[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 692-693]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            NORTHERN CYPRUS

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. President, I rise today to return to the issue of the 
legacy of the invasion and ongoing occupation of Northern Cyprus and 
related human rights violations in the region. The disruption of a 
Christmas liturgy at the Orthodox Church of Agios Synesios, in 
Rizokarpaso, by the security services is appalling and should be 
roundly condemned by people of good will. The town, located in the 
Karpas region, is an anchor for the remnant of the once thriving Greek 
Cypriot community, now numbering several hundred mainly aged souls. The 
faithful had gathered at the church one of only a handful of Orthodox 
places of worship in the occupied area to have survived intact for a 
rare service. According to reports, members of the security services 
entered the church while the liturgy was being celebrated, ordered a 
halt to the religious service, and forced the worshipers and the priest 
out of the building before locking the doors.
  This sad turn of events has become all too familiar in a region under 
the effective control of the Turkish military. Of the 500 Orthodox 
Christian churches, monasteries, chapels and

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other sacred sites in the north, nearly all have sustained heavy 
damage, with most desecrated and plundered, including cemeteries. A 
mere handful, including the Church of Agios Synesios, may occasionally 
be used for religious services depending upon the whims of the local 
authorities and the military. The disruption of the Christmas Day 
liturgy is an affront to the dignity of those attending the service and 
is part of a disturbing pattern of violation of OSCE commitments on the 
fundamental freedom of religion, including the right of religious 
communities to maintain freely accessible places of worship.
  A related concern has been the tendency of State Department reports 
to downplay the difficulties faced by Orthodox Christians seeking to 
conduct services in northern Cyprus as well as the extent of the 
region's rich religious cultural heritage. I raised my concerns over 
the denial of religious freedom in occupied Cyprus when the Committee 
on Foreign Relations held a nomination hearing for the position of 
Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom and will 
continue to closely monitor the situation in that part of Cyprus.
  Under my chairmanship of the Commission on Security and Cooperation 
in Europe we undertook an examination of the destruction of religious 
cultural heritage in that part of Cyprus. Our findings, along with 
expert testimony were presented at a Commission briefing, ``Cyprus' 
Religious Cultural Heritage in Peril'' held on July 21, 2009. I 
encourage my colleagues and other interested parties to review the 
materials from that event, available on the Commission's Web site, 
www.csce.gov. A Law Library of Congress report: ``Cyprus: Destruction 
of Cultural Property in the Northern Part of Cyprus and Violations of 
International Law'' was also released at the briefing. In addition to 
documenting the extensive destruction of such sites, the briefing also 
touched on infringements of the rights of Orthodox Christians in 
Northern Cyprus to freely practice their religion.
  Those responsible for the interruption and abrupt forcible ending of 
the Christmas service at the Church of Agios Synesios should issue a 
formal apology for the boorish act of repression and I call upon all 
authorities in northern Cyprus to remove restrictions on the free 
exercise of freedom of religion and other basic human rights in this 
part of the country under their control.

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