The US Helsinki Commission under the co-chairmanship of Senator Ben Cardin and Representative Alcee Hastings today held a briefing entitled “Cyprus’ Religious Cultural Heritage in Peril.” Since the Turkish military invasion and continuing occupation of nearly 37% of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus, the devastation of the island’s heritage has been comprehensive. Churches, chapels, monasteries, libraries, museums, and private collections of religious art and antiquities were looted. Religious and historical sites have been damaged, ravaged or allowed to disintegrate. Dr. Klaus Gallas, Byzantine Expert and Art Historian, Dr. Charalampos G. Chotzakoglou, Professor of Archaeology at the Hellenic Open University, and Ms. Michael Jansen, Correspondent and author of the book “War and Cultural Heritage: Cyprus after the 1974 invasion” testified before the Commission on the findings of their extensive research on the cultural and religious desecration of the Cypriot heritage in the northern Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus, in view of the release today of the report by the Law Library of Congress entitled “Cyprus: Destruction of cultural property in the northern part of Cyprus and violations of international law” on the destruction of cultural property in the occupied areas. “An estimated 16,000 icons, wall paintings and mosaics and 60,000 archaeological items have been looted and exported from northern Cyprus. While the Turkish authorities have done little or nothing to halt cultural cleansing and have even contributed to it, individual Turkish Cypriots, who regard the heritage of the island as their own, have castigated the authorities and publicized the pillage”, Ms. Jansen emphasized, while Dr. Gallas, who has traveled and researched extensively on the conditions of cultural and religious sites in the Turkish-occupied Cyprus pre and post 1974, continued on the same train of thought: “Art theft in the Turkish occupied part of the Republic of Cyprus was usually only possible when it was tolerated or happened under the watchful eye of the Turkish military… The loss to Cyprus and to UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage is unimaginable. It can be assumed that the amount of booty we are aware of is only a fraction of the material that has actually been stolen from the Orthodox churches of Cyprus.” Dr. Chotzakoglou stated that “around 500 churches and religious sites belonging to the Greek-Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Cyprus, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Holy Monastery of St. Katherine in Sinai, the Roman Catholic Church, the Catholic-Armenian Church, the Catholic-Maronite Church, the Jewish community, as well as the Protestant Church, along with their cemeteries have been willfully desecrated, pillaged, looted and destroyed”. He added that Christian churches have been converted, inter-alia, into military camps, stables, hotels, theaters, nightclubs and sports clubs, while “the church of the Savior in the Chrysiliou-village is used today as a mortuary”. The Law Library of Congress report, underlines Turkey’s legal responsibility “to refrain from acts of hostility and damage against cultural property located in the northern part of Cyprus; to prohibit and prevent theft, pillage, or misappropriation of cultural property; and to establish criminal jurisdiction to prosecute individuals who engage in acts of destruction, desecration, and pillage […]”. Moreover, in the Report’s concluding remarks it is stated that “under conventional and customary international law, Turkey, as an occupying power, bears responsibility for acts against cultural property. Responsibility also arises based on legal instruments addressing the illicit export and transfer of ownership of stolen cultural objects from the occupied northern part of Cyprus”. The report details the ongoing plundering of religious sites in the Turkish-occupied northern region of Cyprus, and Turkey’s responsibility as the occupying country, a clear violation of international law.
A response to the Rev. Kenneth Locke's article, "Trip to Turkey illuminates Islam,'' The Tennessean, July 13. The good reverend chose to tell one feel-good side of the story while ignoring enough to fill an encyclopedia. Here is just a glimpse of "the rest of the story."Turkey is secular in spite of Islam, not because of it. Turkey's powerful military is what keeps it secular. "Secular Islam'' is an irreconcilable contradiction in terms. The modern secular Turkish Republic was founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who despised everything Arabic and Islamic. He wanted Turkey to be Western, secular, European and democratic. It was Ataturk who conceived of gender equality and secularism for Turkey, in direct contravention to its Islamic leaders. It was Ataturk who issued the order to change the Turkish language alphabet from Arabic to Latin, in order to distance his people from Arabic culture as much as possible. He banned traditional Turkish/Arabic attire and encouraged his fellow countrymen and women to wear Western clothing. • Locke's article studiously avoids Islamic Turkish atrocities in Cyprus and Greece, and the destruction of Orthodox Christian states in Eastern Europe. • Why doesn't Locke ask Christian Armenians, Serbs, Greeks and Hungarians, or Muslim Kurds, about Islamic Turkish "tolerance?" • If Islam is so tolerant of other religions, why is it that 99 percent of Turkey's population is still Muslim, even long after sweeping political and social secularization? • Why does Turkey fail to acknowledge the Armenian holocaust? • What happened to Greek, Armenian and Russian minorities in Turkey? • Does Locke know how Constantinople became Istanbul? Has he done even a minimal amount of homework concerning how Islamic Turks destroyed the entire Orthodox Christian church in the Near East? Turkey wants to be secular now because it benefits its people. It wants full membership in the European Union so that it can export surplus Turkish population to Europe and the Americas. The hard fact that Locke attempts to waltz around is that Islam cannot assimilate into American society for the very simple reason that the Quran is the antithesis of the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Constitution is of the people, by the people and for the people. Americans delegate power to the government to manage their affairs. In stark contrast, the Quran is considered by its adherents to be the literal world of Allah, the Arabic God, and the final arbiter of the law and the affairs of man. Muslims are slaves of Allah, whereas America was founded as a haven and harbor for free and independent people. The Quran is simply incompatible with the Constitution; therefore, the assimilation of Islam into American society, in the long run, is highly unlikely if not categorically impossible.
