The Archbishop wrote on Twitter: “After the tragic transgression with HagiaSophia, now the Monastery of Chora, this exquisite offering of Byzantine culture to the world! The Turkish people do not deserve such a narrow-minded policy. The pleas and exhortations of the international community are ignored. How long?”
After the tragic transgression with #HagiaSophia, now the Monastery of Chora, this exquisite offering of Byzantine culture to the world! The Turkish people do not deserve such a narrow-minded policy. The pleas and exhortations of the international community are ignored. How long? pic.twitter.com/xlYJETOkYZ
— Elpidophoros (@Elpidophoros) August 21, 2020
The reconversion of the church at Chora, soon after the reconversion of the great cathedral Hagia Sophia in Istanbul back into a mosque, was roundly condemned by a host of international leaders and officials.
An official statement by the Greek Foreign Ministry called Friday’s move “completely reprehensible.” The Ministry called the reconversion a “provocation for religious people everywhere and for the international community that respects the monuments of human civilization.”
Nabila Massrali, the spokesperson for EU Foreign Affairs & Security Policy, also remarked on the reconversion of the church. “We are recording the decision to convert the Chora Church, which functioned as a museum since 1945, into a mosque and to open it for worship,” she stated.
“Like Hagia Sophia, Chora is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As a member of the Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity, Turkey is committed to interfaith and intercultural dialogue and the promotion of tolerance and coexistence.”
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