The Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece, Ieronymos II, separated spirituality from Islam, describing it as a mere political ideology that intends to wage war. He went on to say that “Islam is not a religion but a political movement, and its followers are people of war.”
The primate of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Greece also referred to Muslims as the people of ‘expansion’.
“They are people who spread, this is a characteristic of Islam,” he said in a televised presentation on 15 January 2021. The Archbishop spoke the words in the context of and with reference to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, also known as Mehmed the Conqueror. The Sultan took control of Constantinople in 1453, putting an end to the Byzantium Empire which is in my view a direct consequents of the Great Schism of 16 July 1054. That split the main faction of Christianity into two divisions, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox. The Archbishop says “after the fall of Constantinople the Sultan listened to his Greek advisors and appointed Gennadius II as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1454 to 1464. Patriarch Gennadios II was an opponent of the Pope. The Sultan’s appointment was motivated by the fact that there would never be an alliance established with Roman Catholics against the Ottomans under Gennadius II. Simply, we stood divided and we were conquered.”
READ MORE: Greece and Turkey to resume talks on 25 January
The remarks made by Archbishop Ieronymos II have come ahead of Greece’s and Turkey’s decision to resume talks. Those negotiations aim to reduce the existing tension between the countries. The meetings are scheduled to resume on Monday 25 January 2021. The Archbishop’s conversation took place on the occasion of the bicentenary celebrations of the Greek uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1821.
A senior member of the Orthodox community in Turkey who did not wish to be identified referred to the statement as unfortunate when speaking to TRT World. The senior member went on to say: “The timing of Ieronymos’s statement is unfortunate.”
He also said as a non-Muslim who lives in Turkey, he questions the veracity of the commentary.
“Violence has nothing to do with any religion, this came at the very time when the relationship between Turkey and Greece was getting better. It is so saddening, I completely disapprove of what was said,” he added.
The spokesperson of Turkey’s directorate of religious affairs, Ali Erbas, on Sunday also remarked on the Archbishop’s statement. He called on Christians to oppose this kind of “sick mentality”.
“The most important duty of the clergy, who should strive for peace and tranquillity, should be to contribute to the culture of coexistence,” he said in a statement.
“The Christian world must oppose this sick mentality. This kind of discourse aiming to marginalize Muslims feeds the racist perspective against them, and leads to attacks on their lives and places of worship,” he added.
In a statement shared on the social media platform Twitter, Greek Muslims of Western Thrace through there Minority Consultation Council said: “We hope a more peaceful language to be used instead of anti-Islamic discourse in such difficult times of pandemic.”
We should note that the legal status of the Muslim minority in Greece is founded on the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923, which sets the legal framework for the rights and obligations of Greece toward its Muslim minority and for Turkey toward its non-Muslim minority. Central to the debate on the Treaty of Lausanne is the so-called reciprocity clause, as interpreted and used extensively by Greece and Turkey. Reciprocity has been raised by Greece and Turkey mainly on questions pertaining to religious rights, education, and religious foundations.
Finally, the Greek Muslim community, was recognised as early as 1913 by article 13 of Protocol No. 3 to the Treaty of Peace between Greece and Turkey concluded in Athens. Article 11 of the Treaty of Athens, granted the rights to Muslims, including equality before the law, and the right to religious freedom and religious autonomy.