Jerusalem Patriarchate denies property sales in north Cyprus

THE Jerusalem Patriarchate has denied reports it was planning to sell property in the occupied north, Paphos Bishop Chrysostomos said yesterday.

The reports, published in Politis on Sunday, said that the Jerusalem Patriarchate was engaged in negotiations to sell its land in occupied Kyrenia and Mia Milia.

Reports spoke of around 3,000 donums belonging to the Ayios Ioannis monastery in the village of Koutsoventis on the Pentadaktylos range.

Politis claimed that a Patriarchate representative had flown to the north through Istanbul to negotiate the deal.

Speaking to state radio yesterday, Chrysostomos said he tried to contact the Patriarch as soon as he heard about the matter but could not get through to him.

Later, however, he received assurances through a common acquaintance that there was no such issue and that the Patriarch would soon be sending an emissary to Cyprus to assure the government it had no such intentions.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.