Around 500 churches, monasteries, cemeteries and other religious sites in the Republic of Cyprus have been desecrated, pillaged, looted and destroyed since Turkey invaded the northern region on July 20th 1974. That prompted Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), co-chair of the Congressional Hellenic Caucus, to introduce a bipartisan resolution calling for the protection of religious sites and artifacts from and in Turkish-occupied areas of northern Cyprus as well as for general respect for religious freedom. The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the resolution, H. Res. 1631. “Congress has shown it is making international religious freedom a priority,” said Bilirakis, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the International Religious Freedom Caucus. Turkish soldiers have been witnessed throwing icons from looted churches onto burning pyres and leaving churches open to both looters and vandals. “This measure highlights the continued violations that are taking place in Cyprus even as it celebrates the 50th anniversary of its independence, which is certainly a milestone, but is also a reminder that roughly one-third of Cyprus has been under Turkish military occupation for more than 35 years,” Bilirakis said. The resolution also urges the Turkish government to protect the cultural and religious heritage of the Greek Cypriots living in the northern-occupied areas of the country, who have been prohibited from worshiping freely due to the restricted access to religious sites and continued destruction of the property of the Church of Cyprus. “We’re calling on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to investigate and make recommendations on violations of these religious freedoms,” Bilirakis said. “Additionally, I continue to call on Turkey to remove its troops from Cyprus, remove its settlers, and come to the negotiating table in good faith to find a solution that is just for the Cypriot people.” This resolution also demands that Turkey be held responsible for the continued violations of humanitarian law with respect to the destruction of religious and cultural property in Cyprus. Turkey’s actions in the occupied areas of Cyprus violate its obligations under several conventions to which it is a signatory. “Equal support from my Republican and Democratic colleagues illustrates that Congress can work together in a bipartisan manner when it comes to condemning violations of religious freedom throughout the world,” Bilirakis said. Watch Rep. Bilirakis deliver remarks on the House Floor here. Read H. Res. 1631 here.
II. B92 - Greece: Open up EU path to Serbia
Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas tokd the UN General Assembly that a path for beginning of Serbia’s accession negotiations with the EU should be kept open and clear. He pointed out that acceptance of his country’s initiative to have all Balkans countries in the EU by 2014 would contribute to progress and stabilization of the region. “Such decision would encourage reforms and fulfilling of other obligations by potential EU members which is a condition for their entry into the EU,” the Greek FM pointed out. Droutsas has repeated that EU’s actions in the region “during the breakdown of Yugoslavia” were inadequate and with harmful consequences. There are numerous consequences and the key one is, he stressed, the issue of Kosovo which should be most urgently solved. The voice of the EU should be the most powerful in solving of that issue, the Greek official concluded.
III. REUTERS - Bosnia court jails Croatian war crimes deputy
A powerful Croatian parliament deputy who fled to Bosnia last year to avoid going to jail for war crimes has been sentenced to eight years in prison by a Bosnian court, upholding a Croatian court's earlier verdict. Branimir Glavas was the first senior Croatian official convicted of war crimes committed against Serbs during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. "The court of Bosnia-Herzegovina reached and handed down the verdict under which Branimir Glavas is declared guilty for the criminal act of war crimes against the civilian population," the Bosnian court said in a statement on Wednesday. A Croatian court sentenced Glavas in May 2009 to 10 years over the 1991 torture and killing of Serb civilians in his native town of Osijek, but he fled to Bosnia where he was protected from extradition as a Bosnian passport holder. Since then, Glavas has lived in the village of Drinovci in the southern Herzegovina region where his parents were born. Bosnia and Croatia signed a deal in February to stop people with dual citizenship convicted of a crime in one country from avoiding jail by fleeing to the other, which allowed the Bosnian police to arrest Glavas on Tuesday afternoon. "The court sentenced Branimir Glavas to eight years in prison. The court also ordered a detention for the accused in the duration of nine months at most, or until the court takes a new decision," the court said.
