RELIGIOUS HERITAGE IN CYPRUS

Early day motion 1895, tabled 11 July 2007 by Edward O'Hara (Labour). Signed by 35 members.

That this House notes with concern that up to 100 Christian churches in the occupied north of Cyprus have been stripped by looters of all removable items such as floors, bells, altar tables, iconostaseis and over 23,000 icons for sale in the international art black market, that many others are used as stables, barns, cafes, military bases and mosques and that there has been widespread destruction of their associated cemeteries and grave monuments; congratulates Panayiotis Yiacoumi and Doros Partasides on recording this widespread desecration and destruction in their photographic exhibition, The Loss of a Religious Heritage; and calls upon all the communities of Cyprus not to use religious and cultural monuments as objects for hatred but to respect them and work together to protect and preserve them as their shared Cypriot heritage.

Signatures by party: Labour 22, Liberal Democrat 6, Conservative 3, DUP 2, Social Democratic and Labour Party 2.