Grand Imam of Egypt, Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, promised to uphold the appeal made several times by the archbishop of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, Chrysostomos II, to prevent the destruction of the Christian churches by the Turkish army, in the Northern area of the island. It was the first time that a personality in the Muslim world spoke in favour of a cause of the Orthodox community of Cyprus. According to what the spokesman of Chrysostomos, Archbishop Adreas Demeriou, said, the Imam gave his support during a meeting at Cairo, during which the archbishop informed the Imam of the situation in which the Orthodox had been finding themselves in Cyprus, ever since the island was occupied by the Turkish army in 1974, splitting the territory in two. The archbishop said that over 500 churches in the occupied area of Cyprus needed urgent restoration to avoid destruction, and that the Church of Cyprus had always respected Muslims. According to a few estimates, 520 churches, chapels, and monasteries in North Cyprus were involved: 133 of them were desecrated, 78 changed into mosques, 28 used for military and hospital purposes, and 13 as deposits. About 15 thousand icons are in the art underground market. Chrysostomos had already denounced this situation during his recent visit to the Vatican.