IV. XINHUANET - EC decides to move against France over Roma expulsion
The European Commission said Wednesday it has decided to take legal actions against France over its expulsion of Roma people. After assessing overall situation of the Roma, the commission concluded that the right of every EU citizen to free movement within the European Union (EU) is one of the bloc's fundamental principles, said commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde. The commission believed France has not applied EU rules allowing free movement of EU citizens, she said, so it decided to launch legal actions, including sending an official notification letter to France, which could eventually lead to a court case. France's decision to expulse Roma people in August led to a blazing row between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Union (EU) Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, who compared the expulsions to deportations of Jews during World War II. Though EU authorities agreed that commissioner Reding' s statement overstepped the mark, European leaders all recognized that the commission, in its role of guardian of the EU treaties, has to examine France' s policy and actions towards Travellers. Recent developments in France have led to a detailed exchange between the commission and French authorities on the application of EU law on free movement of people.
V. EURONEWS - Eiffel Tower bomb threat: nothing found
The Eiffel Tower and the area around it in Paris were evacuated for 45 minutes on Tuesday after emergency services received a telephone bomb threat. It was the second such incident in as many weeks involving the landmark. In this latest threat, the fire service received a call from a public phone box in Paris alerting them to a suspicious package. On neither occasion did security forces find any explosives. French officials have said the country is on a heightened level of readiness after receiving a tip-off of a planned suicide attack on the Paris Metro. The interior minister has warned of a real terrorism threat from al-Qaeda militants in north Africa.
VI. BLOOMBERG - Berlusconi Is Set to Win Today's Confidence Vote
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will probably win a confidence vote today after a splinter group that left his party in July promised to back him. Berlusconi, who turns 74 today, outlined five priorities for the remaining 30 months of his term in an hour-long speech to the Chamber of Deputies in Rome. Lawmakers will vote beginning at 7 p.m. on whether to support the premier. A loss would bring down his government. A July 30 split with Gianfranco Fini, co-founder of his People of Liberty party, robbed Berlusconi of an absolute majority in the lower house. Fini’s allies today pledged to back Berlusconi, who also is seeking to broaden his support so he doesn’t have to depend on his former ally. Fini, 58, was ejected from Berlusconi’s party after criticizing the premier for not allowing dissent. “We will vote yes” to the government, European Affairs Minister Andrea Ronchi, a member of Fini’s group, said after Berlusconi’s speech. Fini’s support should guarantee the survival of the government. “It’s in the absolute interest of the country not to risk a political crisis” during a moment of economic “instability,” Berlusconi said in his speech. He called on lawmakers to “make an effort to avoid a crisis, and a commitment to complete the legislature together.”
VII. MOSPAT - Book: "Orthodoxy in China"
A unique book entitled ‘Orthodoxy in China’ has come out. It describes the birth and development of the Orthodox culture in the Celestial Empire. During his official visit to China on 27 September 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev presented the Chairman Hu Jintao with a copy of this book. The book is an academic edition published in Russian and Chinese with rich illustrations. It was prepared for print and published with the blessing of the DECR chairman, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, and through the efforts of his staff members, as well as the Russian Academy of Science’s Institute of the Far East and the Russian-Chinese Business Council. "Russia and China are countries with rich spiritual traditions. At present our countries follow with confidence a path of developing strategic partnership. An important support on this path is provided by the knowledge of our common history, including the history of Orthodoxy in China," Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russian noted in his address to the readers of the book. The volume is published to coincide with the 325th anniversary of Orthodoxy in China. To mark this anniversary, Orthodox divine services have been resumed in several churches in Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai – a result of long-standing efforts to find new ways in which the Russian Orthodox Church could help normalize the situation of the Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church and to broaden cooperation with religious, public, academic and governmental bodies in China. Orthodoxy came to China in 1685 when a Russian priest by name of Maxim Leontyev came to Beijng together with Cassock captives. In 1712, a Russian Orthodox Mission was established in China, which acted for a long time as Russia’s diplomatic representation. The linguistic and cultural studies undertaken by the Mission made a considerable contribution to the development of sinology in Russia and the world. The Mission’s principal concern however was the preaching of the Gospel. By the 20th century, a numerous Chinese flock had formed in China with their own national clergy and later episcopate. The Chinese Autonomous Orthodox Church was a fruit of spiritual work of Russian missionaries and Russian re-settlers in China, but the development of this young church body was tragically interrupted by the Cultural Revolution. Nevertheless the Orthodox Church in China has survived to this day. Today there are about 15 thousand Orthodox believers there.