Flagellum Dei*. The Destruction of the Cultural Heritage in the Turkish Occupied Part of Cyprus

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* “Attila, king of the Huns. He invaded the Roman Empire and was named ‘Flagellum Dei’, the Scourge of God. His name became synonymous to destruction and pillaging.“

“The civilization and tradition of Cyprus, with churches and other monuments and antiquities, a history that reaches back to the 7 millenium BC, is threatened with extinction. In Cyprus, Europe’s frontguard to Asia and Africa, at the doorstep to the 21st century, civilization has regressed by fifteen centuries. It has returned to the ageof Attila, the King of the Huns, whose name became synonymous to destruction and peril.

Attila returned on 1974, when Turkey invaded Cyprus on the basis of decades long plans for the capture of the island. The aggressive operation was described by the Turkish Government as a ‘peace operation’, but the Turkish generals gave it the code name ‘Attila’. The deeds of the Turkish army and of Turkey, from the time of the invasion to the present day, have ‘justified’ the connection of an operation with a name that brings back to memory violence, plunderings and the levelling of civilization.

The destruction has been continuing for thirteen years now. During this period of time the cultural heritage in the occupied part of Cyprus has been subject to destruction and the damageis without precedent. In certain cases antiwuities are destroyed which had survived ten conquerors, rais and calamities. In just a few years the history of millenia is being wiped out. “

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