Press Office
Athens, 17 October 2023
IAO Secretary General Maximos Charakopoulos to UN on Hagia Sophia and Christians of Middle East
“The protection of cultural monuments – especially religious ones – is a duty of humanity not only for historical reasons but primarily for its future. Their desecration, change of use and, of course, their destruction, are utterly reprehensible practices that require global coordination and active condemnation, in order to put an end to them”. This was stated by the Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO), MP of the Hellenic Parliament, Dr Maximos Charakopoulos, on the occasion of his meeting with the Director of the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC) Nihal Saad, during his official visit to Washington DC.
As Mr Charakopoulos noted, “unfortunately, apart from Türkiye – with the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul being the most typical example – the Christian cultural and religious heritage is at risk in other places as well, such as Kosovo, occupied Cyprus, Nagorno Karabakh, and of course, the Middle East”. And added: “Therefore, we hope that the actions and initiatives of the UNAOC will have some effect and we gladly accept the invitation to participate in the upcoming international conference on the protection of authenticity of religious sites”.
The UNAOC is an international initiative by the UN which aspires to help resolve cultural and religious differences between the West and the Muslim World. An initiative that seeks to increase international actions against extremism through the consolidation of the international intercultural and interfaith dialogue.
Religious extremism
Mr Charakopoulos also noted: “I expressed our concern about the future of Christians in the Middle East, taking into consideration the recent tragic developments in Israel. One of the central axes of our action is to address instances of intolerance, religious extremism and mutual suspicion. In this context, we organised an international conference in Beirut in 2018 on the peaceful co-existence of Christians and Muslims in the Middle East, while we seek closer cooperation with the Muslim World League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. In this direction, we believe to have positively contributed to the IPU’s Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Interfaith Dialogue in Marrakech in June”.
Meeting with OPAC on Christians in the Middle East
During his visit to New York Maximos Charakopoulos met with the Vice- President of the Orthodox Public Affairs Committee (OPAC) Andreas Veniopoulos. The OPAC is an organisation the IAO cooperates with in the context of the effort to protect Christians in the Middle East.
At St Nicholas at “Ground Zero” in New York
The IAO delegation, before departing from the US attended worship at New York’s St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which was rebuilt and opened 21 years after the destruction caused by the 9/11 terrorist attacks (11 September 2001).
In addition to Mr Charakopoulos, the IAO delegation comprised MPs Ioan Vulpescu from Romania, Panikos Leonidou from Cyprus and Radomir Tcholakov from Bulgaria, as well as Dr Kostas Mygdalis, advisor.
High resolution images
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