None of them has been able to visit the site since 1974. For Mary Nashanian, the memories are vivid and painful. I remember how we all used to go up there to celebrate St Makarios's day. These days, after a church service, the celebrations are held in a modern community centre in the southern half of Nicosia. Traditional food, harisa , is blessed by the Armenian archbishop as the saint is revered.
Families sit at long tables, and small children run about excitedly.
But for the adults, the joy has gone out of the celebrations. And now Armenians are angered by what they hear of the plans for the monastery's future. Assurances from the Turkish Cypriots that the restoration will be sympathetic are, they say, missing the point. The Armenians are also indignant that the restoration of what they regard as a sacred site looks likely to go ahead without any consultation with them. They can only build hotels.