Reuters
11/24/2009
NICOSIA, Cyprus -- The Orthodox Church announced on Monday (November 23rd) that it has filed a lawsuit against Turkey at the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights for allegedly hampering worship in the Turkish part of the divided island. Orthodox Church lawyer Simos Angelides said the lawsuit concerns 520 churches, monasteries, chapels and Orthodox cemeteries. According to him, the religious rights of Orthodox Christians in the north have been violated because their churches have been either deserted, or turned into mosques, barracks, stables or night clubs. Angelides accused Turkey of "ethnic and religious cleansing" in Cyprus during the Turkish invasion of 1974.
