protective Turkish Cypriot Hand of Fatima on Greek Cypriot cemetery; graffiti update

Thanks to the multilingual skills of Denizaksulu [and Emma Ruby], I have an update on the open hand painting and the Arabic inscriptions. The most important news is that the open hand painting probably is a Hand of Fatima, a Turkish Cypriot prayer for the protection of the Greek Cypriot cemetery.

Since Denizaksulu was going to look for the ship graffiti on the cropped image of Saint Damian(?), I thought I would post the uncropped photograph, and some others besides.

Over on Cyprus Forum, Denizaksulu commented that,

On a church building, in Arabic it ha the word for GOD/ALLAH and then PALESTINE. On the one with the star of david is the name of the graffitti artist. Not totally legible, but begins with 'Muhammed' ['Muhsin'] then a surname. Defo not TC. The hand could be an emblem of some party, but not so sure. If the fingers were wide spread, it would be an offensive gesture, but these do look like the hand of Fatima.

[Updated with Emma Ruby's correction on 23rd June 2011.]

So, I've updated my posts on political graffiti and religious inscriptions.

There are carvings of the Star of David all over the cave chapel, including on all five of the figures I show here (Saint Damian(?), Saint Cosmas, Saint George, Archangel Michael, and the Holy Trinity); and there are carvings of ships (fish, and other on Saint Damian(?; fig. 1) and Saint Cosmas (fig. 2).


Figure 1: Agios Damiaios, Palea Enklistra


Figure 2: Agios Kosmas, Palea Enklistra


Figure 3: Agios Georgios, Palea Enklistra


Figure 4: Archangel Michail, Palea Enklistra


Figure 5: Holy Trinity, Palea Enklistra