The following Lobby for Cyprus letter was sent to The Guardian of London on 15 October 2001 regarding an article promoting the occupied north of Cyprus as a holiday destination for British tourists.

What a shame that while the debate goes on in the media regarding defending freedom, the Guardian publishes a travel feature promoting the stolen lands of 200,000 Greek Cypriot refugees as a holiday destination for British tourists. (The Guardian Travel section, pages 8–9, 13 October 2001)

You promote the occupied north of Cyprus as “unspoilt”, when it is anything but. The population, indigenous for thousands of years was expelled at gunpoint by Turkish troops in 1974. Virtually all remaining Greek Cypriots were coerced to leave in the following years. A concerted attempt has been made by Turkey and its occupation regime to extinguish any trace of Greek heritage and culture by the desecration of churches and monasteries and the renaming of all towns and villages to propagate the lie that the area is and has always been Turkish.

How can an area be “unspoilt” when it has been ethnically and culturally cleansed?

If memories are short at the Guardian I refer you to the article:

‘The rape of northern Cyprus’ John Fielding, The Guardian, 6 May 1976

“The vandalism and desecration are so methodical and so widespread that they amount to institutionalised obliteration of everything sacred to a Greek… we visited 26 former Greek villages. Only four churches from that number could be described as being in decent condition. We found not a single undesecrated graveyard… in some instances, an entire graveyard of 50 or more tombs had been reduced to rubble no larger than a matchbox. In Davlos, the north coast village from which every remaining Greek was forcibly removed one night last year, we found a particularly brutal example… we found the chapel of Ayios Demetrios at Ardhana empty but for the remains of the altar plinth, and that was fouled with human excrement.

…We found the most extensive desecration at Piyi, Styllos, Ayios Seryios, Syngrasis, Gypsos, Trikomo, Lapithos [which you refer to as ‘Lapta’ in the Guardian, 13 October 2001], Ardhana, Davlos, Prastio, Gaidhouras, Milea, Pyrga, Limni, and Palekythro.”

…We found perhaps the most upsetting sight at the tiny Antiphonitis Monastery [which you feature in your article of 13 October 2001], miles up an unmade track…eleventh and twelfth century treasures looted, fifteenth century frescoes plastered with asbestos cement, the newer icons smashed, fires had been lit, and the floor was strewn with bottles and filth. All this needed a special measure of depraved dedication, for it requires time and effort just to make the climb.”

Your reporter comments that he had Bellapais Abbey “almost entirely to myself, something that was to happen repeatedly during my stay”. I refer you to:

‘Death of a village of peace’ John Bierman, The Guardian, 5 July 1976

“Bellapais has been dying by degrees since the beginning of the year when the Turks began moving out in small groups the 700 inhabitants of this hauntingly beautiful village… There are now fewer than 20 people left in the village and they will be gone by the weekend” .

Yours sincerely
Lobby for Cyprus