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Paper short abstract

Examining two Turkish occupied C/O religious sites in Cyprus– a pancyprian pilgrimage centre and a church that revived as a site of pilgrimage for its displaced users– I explore how long-term inaccessibility and restrictive re-admission in conditions of conflict affect their meaning and experience.

Paper long abstract

The paper comparatively examines two Turkish occupied Christian Orthodox religious sites in Cyprus. The first is the Monastery of Apostolos Andreas (Karpasia), a pancyprian pilgrimage site prior to the de facto partition of the island in 1974, which was revived as such after the opening of the checkpoints in 2003. The second, is the Church of St. Mamas (Morphou) which was rendered inaccessible to its primary user community in 1974 and was converted into a 'Byzantine icon museum'. Restrictive re-admission to it for the performance of collective rituals after 2003 effected the transformation of the Church of St. Mamas from a locus of pre-war everyday socio-religious life into a pilgrimage centre for its internally displaced user community. Instead of seeing these two sites as discreet entities, I situate them in the broader landscape of the Cyprus conflict, exploring how long-term inaccessibility and restrictive re-admission in conditions of protracted conflict and displacement affect the ways they are experienced and given meaning to by the Greek Cypriots who visit them.