A/HRC/22/51/Add.1 C. The situation of different religious communities 1. Christian minorities in the northern part 42. While Greek Orthodox Christians constitute by far the largest religious community in Cyprus, their members in the northern part have dwindled to a small minority of only a few hundred people, many of whom are elderly. When travelling to their villages, the Special Rapporteur visited a number of derelict churches, some of which were sadly misused by the village youth for sporting purposes such as football games. Others have been turned into mosques, community halls or youth centres, or are used for storage. The Special Rapporteur saw the deplorable conditions of historic monuments, including the Apostolos Andreas monastery, which requires repairs and restoration. Some churches had obviously been exposed to vandalism and looting. People from Christian Orthodox villages showed him cemeteries where many crosses and tombstones had been broken. Reportedly, some acts of vandalism had occurred recently. Members of the Christian Orthodox communities seem to have little trust in the local “police” and thus generally refrain from asking for protection or remedies. 43. One of the worries highlighted by the Christian Orthodox village population in the northern part was the limited presence of priests in the area. The Special Rapporteur was told that they are only available once or twice a month and sometimes not even for religious services at Easter or Christmas. He also heard reports about intimidation by “police” taking photographs and videos of worshippers. When asked about the disruption by the “police” of a Christmas ceremony in 2010,6 however, the worshippers declared this had been an atypical, isolated incident in recent years. 44. Even though the Christian Orthodox community runs a Greek school in the northern part, there is a general feeling that young people will likely leave the villages and that the community has no long-term prospects in the area. In addition, unsettled property issues and fear of deprivation of real estate, in particular in connection with a restrictive and unfair handling of inheritance claims by the “administration” in the northern part, continue to cause bitterness in the community. 45. Members of the Greek Orthodox minority in the northern part opined that their condition has clearly improved in recent years, owing chiefly to the opening of the crossing points between northern and southern parts since April 2003. They can travel freely and receive visits from family members, relatives and friends living in the southern part. Given these opportunities, they no longer feel isolated, which is an enormous improvement in comparison with their situation prior to 2003. Moreover, restrictions on holding religious services in churches – still deemed necessary by the de facto authorities for various “security reasons” – have recently been relaxed to a certain degree. 7 Since March 2011, the minimum number of days required to make an application for religious services has been reduced from 30 to 10 working days and the de facto authorities indicated that Greek Cypriots living in the northern part could hold religious services on any day of the week without permission if they were conducted by two designated Greek Cypriot priests at three churches located near the areas where they reside.8 The Special Rapporteur saw the more or less acceptable conditions of a number of churches currently used for religious purposes by the Christian Orthodox community in the northern part. Also, relations with the Turkish Cypriot neighbouring population seem to have improved, as people on both sides have, mostly on their own initiative, started to learn the language of the other community. 6 7 8 A/HRC/18/51, p. 53 (allegation letter of 17 February 2011). Ibid. (reply of 3 May 2011). A/HRC/19/22, para. 35. 11