Yahoo – AFP,
Tom Little, 19 April 2014
Famagusta (Cyprus) (AFP) - With a nighttime procession lit by the glimmer of devotional candles and the flash of smartphone cameras, a church in Turkish-held northern Cyprus hosted its first Easter mass in nearly 60 years.
A Greek
Cypriot priest (L) and a Turkish Cypriot Imam walk next to each other
during a
Good Friday mass in the St George Exorinos church in Famagusta
on April 18,
2014 (AFP Photo/Achilleas Zavallis)
|
Famagusta (Cyprus) (AFP) - With a nighttime procession lit by the glimmer of devotional candles and the flash of smartphone cameras, a church in Turkish-held northern Cyprus hosted its first Easter mass in nearly 60 years.
Hundreds of
Greek Cypriots crossed the Green Line to attend the ceremony at Famagusta's
church of St George Exorinos, in the part of the Mediterranean island occupied
by Turkish forces since 1974.
Bishop
Vassilis, wearing robes embroidered with gold and white and accompanied by a
top Muslim cleric from the Turkish Cypriot community, led a tearful ceremony
around the gardens of the 14th century church in Famagusta's mediaeval walled
city.
Greek
Cypriots attend a Good Friday
mass in the St George Exorinos church
in
Famagusta on April 18, 2014 (AFP
Photo/Achielleas Zavallis)
|
Good Friday
is one of the holiest dates in the Orthodox calendar, but for Pavlos Iacovou,
who helped organise the service, the fact that the mass was taking place in the
Turkish-held side of the island made the day "like a miracle".
He fled his
hometown as an 18-year-old in 1974, when Turkey seized Cyprus’s northern third
in response to an Athens-engineered coup aimed at uniting the island with
Greece.
"We
didn’t believe it would take 40 years to return. We thought it was only for a
few days, and then we would be able to go home," he said wistfully,
remembering the bustling town of his childhood, where his family owned a
seafront hotel.
The
Famagusta of Iacovou’s remembering is an idyllic place, where Turkish and Greek
Cypriots coexisted peacefully, but it was intercommunal troubles before the
island gained independence from Britain in 1960 that ended religious services
at St George Exorinos 58 years ago.
Many of the
Greek Cypriots who attended had fled the town in 1974, but despite the painful
memories a jovial atmosphere settled on the church ahead of the service.
Orthodox
priests milled around as smartly dressed families set out chairs in the gardens,
enjoying the sunshine.
Throughout
the afternoon hundreds of worshippers queued patiently to enter the tiny church
to light candles and hear the liturgy.
One of the
volunteers helping to marshal the crowds in the gardens estimated that 2,000 to
3,000 people had attended the service throughout the afternoon.
'An
island for everyone'
Resting
under the shade of a tree in the gardens as the service was relayed to those
outside by loudspeaker, Constantinos Lordos, 74, a former Greek Cypriot MP,
remembered coming to the church as a boy.
“This is a
very touching ceremony for me. My mother used to bring me here for various
ceremonies, especially for the Easter services,” he said.
He too was
forced to leave his hometown, but he said he bore no bitterness. "I feel
that the island belongs to all of us, it doesn't belong to anyone in
particular,” he said, smiling.
The
worshippers crowded onto pews in the dimly lit church were joined by a clutch
of Turkish and Greek Cypriot politicians, as well as several foreign
dignitaries, including the US ambassador and a representative of the UN.
Greek
Cypriots light candles before the
start of a Good Friday mass in the
St George
Exorinos church in Famagusta
on April 18, 2014 (AFP Photo/Achilleas
Zavallis)
|
"Without
exaggerating the importance, I think this is one step ahead" towards a solution
to the division of Cyprus, Gallanos said.
Events
where Greek and Turkish Cypriots can meet are a message to negotiators in the
island’s UN-brokered peace talks that relaunched in February, Kayalp said.
For some
marking Good Friday at St George’s, a solution cannot come quickly enough, as
the desire to return to their hometown has not faded over the years.
Nicolas
Nicolaou, a 50-year-old businessman, was 10 when he and his family escaped
Famagusta, and he had brought his own two young children to see the place where
he still feels deeply rooted.
"It is
like a dream for us, and we hope that one day we will be back here."
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