Sofia, February 26, 2018
Photo: modeoflife.org Newly-declassified documents of the foreign intelligence arm (PGU) of the Bulgarian Communist regime reveal an early 1970s plan to set the headquarters of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople on fire, reports Daily Sabah, referring to Bulgarian media.
“Operation Cross” was scrapped at the last minute, although various media reports have not indicated why. A book is set to be released on the matter later in the month, including previously-archived documents.
The newly-revealed documents show that the People’s Republic of Bulgaria, which existed from 1946 to 1990, was conspiring to cause tension and crisis between Turkey and Greece, two of the country’s neighbors. The patriarchate was deemed an appropriate target as it operates churches across the globe. The deputy director of the PGU had discussed the plan with other officials in 1970, hoping to put it into action in 1971, before it was abandoned.
Bulgarian secret agents would have arranged for the fire to look like the work of Turks.
The patriarchate is also, as the documents state, a source of political tension between Greece and Turkey, which share a long history of hostility. “An intervention” in the religious entity would have “significantly damage[d] Turkish-Greek relations and force[d] the United States to choose one side in the ensuing crisis,” the declassified documents state.
