CYPRUS: St. Nicholas Cathedral is now a mosque under Turkish occupation – IOTW Report

CYPRUS: St. Nicholas Cathedral is now a mosque under Turkish occupation

DC: A devastating fire ravaged France’s Notre Dame Cathedral earlier this month, prompting worldwide heartbreak, commitments of rebuilding funds, and a vow to restore the structure from the French president. Meanwhile, the Notre Dame of Cyprus, St. Nicholas Cathedral, is used as a mosque in the northern part of the country, which has been illegally occupied by Turkey for nearly 50 years.

St. Nicholas, the most majestic structure in Famagusta, was constructed between 1298 and 1312 in the Gothic style. Kings of the House of Lusignan went to this church to be ceremonially crowned Kings of Jerusalem after they had been crowned as Kings of Cyprus in the St. Sophia Cathedral (now Selimiye Mosque) in Nicosia.

However, the Cathedral was transformed into a mosque with the addition of a mihrab and a minaret and renamed the “Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque” in 1954, after the commander of the 1570 Ottoman attack against Cyprus.

“In 1570 the Ottoman invasion which took Nicosia, then Famagusta, in hideous and bloody sieges, marked the end of the natural life of the edifice as a place of Christian worship,” according to Michael Walsh, a professor of art and archaeology.

“Inside it was denuded of all decoration and Christian referencing in keeping with Islamic attitudes on graven images and heathen idols in the house of God. Sculptures were removed, destroyed or disfigured. Relics, such as the Water Pitcher from the Marriage of Cana in Galilee, disappeared into history, and the Royal tombs of James II (1473) and James III (1474) were both destroyed.”

The Ottoman occupation of Cyprus lasted until 1878. Britain then assumed administration of the island, and annexed it in 1914, after the Ottomans entered the First World War on Germany’s side. Cyprus became an independent Republic in 1960, and then a member of the United Nations and the European Union.

In 1952, Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). 22 years later, in 1974, Turkish forces invaded Cyprus once again, and captured the northern part of the island, which they illegally occupy to this day.

During the campaign of invasion and ethnic cleansing, around 4,000 Greek Cypriots were allegedly murdered. The Cypriot government maintains that thousands of Greek-Cypriot civilians were arbitrarily arrested by the Turks, and many remain missing. The European Commission on Human Rights reported on the rape of several Greek Cypriot children and women, from ages 12 to 71, by Turkish troops. The nearly 200,000 Greek Cypriots who until then lived in the northern part of the country were terrorized by Turkish armed forces into fleeing their homes.

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4 Comments on CYPRUS: St. Nicholas Cathedral is now a mosque under Turkish occupation

  1. Re-Arm the Greeks and remove the nukes from Incirlik, change all the NATO codes. take back or destroy any sensitive or advanced military equipment and sever diplomatic and commercial ties to Turkey while giving them notice that they’ve been kicked out of NATO. On the QT let any Turkish Military Officer corps that the US nor any NATO countries would oppose a military coup. That would lead Erdogen a choice of Iran, Russia or China none of which the people would be happy with and they may actually welcome or demand the Military take over and remove the mullah’s and return to a secular government.

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  2. Its not allah that is the muzzie god but satan and this is a spiritual war we are in. They are slowly taking over the world unless The Lord interviens because man doesnt seem to being doing much to stop it.stand fast-keep the faith and pray for The Lords intervention soon..

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