Cypriot FM meets Jerusalem Patriarch

Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis referred to the destruction of the island’s religious heritage, in Turkish occupied Cyprus, during a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday with Jerusalem Patriarch Theophilos III at the Patriarchate.

Minister Marcoullis and her delegation, in Israel on a three-day working visit, had visited earlier on the church of the Holy Sepulcher.

In her meeting with the Patriarch, Marcoullis referred to efforts by the government and the Church of Cyprus to protect the cultural and religious inheritance of the island, in the northern Turkish occupied part of the country.

She told Patriarch Theophilos that 60 thousand icons have disappeared in the Turkish occupied north of Cyprus since the 1974 Turkish invasion.

The Minister said her visit to Israel aims at further enhancing relations between the two countries.

The Patriarch of Jerusalem informed Marcoullis on the Patriarchate’s work and the problems it is facing.

Marcoullis signed the visitors’ book where she conveyed the wishes and appreciation of the government and people of Cyprus.

On Tuesday Marcoullis will have a working breakfast with the Cyprus–Israel Friendship Group at the Knesset.

She will have a working lunch with her Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni and will be received by President Shimon Peres.

Marcoullis will meet opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu before returning to Cyprus on Wednesday.