TURKISH Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to allow the Church of Cyprus to carry out a long-awaited conservation and restoration project on the Apostolos Andreas monastery located on the Karpass Peninsula in north, it emerged yesterday.

According to reports, Erdogan assured Archbishop Chrysostomos, that he will allow the project to commence soon, commenting that it would be detrimental to permit the monastery to collapse due to neglect.

The monastery is in danger of collapse after having stood abandoned since the 1974 invasion and occupation of the region by Turkey. It was built in the first centuries AD and was a central pilgrimage site for Greek Orthodox worshippers in Cyprus until Turkish forces barred civilian access to it.

Erdogan’s letter to Chrysostomos came as a response to a letter Chrysostomos initially sent to Erdogan requesting that he allow the restoration of the monastery to take place. A firm start date has not been announced.

The Church’s press officer would not comment yesterday, saying he is under strict orders to refrain from speaking to the press at this time. But he did say that Chrysostomos may address the issue at a conference of the island’s bishops taking place today, after which the Church may make more detailed statements to the public.

“We have to wait to see what the Archbishop says at the conference,” he said. “I do not know if the Archbishop wants to speak to the conference about it but if he does speak about it, it is not right to say anything until then,” he continued. “This is a very, very serious matter and it would be a big mistake to say anything right now.”

Speaking at Larnaca Airport before departing for a trip to Athens yesterday, President Demitris Christofias commented that the news of Erdogan’s letter to Chrysostomos was “a joy.”

“At the end of the day the past is forgotten and we all end up in one place,” said Christofias. “Hopefully the restoration of the monastery will take place. The monastery has a history,” he said.

The administration of former President Tassos Papadopoulos attempted to initiate the restoration of the monastery several times but was unsuccessful due to “a severe reaction” from the Committee for the Restoration of the Monastery of Apostolos Andreas, said Christofias.

“There were problems with some people outside the monastery who were selling things and who are settlers there,” the president added. “[Solving that situation] should have been the job of the army and the so-called administration of the occupied areas. That was the obstruction [to initiating the restoration of the monastery at that time],” he said.

“I hope Mr. Erdogan will get involved, remove the various merchants from there, build a nice place for people to go, and start and finish the restoration,” continued Christofias. “It will be a joy for the church and I hope it happens.”

Taking a more critical stance, AKEL general secretary Andros Kyprianou commented that the restoration of Apostolos Andreas “should have happened a long time ago.”