TURKISH COFFEE AT SOURP MAGAR MONASTERY

Simon Aynedjian – Nicosia (Gibrahayer) 1 July, 2005 – It is business
as usual for the kiosk operating at Sourp Magar Monastery. With the
2.5 km road from Halevka junction now open-and the huge billboard
inviting picnickers in the Pantataktylos mountain region-the Sourp
Magar monastery-now in ruins-has suddenly been transformed into a
popular picnic destination.

"Ermeni Manastiri" reads the sign leading to the ruins. There we came
across both Greek and Turkish Cypriots-enjoying traditional shish
kebabs and playing football with the members of their family in front
of the monument erected in 1933 on the occasion of the visit of
Catholicos Sahag of Cilicia.

It is business as usual for the kiosk operating at Sourp Magar
Monastery where everything seems the same-that is only if you’re very
bad at mathematics.

Going back 30 years-you would have found a few scenes missing-but
there are certainly more than a few scenes missing now. One needs not
to be an expert in subtractions in order to grasp this new equation.

Missing are the few hundred Armenia’s who would have been in the
Monastery on a Sunday afternoon: the family christening their
infant-my godfather’s-Karnig Kouyoumdjian’s-christening basin that he
built for his grand children and for the Armenian community of Cyprus.

Actually almost everything is missing except for the desecrated walls
of the Church.
The inconspicuous Cross on the Church- also missing. So are the
windows and the doors in every room-the icons and the pictures-the
candles and the scent-as well as most of the floors.

DANGER warns one sign! I wonder if the holes on the ground are in fact
the sole root of our problems…
The big room facing the sea-where we had our family get-togethers-is
also missing. The floor has simply vanished. I remember-during winter
times-we used to rush to the window-to witness with our naked eye-the
first signs of snow on the multiple peaks of the Tarsus Mountains.

>From the same window one can meet the sea-path through which our own
grandparents entered Cyprus-fleeing the Genocide and the deportations
carried out by the Ottoman Turkish Government against the Armenia’s in
1915.

The same path was later used by the storming Turkish army who invaded
the island 30 years ago.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress