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Financial Mirror, Cyprus
Feb 16 2007
Cyprus to issue new preservation order on Armenian school
16/02/2007
The Cyprus government's Town Planning Department is expected to issue
a new preservation order declaring a large part of the Melkonian
school's estate in Nicosia as a national heritage site once again.
This has revived hopes within the Armenian community of Cyprus that
the high school and its boarding house could some day reopen to its
former glory, after these hopes were dashed when the previous order
was overturned by a Supreme Court decision in December.
News reports said that a revised preservation order will be put to
Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis for approval within the next two
weeks in order to protect the two main historic buildings and the
forest planted by Genocide orphans along Limassol Avenue.
This move will effectively put an end to efforts by the
administrators of the estate, the AGBU, to develop the land
commercially, something that could only have been achieved after the
previous preservation order was overturned.
According to press reports, the new preservation order has overcome
some legal obstacles that previously allowed the court to overturn
the decision.
`We cannot allow a national treasure to be sold as easily as the
school was closed,' said Vartkes Mahdessian, the Armenian
Representative in parliament who spearheaded a community campaign
last month to save the school from development.
`The community wants to see the school reopen some day and we are all
united in our effort,' he said, adding that `it is unheard of in this
day and age of growing demand for quality schools, that such an
establishment was not regarded as economically viable.'
Mahdessian, the community's Archbishop and community and political
groups representing the majority of Armenians in Cyprus, wrote to the
president of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Minister of
Interior and political party leaders calling for the state to
intervene and save the school property from being sold and destroyed.
They also demanded explanations as to why the defense for the
previous preservation order failed in court.
Members of the community feared rumours of potential bidders showing
interested to buy the 125,000 sq.m. property at a fraction of the
current market value of CYP 75 mln (US$ 158 mln).
`At a time when the Melkonian would have provided shelter and
education opportunities to large numbers of Armenian students fleeing
the troubles in neighbouring Lebanon and Iraq as it has done in the
past, the school is now closed and the administrators can't care less
about preserving Armenian education and culture, nor about the fate
of the Armenian diaspora,' said Alumni spokesman Masis Der Partogh.
`We want the new preservation order to be issued as soon as possible
as we are aware of plans for sporting and other commercial projects
on the school's grounds,' he said.
`Such plans will only benefit the pockets of a greedy few,' he added.
The community also fears that the AGBU will try to give small pockets
of the land to the government in order to secure state support for
commercial development of the rest of the property.
`If the Cyprus government or public institutions accept such offers
they would be regarded as accomplices to this national crime,' Der
Partogh said.
Feb 16 2007
Cyprus to issue new preservation order on Armenian school
16/02/2007
The Cyprus government's Town Planning Department is expected to issue
a new preservation order declaring a large part of the Melkonian
school's estate in Nicosia as a national heritage site once again.
This has revived hopes within the Armenian community of Cyprus that
the high school and its boarding house could some day reopen to its
former glory, after these hopes were dashed when the previous order
was overturned by a Supreme Court decision in December.
News reports said that a revised preservation order will be put to
Interior Minister Neoclis Sylikiotis for approval within the next two
weeks in order to protect the two main historic buildings and the
forest planted by Genocide orphans along Limassol Avenue.
This move will effectively put an end to efforts by the
administrators of the estate, the AGBU, to develop the land
commercially, something that could only have been achieved after the
previous preservation order was overturned.
According to press reports, the new preservation order has overcome
some legal obstacles that previously allowed the court to overturn
the decision.
`We cannot allow a national treasure to be sold as easily as the
school was closed,' said Vartkes Mahdessian, the Armenian
Representative in parliament who spearheaded a community campaign
last month to save the school from development.
`The community wants to see the school reopen some day and we are all
united in our effort,' he said, adding that `it is unheard of in this
day and age of growing demand for quality schools, that such an
establishment was not regarded as economically viable.'
Mahdessian, the community's Archbishop and community and political
groups representing the majority of Armenians in Cyprus, wrote to the
president of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Minister of
Interior and political party leaders calling for the state to
intervene and save the school property from being sold and destroyed.
They also demanded explanations as to why the defense for the
previous preservation order failed in court.
Members of the community feared rumours of potential bidders showing
interested to buy the 125,000 sq.m. property at a fraction of the
current market value of CYP 75 mln (US$ 158 mln).
`At a time when the Melkonian would have provided shelter and
education opportunities to large numbers of Armenian students fleeing
the troubles in neighbouring Lebanon and Iraq as it has done in the
past, the school is now closed and the administrators can't care less
about preserving Armenian education and culture, nor about the fate
of the Armenian diaspora,' said Alumni spokesman Masis Der Partogh.
`We want the new preservation order to be issued as soon as possible
as we are aware of plans for sporting and other commercial projects
on the school's grounds,' he said.
`Such plans will only benefit the pockets of a greedy few,' he added.
The community also fears that the AGBU will try to give small pockets
of the land to the government in order to secure state support for
commercial development of the rest of the property.
`If the Cyprus government or public institutions accept such offers
they would be regarded as accomplices to this national crime,' Der
Partogh said.