied Cyprus, which are collapsing day by day, while dozens of others are being used by the Turkish army of occupation as military camps and storage facilities. Those of the churches that have not been converted to Ottoman mosques are today being used as football clubs, association premises, theatres, hotels, exhibition venues for works of art, art studios, storerooms, shops, morgues, barns, chicken coops, stables and ox-stalles. Most of the cemeteries have been flattened. Never before in the rich historic past of Cyprus have the intolerance and brutality of its intruders reached such a degree of organized and deliberate destruction.

            Cyprus being today part of the great family of the European Union is obliged to report and demonstrate the continuing pillage and destruction of the country’s cultural heritage, which is not only part of the common European patrimony but of the world at large. Religious freedom, the upholding of principles of justice, the respect and protection of remnants of the historical past constitute fundamental tenets of the European Union, which both communities of the island, the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots, demand that the Turkish occupation forces should observe.

            The need for an intervention to protect and restore the monuments is today more pressing than ever before. In this framework, the Museum of the Holy Monastery of Kykkos is planning a dual utilization of the accumulated material, both through the study of early Christian and mediaeval monuments of occupied Cyprus and public awareness through exhibitions at home and abroad, as well as through special publications.

Dr. Charalampos G. CHOTZAKOGLOU