NGAVRIE@ISUCARD.BITNET (Nick Gavrielatos (515) 294-6887) (01/12/90)
Kai egw auto skeftomouna. Paidia opoios to exei parakaleitai poly thermws, na to metafrasei sta agglika kai na to steilei kai sto scg, kai sto sct! Mh xathei auth h eukaria. Nikos Gavrielatos NGAVRIE@ISUCARD
tlmail@HPLABSB.HPL.HP.COM (Ted Laliotis - special mail drop) (01/19/90)
>From the West German Weely DER SPIEGEL (1/90, pp.121-126; Translation
is unofficial)
IN AN OCEAN OF THE TURKS
"The northern part of the island that is occupied by the Turks is a
haven for art robbers, dealers of dope, and forgers of quality products:
it's a pirates' island".
An old Turk comes around and opens the church. Out of the dark glistens
the wall of icons, the breeze moves the crystal lantern that descends
from long chains, an old Greek Bible is laying there opened.
The Apostle Andreas cloister that lies in the furthermost northern
point of Cyprus is deserted. In the ample court yard there is the
famous water fountain which the holy Andreas struck from the rocks
almost 2000 years ago. Now no one waters his face or hands from the
gushing water.
The cells of the monks are empty. A few women with head covers sit
in front of them. A policeman records the names of every visitor.
Since 1974 when a Turkish invasion army under the code name "Operation
Attila" invaded, the northern part of the island is occupied. The
new border consisting of a wall and barbed wire hermetically separates
the Greeks from the Turks in the north. The holy place of the
peninsula Karpas is for the Greek-orthodox faithful not reachable any
longer.
The Berlin Wall may be broken, the iron curtain between East and West
may fall, but the 200 kilometer long demarcation line across the third
largest island of the Mediterranean and its capital Nikosia is as
impenetrable as was on its first day after the invasion.
There is not a single crossing for the Cypriots.
The talks initiated by the UN secretary Perez de Guellar between
Georgios Vassiliou, the president of the Greek South Republic and
Rauf Denktasch, the president of the Turk Northern Republic regarding
a federation has so far not yielded any results. Both sides blame
each other for the cause of lack of progress.
When the Archbishop of the Greek-Orthodox church of Cyprus, Chrysostomos,
attempted to celebrate a mass on the 30th of November with 500 of his
followers, he was refused entry into the north.
The Archbishop saved himself from sorrowful impressions, because on a
trip to the cloister it is apparent why the church requires the pro-
tection of the police.
What the Osmnic conquerors of the island managed to do prior to 1570
is now continued by their heirs. For over 400 years the new Moslem
masters transformed graceful Gothic cathedrals into mosques, by
adding plumb minarets to the masterpieces of the French architects.
For example, out of St. Sofia became the Selimiye mosque, out of
St. Nikolaus in Famagusta became the Lala-mustafa mosque. The former
cloister Bellapais in Kyrenia is laying now in ruins.
Today in the North even the humblest chapel of the Greeks is now
desecrated. The white churches, whose bell towers beacon from afar
in the winter sun, mirror a world that no longer exists. Many
churches have been transformed into mosques, others disintegrate or
are used as stalls for goats and sheep.
There are no more crosses on the tops of the church towers, they have
been removed. The bells do not ring any longer, because the ropes
have been cut off. Only the storms make the bells ring. A few towers
appear to be like projectiles directed towards heaven, since the
Turks added rocket-like noses to convert them to minarets.
Along the coast everything is in ruins. Most of them were hotels and
restaurants. They belonged to the Greek Cypriots, who were expelled
towards the south of the island. Upon questioning the owners
of the rubbles that are located in beautiful country-sides the
inhabitants shrug their shoulders. That must be foreigners.
Varosha appears like a ghost town. The deserted southern part of the
town of Famagusta, which is in the modern predominately Greek part of
the town, has 58 mostly large hotels. It is surrounded by barbed wire
and is empty of people. It is guarded by a Turk soldier with drawn
bayonet.
On the way to the Andreas cloister in a meadow between grazing sheep
lies the Byzantine chapel Kanakaria, which since the 14th century
enlightened the believers with its fresques and mosaics, until the
international Mafia struck.
They carefully dismantled four, approximately one quarter square meter
large mosaics from the ceiling of the chapel. It is a beardless Christ,
two large apostles and an archangel and they were smuggled out of the
country. An art dealer in Indianapolis (USA) acquired them in July 1988
for $1.2 million and subsequently sold them for 20 million dollars.
A United States Court subsequently brought the trading to an end and
ordered the return of the art treasure to the Greek-orthodox church of
Cyprus (South). The damaged church continues to be used as a sheep
stall, whereby large parts of ancient fresques rot away. Only the
naked copula shines in fresh white.
Innumerable church treasures, among them icons which are hundreds of
years old, have been stolen from former orthodox churches in the northern
part of Cyprus and have been sold in the international art market,
according to the Society of Endangered People.
Among them are the frescos stemming from the 13th or 14th century which
originated from the former St. Thermoniarois church in the neighborhood
of famagusta. It was expertly dismantled into 34 pieces, it was taken
out of the country and sold for one million dollars to someone.
