TOCHNI, Cyprus (AP) — On opposite sides of ethnically divided Cyprus, even the resting places of the dead haven’t been spared the fallout of war.

Shattered granite crosses are strewn about the weed-choked Greek Cypriot cemeteries in the island’s northern third that’s in Turkish Cypriot hands. In the Greek Cypriot south, Muslim headstones in Turkish Cypriot cemeteries are concealed by overgrowth. Until 2003, no one could cross a United Nations-controlled buffer zone to place flowers at loved ones’ graves.

In the five decades since a Turkish invasion, vandalism and the ravages of time have transformed hundreds of Cyprus’ cemeteries into evidence of the geographic and political rift. But even as chances for bilateral talks to end the divide appear bleak, Greek and Turkish Cypriots have teamed up to mend mistrust and push for peace, one grave at a time.

Restoration is underway at 15 civilian cemeteries on each side of the so-called Green Line cutting across the Mediterranean island. Expansion of the roughly 700,000-euro project ($815,000) to more cemeteries is being considered.

“The maintenance and restoration of cemeteries constitutes one of the most symbolic and morally pressing acts for a place that strives for reconciliation,” said Sotos Ktoris, a Greek Cypriot member of the committee from both communities overseeing the work.

The consequences of war

Turkey’s 1974 invasion, triggered when Athens-backed supporters of uniting Cyprus with Greece mounted a coup, prompted some 160,000 Greek Cypriots to flee their villages to safety in the south, where the internationally recognized government is seated. Some 45,000 Turkish Cypriots moved north, where authorities declared independence a decade later. To this day, only Turkey recognizes Cyprus’ northern authorities.

Among the displaced were the custodians of places of worship and cemeteries, both Orthodox Christian and Muslim. Churches in the north were vandalized and looted. Mosques in the south fell into neglect and decay.

As part of U.N.-mediated efforts to achieve a peace deal, both sides have found ways to address past wrongs, including the restoration of churches, mosques and other monuments by the committee.

Earlier this year, Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar expanded the committee’s work to cemetery restoration, with European Union funding and U.N. support and assistance. Work began in May.

Seeking mutual respect

Greek Cypriot workers last month were rebuilding the 100-year-old stone wall at one Muslim cemetery in Tochni, a village nestled in hilly countryside near the southern coast. Turkish Cypriot residents had outnumbered Greek Cypriots here by nearly three to one until they were transferred north a few months after the Turkish invasion ended.

Many Turkish Cypriots from the north are now visiting the village to reconnect with their past, find family homes and honor their ancestors, according to Tochni’s Greek Cypriot community leader, Charoulla Efstratiou.

“Just as we demand that they respect us, our dead, our religion and so forth, I believe that we owe the same respect to them,” Efstratiou said.

At the Tochni cemetery, a small patch of crimson flowers emerged from the parched soil atop the grave of a man who died 65 years ago, planted recently by his descendants.

Putting up crosses

In the village of Palaikythro that Turkish Cypriots have renamed Balikesir, broken crosses at the Greek Cypriot cemetery have been set upright again until they’re fully mended.

Virtually nothing was left intact. Turkish Cypriot contractor Recep Güler said it wasn’t easy to restore the external walls and gate.

Mürüde Erzen, the village’s Turkish Cypriot community leader, said the cemetery is part of shared cultural heritage.

“When I saw this place, I was very upset, wondering why it had become like this,” Erzen told the United Nations Development Program in footage shared with the AP. Turkish Cypriot authorities had denied the AP access.

When Erzen became community leader, she resolved to do something about it.

Sotiroulla Mina Iniati, the Greek Cypriot community leader of Palaikythro, said the cost of full restoration of crosses will be borne by families or the community council. Greek Cypriots continue to elect their own community leader to affirm their claim to their lost lands and preserve their memory.

“For us, this is a sacred place,” Iniati said. “We feel that in this way, the souls of our dead who have for 51 years remain neglected, will be able to rest.”

An intractable dispute

The last major push for a peace deal in Cyprus collapsed in 2017.

Today, the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey shun the U.N.-endorsed framework for reunifying Cyprus as a federation. They insist on a two-state deal that Greek Cypriots reject because they view partition as dooming the island to Turkey’s influence, with its military hardware and troops stationed there in perpetuity.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has met Christodoulides and Tatar twice this year and is expected to meet them again in the coming months in a bid to keep peace talks alive.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Authorities on Monday detained the owner and the constructor of a residential building that collapsed during a magnitude 6.1 earthquake in northwestern Turkey, as part of an investigation into possible negligence, an official said.

The quake struck the town of Sindirgi in Balikesir province on Sunday. It claimed the life of one elderly resident who died in the three-story apartment block that crumbled, and injured 29 other people throughout the region.