This week the Greek government has prepared itself to face challenges from Turkey, which is freely flying military planes in the Aegean Sea over Greek territory. The dual-sided relations are very tense, because of the constant violations of the space borders and because of an article, which came out last week in a Turkish governmental newspaper, which announced the beginning of several searches for oil fields in the Aegean Sea, southeast of the Greek island Kastelorizo near to Cyprus. According to the article the Turkish State Oil Company will start searching the sea region outside the Turkish economic zone in the Aegean and near Cyprus. Experts expressed their opinion that the Turkish decision is indicative of the fact that it “does not have any inhibitions to turn its implausible behavior into state laws.” Greek foreign minister Dora Bakoyanni, who was visiting Crete yesterday said that “Greece is dealing with the situation with confidence and is staying calm by always referring to international right laws.” “The limits, within which we are looking for a solution of the Cypriot problem are the decisions of the UN’s security council and the principals and values of the EU,” stressed the Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis in his speech during the anniversary celebration of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Factors, which are creating additional tension between the two countries are also the expected report of the Turkish integration in the EU. The country is supposed to sign an agreement about the illegal emigration and it is expecting the evaluation for its reform progress. The Greek Foreign Ministry noted that strengthening EU’s borders in the FRONTEX program, Greece’s demands for Turkey and the EU to sign an agreement regarding the return of emigrants, and Greece’s warning that it will freeze one more negotiation chapter for Turkey’s entrance in the EU (already eight chapters have been frozen due to the Cypriot problem), are additional reasons for the tension between the two countries.
Despite the offer of an olive branch from Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgian opposition leaders say that they will continue with a mass rally during US Vice President Joe Biden’s July 22 visit to Tbilisi. In a July 20 speech to parliament, Saakashvili proposed early direct elections for Tbilisi’s mayor, a new Central Election Commission, National Security Council meetings with party representation, and joint opposition-government trips to Georgia’s economically sidelined regions. A revamped Georgian Public Broadcasting board of directors with equal government and opposition representation and a board of advisors was also proposed. Opposition parliamentarians countered that the speech contained nothing new. Opposition leaders who do not hold seats in parliament -- the bulk of the country’s opposition movement -- echoed that point of view. "These political sops are not going to help the political crisis. Saakashvili needs to resign," Eka Beselia, a leader of the Movement for United Georgia, told Rustavi-2 television on July 21. Conservative Party leader Zviad Dzidziguri claimed that the offers were "a PR prop that was pulled out specifically for US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit." In his speech, Saakashvili also told his opponents that it is time to move on from "old methods" of political fighting. The "only way" to respond to the Russian troop presence in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia is by "deepening democracy," he said. "Power transition will take place through elections and not through coups, weapons, foreign money and cages," Saakashvili said. "Cages" is a reference to the prison-cell-shaped tents pitched by opposition groups on Tbilisi’s central Rustaveli Avenue to protest Saakashvili’s policies.
The United States continues to support Ukraine's goal of joining NATO and believes Russia has no right to block it, US Vice President Joe Biden said here Tuesday. "If you choose to be part of the Euro-Atlantic integration, which I believe you have, then we strongly support that," Biden told journalists following talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. Biden studiously avoided using the acronymn NATO, but made clear in subsequent remarks that he was referring to the Atlantic alliance and Kremlin designs for influencing it. "We do not recognise -- and I want to reiterate it -- any 'spheres of influence'," Biden said. "We do not recognise anyone else's right to dictate to you or any other country what alliance to belong to or what relationship to have." Yushchenko has long pushed to bring Ukraine, a former Soviet republic of 48 million people bordering Russia, into NATO and was strongly supported in his quest by former US president George W. Bush. That drive by the Yushchenko and Bush administration to bring Ukraine into NATO however proved a major irritant over the years for Russia, which has for centuries looked on Ukraine as practically part of Russia itself. Biden acknowledged that his boss, President Barack Obama, was intent on repairing US relations with Russia, but assured Ukrainians that Washington would not abandon its separate support for Ukraine. "I ensure you and all Ukrainian people that it will not come at Ukraine's expense," he said.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt says that the Sarajevo leadership is to blame for their country being bypassed by the European Commission, EC, in its visa liberalisation plan. “They [Bosnian citizens] are victims of the inability of their political leaders to agree,” Bildt said on Tuesday. “We spent the entire day with the Bosnian leadership, the entire spectrum, telling them to get their acts together, and told them if they don’t the train for visas will pass,” Bildt said, recalling his visit to Sarajevo a couple of weeks ago. “That had some effect and they started to do things but not enough," he said. The Swedish minister confirmed that, two weeks before the EC proposal was published, he visited Bosnia and Herzegovina again to remind politicians that the clock was ticking and warned them: “Accusations [against] the international community can take you absolutely nowhere." On July 15, the EC recommended visa-free travel for Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. Bosnia and Herzegovina's candidacy for this so-called first wave of liberalisation was rejected. the European Commission visa scheme includes citizens of the Republika Srpska entity who hold biometric Serbian passports. With Bosnian Croats already able to secure Croatian passports, after January 1, 2010, Bosnian Muslims are the only citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina who will be unable to benefit from the visa liberalisation scheme.
President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday unveiled a first national plan to teach religion in Russian schools, blunting opposition by offering a secular ethics course as an alternative. An earlier push by the powerful Russian Orthodox Church to make religion compulsory in schools was opposed by rights groups concerned at its growing power in public life since the collapse in 1991 of the atheist Soviet Union. At a meeting with religious leaders, Medvedev said next spring a pilot project would offer 250,000 students the choice of classes in their own religion, a comparative course on religion or secular classes on ethics. Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, praised the proposal. "All the concerns society has expressed will be addressed by this freedom of choice," he said. Currently there are no national standards for teaching religion in Russian schools, which have traditionally been secular.