Athens, 5 June 2021

Maximos Charakopoulos meets Palestinian Ambassador: “Christians in the Holy Land threatened with extinction”

“As the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO) we work patiently and judiciously to strengthen relations of cooperation between all religious groups in the Middle East. We hope that with a joint effort we can remove the voices of intolerance and hatred”. This was emphasised by the Secretary General of the IAO, MP Maximos Charakopoulos, in his meeting with the Palestinian Ambassador in Athens Marwan Toubassi, which took place by request of the Palestinian diplomat.

In the meeting that took place in the Hellenic Parliament – the Organisation’s HQ – the Palestinian Ambassador briefed the Head of the IAO on recent tragic events in Palestine and Israel, as a result of the escalation of violence. He presented the position of the Palestinian Authority, regarding the responsibilities for this development that led to the loss of dozens of lives, among which many children. 

For his part Dr. Charakopoulos thanked the Ambassador for the detailed briefing and requested more information on the Christian community in Palestine, especially orthodox Christians, who constitute a Christian majority, and who are respresented by the legendary Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. As was mentioned, Christians in the 1930’s made up 25-30% of the population of Palestine, yet today the number has dramatically shrunk to less than 1,5% of inhabitants. 

The General Secretary of the IAO referred to the danger of Christians become extinct in the cradle of Christianity, the Holy Land, and the need for everyone to stay vigilant to ensure peace and the return of Christians who were forced to leave their homes after the “Arab spring”. 

Maximos Charakopoulos noted that as an international institution, in which Orthodox MPs from 25 national parliaments participate, among which the Palestinian parliament, the IAO has taken initiatives to raise international public awareness, such as: 

a) The publication of a 4-language volume with the minutes of the international conference that took place in Beirut on the “Coexistence of Christians and Muslims in the Middle East”.

b) The cooperation with the Muslim World League, based in the Holy – for Muslims - city – of Makkah (Mecca), to sign an MoU for the reconciliation and mutual understanding of peoples. 

c) The signing of a Cooperation Agreement with the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens that includes the establishment of an institute/observatory to record the presence of Christians in the Middle East through time, the persecutions they have endured and to encourage initiatives for peaceful coexistence.

Lastly, Mr. Charakopoulos stressed that “blind violence cannot be the way to resolve any dispute. We hope that the voices of reason will soon prevail and that religion will no longer be instrumentalised for political purposes, with the most characteristic example being the conversion by the Turkish leadership of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a mosque”. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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