Nicosa, Cyprus, July 17, 2020
Photo: raskolam.net
In an appeal issued yesterday, the Holy Synod of the Church of Cyprus called upon Turkish authorities to allow the Patriarch of Constantinople and other clerics of the Patriarchate to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the Agia Sophia cathedral, which is currently being reconverted into a mosque.
The Patriarch is “the real owner” of the 6th-century cathedral, the Cypriot hierarchs state, reports Romfea.
Referring to the lamentable change in Agia Sophia’s status, the Synod recalls that “Cypriot Hellenism has a reason to express concern and sorrow over the unholy and unacceptable actions of the Turkish leadership, because since 1974, the largest number of Church monuments in the Turkish-occupied territories of Cyprus have been looted and destroyed.”
In this way, Turks seek to “eliminate any Christian identity” of the places they conquer and occupy.
With its latest actions, Turkey is consciously “making a u-turn and moving away from Europe in order to implement the Islamic vision of the Ottoman Empire,” the Synod states. This step will lead to a deep split between Christianity and Islam the hierarchs warn.
As the Cypriot hierarchs do not expect the Turkish President to drop his plans for Agia Sophia, they call instead “to allow the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the real owner, to celebrate the Divine Liturgy for Christians in the premises of Agia Sophia, and the Muslim prayer will take place in another part.”
His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia earlier made the same call, noting that Agia Sophia served as a cathedral for more than nine centuries and as a mosque for five centuries.
