Rizokarpaso environmental protection association chairman Firat Borak on Monday called for the church in the nearby village of Vathylakas to be restored, warning that the structure in its current state of disrepair may be dangerous.

He explained that the church is located in the village’s centre, and said that “this old building, which was once a mosque and later a cultural centre, is now beginning to crumble and is becoming a very dangerous place for children”.

“Such places, especially in villages, can have dangerous consequences,” he said, before also noting the potential positive effects on tourism in the area of the church’s restoration.

“It is often said about the villages in the south of Karpasia, ‘why would people come here?’. This is the simplest example. This and similar historic structures could be made into attractive tourist destinations,” he said.

The inside of the church

However, he added, if work is not done to restore the church in Vathylakas and other similar structures, “people will not visit these villages and historic buildings and the local population will not achieve economic development”.

Vathylakas was historically a Greek Cypriot village, with the village’s original inhabitants remaining in place until November 1976, when they were, according to the Peace research institute Oslo (Prio), forcibly displaced southwards.

After 1976, the village was largely used for the resettlement of Turkish nationals who mainly hailed from the southern provinces of Adana, Gaziantep, Mersin, and Osmaniye.