Church of Cyprus Sues Turkey

Nicosia, Apr 8 - The Church of Cyprus has decided to take legal action against Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the destruction of Cyprus’ religious heritage in the Turkish occupied areas of the island.

Archbishop of the Church of Cyprus Chrysostomos II has said that the decision "is final" and added that the legal advisors of the Cypriot Church are ready to proceed with the case.

"We have already assigned the case to our lawyers and we are in the process of registering all properties of the Church of Cyprus all over the island with the Land Registry", he said.

Since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus about 550 churches have been desecrated and 15,000-20,000 icons are missing, believed to be stolen or sold on the black market.

Some Orthodox Churches situated in the Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus have been converted to mosques, military camps, barns, mortuaries or silos.

- Embassy of Cyprus in Washington D.C.

It's about time the Church stood up to Moslem injustice.

Readers may remember Sandro Magister's report, 'Cyprus: Portrait of a Christianity Obliterated' from two years ago. I doubt much has changed since.

An excerpt:
...most of the mosques in Greek Cypriot territory have been restored, while [the Turkish Cypriot] government has authorized the transformation of churches into restaurants and hotels

What is this, but yet another example of the famous Moslem double-standard?

If we live in a world where the strong rule and the weak submit, why is it that whenever Muslim regions are conquered, such as in the case of Palestine, the same Islamists who would never concede one inch of Islam’s conquests resort to the United Nations and the court of public opinion, demanding justice, restitutions, rights and so forth?

As in Kosovo, the Moslem occupiers of Northern Cyprus have undertaken a similar, systematic obliteration of historic Christian culture. The world vexes over Iran, supposedly the "most active state sponsor of terrorism", when eyes should be on Turkey - genocide of its native Christian population is not known in Iran.

I am doubtful that bring this matter before the ECHR would resolve anything. The Court, based in Strasbourg, is dominated by the same politically correct Western European ilk who run the bureaucratic monster in Brussels. The West has always been slow to respond to the needs of Eastern Christians; as we have witnessed in recent months, neither do they care.

Virtually all of Western Europe has consented to the surrender of Kosovo and Metohija to Albanian crime lords. Earlier in 1999, NATO killed a few thousand Serbs then too stupid to realize their fellow Christians didn't give a @#$% about them.

Why, in the 17th century, France provoked Russia to war when Napoleon III forced Ottoman Turkey to recognise France and the Roman Catholic Church as the sole Christian authority in the Holy Land, with control over the Christian holy places and possession of the keys to the Church of the Nativity, formerly held by the Orthodox Church. Looking back further, we remember the Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade and the establishment of the Latin Empire. We remember how the Teutonic Knights, seeing how the Orthodox Novgorodians were in need of salvation as much as the pagans, invaded the Russian territories, only to be inflicted a crushing defeat by the 21-year-old St Alexander Nevsky.

When they were Christian, the Western powers were reluctant friends at best. Now, one does not expect much help from these postmodern, secular states.