"Our country is being plundered" laments Osker Oxgur, the head of the
opposing Republican Turkish Party. But no one stops the robbers".
Since Denktasch declared his part of the island as the Turkish republic
of Northern Cyprus in the year 1983, the island is considered an inter-
national pariah. It is not recognized by a single country, except by
Turkey. It is a pseudo republic" declares the Frankfurter Rundschau,
a West German newspaper.
When President Denktasch wants to travel to foreign countries, other
than Turkey, he has to use a Turkish passport. In postal matters his
country is a part of the Turkish harbor city Mersina, international
telephone connections require the prefix of Turkey.
The northern part of Cyprus is not accessible to Interpol. It is not
accessible to international law, it is the territory of dubious
businesses. Europe's outlaw republic has acquired the status of a
pirates' island and a center of weapons and drugs, according to Dogu
Perincek, the chief editor of the Istanbul news magazine "2000 E Dogrou".
Drugs and weapons from Lebanon are brought on land into the harbor or
Famagusta or secretly to lonely beaches, according to natives. The
weapons are stored for trans-shipment, and the raw materials refined
for drugs.
It is claimed that in the Turkish harbor of Mersina 60 million Mark's
worth chemicals needed for the production of heroin were confiscated,
before it could be transported to North Cyprus, according to the
opposition politician Alpay Durduran. He is convinced "somewhere there
must be a huge heroin factory on our island".
The officials do not do anything about it, nor the 30,000 soldiers who
normally view every place with suspicion. The criminals feel so secure
that even pirate manufacturers conduct their forgery business completely
openly.
For instance, in a factory in Famagusta, sportswear of the Swabian brand
boss is manufactured. In Kyrenia on the north coast the sportswear out-
fit of Lacoste is made and sold very cheaply. A polo shirt with crocodile
is sold in the factory for 8 Marks, a jogging outfit for about 24 Marks.
The newest products of almost all luxury goods are shown in the display
windows.
The tuned cars of southern German production, mostly Mercedes or BMW, in
which fashionably dressed young men race through Kyrenia, use mostly
German license plates, which also are forged.
Above all, the native Turkish Cypriots view the development in their own
country with bitterness. In the degeneration of the customs they recognize
the symptom of the increasing turkification of their old country.
Many admit without hesitation that they are closer to the Greek speaking
southern Cyproites than to the "blackbeards", as they disparingly call
the Turks from the mainland.
"We have another culture as the one in Anatolia", declares, for instance
Cemal, a 55 year old property owner near Famagusta, who was born in the
Greek Limassol. "We feel as if we are Europeans". Opposition politician
Durduran, who had a bomb explode in front of his house, declares, "I am
a Turk, but above all I am a Cypriot".
The Turks from the island, believe that they are better educated, are
more broad-minded and more law-abiding than their brothers from the main-
land. They too are Moslems, but are much more liberal; their women and
daughters do not wear head covers. A German woman living in the northern
part of Cyprus reports that blond Europeans can count on the help of
the Cypriots if an Anatolian tries to be too amorous.
Their number increases steadily. According to the Cyprus expert of the
newspaper Milliyet in Istanbul, Cetin Yetkin, the northern part of the
island "is being partitioned again".
Naturally there are no official numbers related to the settlers from the
mainland. Inquiries from the opposition in the parliament have not been
answered so far, reports the chief of the Republicans, Ozgur. The number
of Turkish soldiers is considered to be a state secret. The emigrants
enter as tourists and remain as cheap labor in the land.
As desired they are awarded citizen's rights by the national Unity party
which is close to Denktasch. The voting public is thereby manipulated
as is claimed by the opposition party.
The recent arrivals make themselves comfortable in houses and land, whose
legal Greek owners live across the border in the southern part of the
island.
Even Denktasch and the elite of his party, according to the opposition have
taken material advantage of the expulsion of the Greeks, and therefore, are
equally opposed to any changes, just as the "blackbeards".
For the mayor of the Turkish parts of the island capital Nikosia and the
opposition leader Mustafa Akinci, it is clear that "the governing party
and the settlers see the status quo as a solution of the Cyprus problem".
This explains, that more and more Turkish Cypriots doubt that their own
country will have a reasonable future. About 30,000 of them have left
the island and settled in England or Australia during the last 15 years
since the Turkish invasion. There they have found a new home.
Their flight has changed the population structure further to the
disadvantage of the natives. Exact figures are not available, as
Ankara has not disclosed the population count of 1985, according to
opposition leader, Duradan.
According to consistent estimates approximately 165,000 people currently
live in the northern part of Cyprus, of which at least 50,000 have
arrived from the mainland in the recent years. The trend is increasing
even further. "If this trend increases even further", according to the
fears of Cypriot Ozgur, "we will be a minority in our own country at
the latest in 10 years".
Only international pressure will prevent the northern part of Cyprus from
becoming a province of Turkey, declares his compatriot, Durduran. "Then
we will disappear in the ocean of Turks".