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ARMENIAN CEMETERY IN CYPRUS IN PITIABLE STATE
By Georges der Parthogh
AZG Armenian Daily
04/04/2006
The Nicosia Municipality has threatened to sue the Armenian Church
for failing to implement a court order demanding that the 300-year-old
Armenian cemetery be restored.
Doctor Vahakn Atarayan, Armenian representative in the Cypriot
Parliament, said that eleven months have passed since the municipality
asked the church to bring the historic 18th century cemetery back to
its pre-bulldozer state, but nobody is dealing with the problem and
nothing is being done.
Last April demolition work at the. cemetery was halted after the
Ministry of the Interior took out an injunction to stop the work.
The Armenian Prelature had started digging up the graves, as part of
its plane to put remains together in a new communal pit adjacent to
the small chapel, and convert the area to a park, while rumors were
ripe that it would be sold to real estate developers.
The late Bedros Kalaydjian who was the Armenian Representative at the
time had deplored the decision of the Church and had said that "the
demolition was carried out in an unprofessional manner and caused a
lot of grief and an insult to the memory of the deceased."
Berge Kouyoumdjian is a concerned member of the community. In a letter
to the local press he said: "It is almost the first anniversary of
the cemetery's cynical desecration, and I remember that soon after
this outrage, the municipality delivered an order with a time limit of
one month, instructing those responsible to restore this sacred site,
repair the chapel and clean up the area.
Nearly a year on, this order remains ignored and. the cemetery is
now in an even worse state. There is rubbish all over and the area
looks like a landfill site. Shards of human bone crushed by the
bulldozers and mixed into the soil are scattered on the surface so
that it is impossible not to walk on them. Historic headstones lie
in a heap and exhumed bones fill black rubbish bags in the derelict
chapel. When will we, the descendants of over 400 souls buried there,
see restoration work started on this European heritage site?
By Georges der Parthogh
AZG Armenian Daily
04/04/2006
The Nicosia Municipality has threatened to sue the Armenian Church
for failing to implement a court order demanding that the 300-year-old
Armenian cemetery be restored.
Doctor Vahakn Atarayan, Armenian representative in the Cypriot
Parliament, said that eleven months have passed since the municipality
asked the church to bring the historic 18th century cemetery back to
its pre-bulldozer state, but nobody is dealing with the problem and
nothing is being done.
Last April demolition work at the. cemetery was halted after the
Ministry of the Interior took out an injunction to stop the work.
The Armenian Prelature had started digging up the graves, as part of
its plane to put remains together in a new communal pit adjacent to
the small chapel, and convert the area to a park, while rumors were
ripe that it would be sold to real estate developers.
The late Bedros Kalaydjian who was the Armenian Representative at the
time had deplored the decision of the Church and had said that "the
demolition was carried out in an unprofessional manner and caused a
lot of grief and an insult to the memory of the deceased."
Berge Kouyoumdjian is a concerned member of the community. In a letter
to the local press he said: "It is almost the first anniversary of
the cemetery's cynical desecration, and I remember that soon after
this outrage, the municipality delivered an order with a time limit of
one month, instructing those responsible to restore this sacred site,
repair the chapel and clean up the area.
Nearly a year on, this order remains ignored and. the cemetery is
now in an even worse state. There is rubbish all over and the area
looks like a landfill site. Shards of human bone crushed by the
bulldozers and mixed into the soil are scattered on the surface so
that it is impossible not to walk on them. Historic headstones lie
in a heap and exhumed bones fill black rubbish bags in the derelict
chapel. When will we, the descendants of over 400 souls buried there,
see restoration work started on this European heritage site?