Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Sunday revisited the recently emerged and worrying issue of the St. Catherine Monastery of Mount Sinai, a historic Orthodox Christian institution that’s the oldest continuously operating monastery in the world, again reaffirming Athens’ support for the millennium-and-a-half tradition and established religious status quo. He said the latter must be respected.
Mitsotakis referred to the issue in his weekly review of the government’s work, posted on FB.
An abrupt decision by an Egyptian appeals court in the city of Ismailia last week sent shock waves through the Orthodox world and Greek diplomacy, as it ostensibly opened the way for the Egyptian state to immediately seize the actual monastery, its moveable objects – i.e. extremely rare and valuable tomes in its library, artifacts etc. – and dependences in the Sinai, such as shrines, hermitages, and plots of cultivated land.
On his part, Mitsotakis reiterated that the Egyptian government has explicitly assured the continuation of the monastery’s operation under the existing status, while adding that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s publicly stated statements demonstrate Cairo’s willingness to deal with the entire issue in a positive manner.
Despite the now “Sword of Damocles” hanging over the venerable monastery in the south Sinai, Mitsotakis said a recent meeting I Cairo between the Greek Foreign Minister and his Egyptian counterpart was held in the same spirit.
Source: tovima.com
