LARNACA, Cyprus, Jan 9 (AFP) - More than 1,500 Turkish-Cypriot Muslims visited a mosque in the Greek-Cypriot-held south of the island Sunday for the first time since it was targeted by an arson attack in August last year.
The pilgrims traveled to the Hala Sultan Tekke Mosque outside this southern coast resort in a convoy of 33 coaches escorted by U.N. peacekeepers and a large contingent of Greek-Cypriot police.
The visit to the mosque, which believers consider to be the burial place of the Prophet Mohammed's aunt, came as part of Eid al-Fitr celebrations.
Pilgrimages to the mosque on Muslim feast days are one of a series of goodwill measures organized by the United Nations in recent years in a bid to build confidence between the island's divided Greek and Turkish communities.
In return, Greek-Cypriot pilgrims are allowed to visit the Apostolos Andreas monastery in the Turkish-Cypriot north of the island.
It was the first time Turkish-Cypriot pilgrims had visited the mosque since a tapestry and wooden floor inside were damaged in an arson attack claimed by a previously unknown Greek-Cypriot nationalist group.
In September the island's internationally recognized Greek-Cypriot government allowed a group of 17 Turkish-Cypriot journalists to visit the mosque to view the damage and the repair work it had undertaken.
The same day the government announced it would ask the European Union for 1 million euros ($1.05 million) to help repair and maintain the mosque as well as around 100 other Turkish-Cypriot mosques in the Greek-Cypriot south.
Opposition MPs have criticized the government for spending too little on their upkeep -
between 1985-1990, the last years for which figures are available, some $380,000 dollars was spent.
The government has long criticized what it says has been the "desecration" of Greek Orthodox religious sites in the north since Turkey's 1974 invasion to protect the Muslim population there divided the east Mediterranean island.
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