Interfaith Cyprus meeting falls foul of politics

NICOSIA, Jan 8 (Reuters) A rare meeting to promote dialogue between Christianity and Islam on ethnically partitioned Cyprus was cancelled today over fears politics rather than religion would top the agenda, organisers said.

The meeting between Orthodox Christian Archbishop Chrysostomos and cleric Ahmet Yonluer, head of Turkish Cypriot religious affairs, was to have been the first on the island for decades.

Yonluer said he cancelled the meeting because of indications the Orthodox Church wanted to discuss political issues. The Church of Cyprus said it had an ''open agenda'' on fostering a climate of friendship and trust between the two religions.

''I wanted to open a dialogue, a religious dialogue with the Archbishop that would help bring our people together,'' Yonluer told Reuters. ''The Archbishop's overtly political statement of the previous day was behind my decision to cancel the meeting.'' The Greek Orthodox Archbishop was quoted as saying he wanted to address the destruction of Christian shrines in northern Cyprus, a deep rooted grievance among Greek Cypriots.

Islam and Christianity are Cyprus's main religions. Turkish Cypriots are mainly Sunni Muslims and Greek Cypriots members of the Orthodox Church.

Neither presently plays an influential role in the politics of the island, partitioned along ethnic lines since a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek Cypriot coup.

The meeting in the southern, Greek Cypriot populated area of Cyprus was to have been reciprocated in late January by a visit of the Archbishop to the Turkish Cypriot north. That meeting will not now take place, aides to the Archbishop said.

''The problem we have here has never been between the religions, it's political,'' Frixos Kleanthous, head of the Archbishop's office, told Reuters.

Reunification talks on Cyprus have been at a standstill since 2004, when Greek Cypriots rejected a United Nations reunification plan accepted by Turkish Cypriots.

REUTERS AB BD1830