Destroy At War, Rebuild In Peace! The Cultural Heritage Of Cyprus Being a National Property At Wartime And Universal Heritage At Peace

Abstract

Cyprus is an island on the crossing roads of Asia, Africa and Europe. From its earliest times several civilisations left a rich culture heritage which is an amalgamation of the Asian, African and European cultures. However, like every other place that experienced war, it was subjected to severe violations in its history during each new sovereign particularly at war time. Sometimes, although the existing ones were reused for economic reasons although they were always altered with the stamp of the identity of the new ruler. Vouni Palace, is one of the early example for this case which is thought to have been built during the Persian rule then turned into a Hellenistic palace. The Crusaders destroyed many Byzantine castles and orthodox churches while the Genoese and later Venetians removed all banners of the Lusignans from the walls of the city. Many Latin buildings were harmed during the bombardment by the Ottoman or demolished by the occupants in need of stone to reinforce the walls. However, these buildings were all used by the Ottomans with some alterations for economical reasons while Orthodox were given the privilege to restore their churches. It is an admirable act to see that still these monuments bear the grotesque ornaments in rather good condition while many Ottoman inscriptions on the buildings in the southern part of the island are badly defaced, the marble inscription of the Paphos Castle being an example. Domes, being symbols of Islam were replaced with gabled trussed roofs in the process of restoration or even demolished during the British Period. It is interesting that British period neglected Turkish monuments since it was treated under a separate committee. The law of antiquities also did not consider the protection of the monuments built after the Turkish conquest. Further sad events took place particularly after mid-1950s until 1980s in the political events. But due to a sudden change of policy particularly to impress the European Union to gain membership by the Greek government of Cyprus, a new attempt to restore these became a priority in the southern part of the island. Through this movement, several Turkish monuments have been restored and opened to prayers as Islamic places which had in fact another implied aim to attract Arab tourist. On the other hand recently the Orthodox churches neglected and harmed during 1974 war, had

* Assoc. Prof. Dr., Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Architecture, Gazimagosa-Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. e-mail: netice.yildiz@emu.edu.tr; yildiznetice@yahoo.com 1538 been recently cleaned and restored as far as possible. Burglary cases from the Greek monuments caused great upheavals at international platforms while the Turkish objects stolen from the museums had never been thoroughly investigated by international organizations. Briefly to say, this paper will deal with this kind of destroys and restorations of the historical heritage of Cyprus during war and at peace and aims to bring further suggestions for their protection and preservation not as national property but mainly as universal heritage during peace or war times.