Icons missing from Apostolos Andreas

PRICELESS golden icons and precious jewellery items have been missing for the last seven years from the Apostolos Andreas monastery in the occupied Karpass peninsula and the Turkish Cypriot authorities have refused to reveal where they are items are, DIKO deputy Zacharias Koullias told the House Refugee Committee yesterday.

Koullias said the icons and the jewellery, given as ex-voto offerings, had been at the monastery since well before 1974.

“Seven years ago, the Turkish Cypriot authorities moved the items to a property belonging to the Monastery, a building in Rizokarpasso. But soldiers later removed the items from there after beating up a man who tried to stop them. I only found out about all this a few days ago from people living in the occupied areas, but when I asked the authorities where the items were, they refused to tell me citing security reasons,” Koullias said.

“I fear the heritage may have been smuggled to Europe to be sold on the black market,” he said.

Koullias said the icons and the jewellery were items of national heritage and pleaded with the government to try to locate them.

The Antiquities Department had told Koullias it was unaware of the matter, the deputy said.

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