The tremor was felt as far away as Istanbul, nearly 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the north, raising fears in the city of over 16 million people, which experts say is at high risk for a major earthquake.

Sunday’s quake caused 16 structures to collapse, most of them abandoned village homes, according to Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.

The apartment building in Sindirgi was among the few inhabited structures to fall, prompting authorities to detain the owner and the constructor for questioning on suspicion of “causing death and injury by negligence,” Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said.

Of the 29 people who were hospitalized, 19 were discharged as of Monday, Health Minister Kemal Memisoglu said. Those still hospitalized were not in serious condition, he added.

Meanwhile, more than 200 aftershocks have struck the region, the strongest measuring 4.6. They forced many residents to spend the night outdoors and sleep in cars out of fear that their homes might collapse, the national TV broadcaster HaberTurk reported.

Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and earthquakes are frequent.

In 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed more than 53,000 people in Turkey and destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeastern provinces. Another 6,000 people were killed in the northern parts of neighboring Syria. The high death toll was blamed on widespread use of substandard construction methods, weak oversight and institutional failures.

PARIS (AP) — A heat wave gripped parts of Europe on Monday, sending temperatures up to 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheit) in southern France and increasing risks of wildfires in wine country, while Bulgaria suffered blazes along its southern borders as Hungary saw record-breaking weekend temperatures and fires caused evacuations in Turkey’s northwest.

Scientists say Europe is becoming the world’s fastest-warming continent.

According to the U.K.-based Carbon Brief, 2025 is predicted to be the second- or third-warmest year on record. Europe’s land temperatures have risen about 2.3 C above pre-industrial levels, nearly twice the global rate, intensifying heat waves, the EU’s Copernicus climate service reports. EU data show burned area across the continent is already far above the long-term average this summer, with major outbreaks in Spain, Portugal and deadly blazes in Greece since late June.

France on high alert

On Monday, the French national weather authority, Météo-France, placed 12 departments on red alert, the country’s highest heat warning, anticipating exceptional heat stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean plains. Forty-one other departments were under lower-level orange alerts, as was the neighboring microstate of Andorra, between France and Spain.

“Don’t be fooled — this isn’t ‘normal, it’s summer.’ It’s not normal, it’s a nightmare,” agricultural climatologist Serge Zaka, told BFMTV from Montauban in France’s Tarn-et-Garonne department, where the blistering heat pressed relentlessly throughout the day.

Social media images showed shuttered streets in Valence, residents shielding windows with foil to reflect the light, and tourists huddling under umbrellas along the Garonne in Toulouse. Across the south, café terraces stood empty as people sought cooler corners indoors.

In France’s Aude department, a patchwork of vineyards and Mediterranean scrubland, hundreds of firefighters remained in the rolling wine country guarding the edges of a massive, deadly blaze that scorched 16,000 hectares last week. Officials say the fire is under control but warn it will not be fully extinguished for weeks, with hot spots still smoldering and at risk of reigniting.

The red alert in France has been issued only eight times since it was created in 2004 after a deadly summer the year before. It is reserved for extreme, prolonged heat with major health risks and the potential to disrupt daily life. The designation gives local officials powers to cancel outdoor events, close public venues and alter school or summer camp schedules.

The heat wave, France’s second of the summer, began Friday and is expected to last all week, carrying into the Aug. 15 holiday weekend. It is already pushing northward, with 38 C (100.4 F) forecast in the Centre-Val de Loire region and up to 34 C (93.2 F) in Paris.

Across the English Channel, the U.K.’s Met Office expects the country’s fourth heat wave of the summer to peak around 33 C (90 F) in London on Tuesday. The U.K. Health Security Agency issued a yellow health alert for older adults and those with medical conditions.

Maximum fire danger alerts in Bulgaria

In Bulgaria, temperatures were expected to exceed 40 C (104 F) Monday at the day’s peak, with maximum fire danger alerts in place.

Nearly 200 fires have been reported; most have been brought under control, localized and extinguished, but the situation remains “very challenging,” said Alexander Dzhartov, head of the national fire safety unit. Three major blazes continue along the borders with Greece and Turkey, including one near Strumyani that reignited after three weeks.

More than 100 firefighters and emergency personnel are battling flames in rugged terrain unreachable by vehicles, supported by army helicopters and two Swedish aircraft.

Evacuations in Turkey

In Turkey, a wildfire fueled by high temperatures and strong winds forced authorities to evacuate holiday homes and a university campus and to suspend maritime traffic in the country’s northwest.

The fire broke out in an agricultural field in the province of Canakkale and spread into surrounding forestland, just two days after firefighting teams had contained a similar blaze in the area. Canakkale Gov. Omer Toraman said the Dardanelles Strait — the narrow waterway linking the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara — was closed to allow water-dropping planes and helicopters to operate safely.

Hungary records record-breaking heat

Sunday brought a new national high of 39.9 C (104 F) on Sunday in the southeast, breaking a record set in 1948. Budapest also recorded a city record at 38.7 C (101.6 F).

Authorities imposed a nationwide fire ban amid extreme heat and drought.

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Lydia Doye in London, Justin Spike in Budapest, and Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.

ISTANBUL (AP) — A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck Turkey’s northwestern province of Balikesir on Sunday, killing at least one person and causing more than a dozen buildings to collapse, officials said. At least 29 people were injured.

The earthquake, with an epicenter in the town of Sindirgi, sent shocks that were felt some 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the north in Istanbul – a city of more than 16 million people.

An elderly woman died shortly after being pulled out alive from the debris of a collapsed building in Sindirgi, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters. Four other people were rescued from the building.

Yerlikaya said a total of 16 buildings collapsed in the region – most of them derelict and unused. Two mosque minarets also tumbled down, he said.

None of the injured were in serious condition, the minister said.

Television footage showed rescue teams asking for silence so they can listen for signs of life beneath the rubble.

Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency said the earthquake was followed by several aftershocks, including one measuring 4.6, and urged citizens not to enter damaged buildings.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a statement wishing all affected citizens a speedy recovery.

“May God protect our country from any kind of disaster,” he wrote on X.

Turkey sits on top of major fault lines and earthquakes are frequent.

In 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed more than 53,000 people in Turkey and destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeastern provinces. Another 6,000 people were killed in the northern parts of neighboring Syria.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A newly formed parliamentary committee tasked with overseeing a peace initiative with a Kurdish militant group held its inaugural meeting on Tuesday, marking a further significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency.

The 51-member committee, comprised of legislators from most major parties, has been charged with proposing and supervising legal and political reforms aimed at advancing the peace process, following the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK’s, decision to disband and lay down arms.

Fighters from the group began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq last month, the first concrete step toward disarmament.

In his opening remarks, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus called the committee’s launch a “historic turning point.”

“The commission gathered here is no ordinary delegation; it is a historic one, demonstrating the courage to repair our future and the will to strengthen social integration,” he said.

“In this hall, we are witnessing the beginning of a new era, representing the will of the nation,” he said, before the proceedings were closed to journalists.

The committee was on Tuesday expected to decide on how to proceed and to select an official name.

The PKK announced in May that it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.

The PKK has waged an armed insurgency against Turkey since 1984, initially with the aim of establishing a Kurdish state in the southeast of the country. Over time, the objective evolved into a campaign for autonomy and rights for Kurds within Turkey.

The conflict between militants and state forces, which has spread beyond Turkey’s borders into Iraq and Syria, has killed tens of thousands of people. The PKK is considered to be a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

Previous peace efforts between Turkey and the PKK have ended in failure — most recently in 2015.

ISTANBUL (AP) — The death toll from wildfires outside the city of Bursa in northwest Turkey rose to four late Sunday after two volunteer firefighters died.

The pair died in hospital after they were pulled from a water tanker that rolled while heading to a forest fire, news agency IHA reported. Another worker died earlier at the scene of the accident and a firefighter died Sunday after suffering a heart attack.

Their deaths raised Turkey’s wildfire fatalities to 17 since late June, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers killed Wednesday in a fire in Eskisehir, western Turkey.

Huge fires around Bursa, Turkey’s fourth-largest city, broke out over the weekend, leading to more than 3,500 people fleeing their homes. On Monday morning, fog-like smoke from ongoing fires and smouldering foliage hung over the city.

Unseasonably high temperatures, dry conditions and strong winds have been fueling the wildfires, with Turkey and other parts of the eastern Mediterranean experiencing record-breaking heatwaves.

The fires around Bursa were among hundreds to have hit Turkey over the past month. While firefighting teams have contained the damage to a limited number of homes, vast tracts of forest have been turned to ash.

The water tanker crew comprised volunteers from nearby Bolu province heading to the village of Aglasan, northeast of Bursa, to combat a blaze when the vehicle fell into a ditch while negotiating a rough forest track, IHA reported.

Turkey battled at least 44 separate fires Sunday, Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said late Sunday. He identified two fires in Bursa province, as well as blazes in Karabuk, northwest Turkey, and Kahramanmaras in the south, as the most serious.

The government declared disaster areas in two western provinces, Izmir and Bilecik. Prosecutions have been launched against 97 people in 33 of Turkey’s 81 provinces in relation to the fires, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said.

A crowd of people gathered Sunday evening outside a police station in the village of Harmancik, 57 kilometers (35 miles) south of Bursa, after learning a suspected arsonist was detained there. The angry crowd demanded for the suspect to be handed over to them. The crowd dispersed after police assured them a thorough investigation would be undertaken.