Elpidophoros speaks the language of Orthodoxy and he is Ecumenical

BY TASOULA HADJITOFI*

My eyes filled with tears. I was reading the public apology of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, which was written to diaspora Greeks and to Cypriot Hellenism. Has anyone considered how Archbishop Elpidophoros, with his ecumenical vision, felt when he was blessing the “Turkish House” in New York? Whatcould he have felt as he stood next to Erdogan, who only last July, had converted the Haghia Sophia into a mosque?

Has anyone realized his fortitude as he attended the ceremony with the sole purpose of reminding us that the flame of the Phanar (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople) is still burning, emitting strength and hope? The Cyprus problem cannot be solved by co-mingling the global with the local, but rather by elevating the issue to an international level on the basis of violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms.

What I have to say is this: I salute Archbishop Elpidophoros for being thoroughly Ecumenical.

Since the time of the Ottoman Empire until today, all of us Greeks have been brought up fearing the Turks. The Turkish invasion and their ongoing occupation of Cyprus, as well as repeated provocations in the Aegean, keep reminding us that Turkey’s expansionist policy remains unaltered. Nevertheless, we too are impervious to history. We don’t seem to realize that Turkey’s greatest weapon against us is discord between Greeks, as well as Christians in general.

During the Ottoman period, the Turks used clerics for tax collecting. They were aware of the close ties between the people and the Church. They had no qualms about hanging them in plain view in order to belittle, terrify and scorn the Greeks.

I have the great honour of being acquainted with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. I have worked with experts of international acclaim toward promoting the work of ‘The Green Patriarch’, to try and offset the oppression suffered by Christians in Constantinople and the insufferably hostile, divisive attitude of the Turks against non-Muslim minorities.

A strategy focused on the protection of the environment was cleverly designed in a way that enabled the Patriarch to demonstrate that yes, although Constantinople was conquered by the Turks, the Phanar is here, in operation.

Soon thereafter, I located stolen treasures that belonged to Mount Athos and to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. That was the first time I was given the opportunity to collaborate with Elpidophoros. As early as back then, I saw the nobility of his soul, his assertiveness. But above all, I saw his low profile, something that has helped him achieve a great many things behind the scenes.

Each time that Cyprus was in the throes of adversity, the Greeks of Turkey paid the price. In the 1955 September pogrom, the Turkish mob attacked and pillaged Greek property, pillaging churches and raping Greek women. Nobody has asked the President of the Republic of Cyprus to apologize for the sufferings of the Greeks in Constantinople.

The Greeks of Constantinople have always stood in support of the battles faced by the Greeks of Cyprus. Greeks in Constantinople have brought suit against Turkey and are waging long-term struggles to open the Theological School of Halki.

Consecrated church items in Turkey have either been destroyed or stolen and sold to international art traffickers. I have worked with Elpidophoros when he served as Secretary of the Holy Synod, and was pleasantly surprised to observe the aristocratic manner of the Greeks of Turkey. At the same time, I was taken aback by how little of their great work is known to the rest of the Greeks; how the oppression, persecution and deprivation they suffer on account of the Turks goes largely unnoticed.

Elpidophoros went on to become Metropolitan of Bursa. You must not think that the Phanar (Fener) is a palatial edifice like the Archbishopric and the Bishoprics of Cyprus. When one converses with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who can speak six languages, one becomes aware of his high religious and moral standing. He is a profoundly educated man, like Elpidophoros, but they live in fear of the Turks, in conditions of continuous oppression.

Soon after Elpidophoros rose to the rank of Metropolitan of Bursa, he became cognizant of Turkish plans to convert a church into a nightclub. He mobilized to collect money to avert such action. I suggested that he write a letter to the wealthy Church of Cyprus, headed by the current Archbishop Chrysostom, in request of financial aid.

Instead of aid, Elpidophoros was endowed with the refusal of the Church of Cyprus. I was embarrassed as I was the one who had suggested that he appeal to his Cypriot brothers. A monk gave Elpidophoros the necessary money and so the church escaped ruin. Elpidophoros went on to restore it, humbly and discreetly, as befits a proper cleric.

I was recently in Armenia, following an invitation by the Catholicos of All Armenians to speak at a conference on peace and religious freedom. I drew a parallel between what is happening now in Cyprus regarding the attempted Islamization of the occupied areas, and what is taking place in Nagorno-Karabakh. There, the Azeri (encouraged by Turkey) are eliminating every trace of Christianity, obliterating what is holy to the Armenians, in an effort to present Nagorno-Karabakh as their own territory.

In Nagorno-Karabakh, the Turks are helping the wealthy Azeri to chase the Armenians away and destroy everything that is Christian. Neither the Church of Cyprus nor the Cypriot government were officially represented at this important conference.

Last July, accompanied by German reporters from the acclaimed Der Spiegel magazine, I went to the enclosed city of Turkish-occupied Famagusta.  I was born in Famagusta and I am not a ghost, as some Turks claim when they speak of us Famagustans.

There, outside the mosque that was inaugurated by Turkish President Erdogan, I came across a group of Azeri entrepreneurs. When I asked them what they were doing in my city, they arrogantly replied that it supposedly belonged to “the wider Mother Turkey”, hence it was “theirs”. I knelt down on the ground near the mosque and prayed in front of the looted church of St Nicholas on Democracy street.

There, in front of astounded Turkish soldiers, I prayed to the icon given to me by my godfather, AntonisSardalos. I prayed that I would be kept safe. That was my way of claiming our human rights and the religious freedom which we are deprived of because of the Turkish occupation.

The event was captured in images that made part of a five-page special in Der Spiegel, disseminated across the world, offering a detailed account not only of what we saw and experienced in the enclosed city of Famagusta, but also the essence of the Cypriot problem.

In Cyprus, during a period of summer holiday, the Der Spiegel special was not highly publicized; perhaps because we are yet to grasp the significance and value of defending and claiming our religious freedoms and the inalienable human right of every faithful to pray freely on their chosen sites of veneration.

It is not a question of equally sharing money for building “bicommunal” edifices with the Turkish Cypriots. When the lights go out on bicommunal gatherings, who is keeping the key to the church in the occupied areas? Who will give the priest permission to officiate? The occupying authorities. Is this religious freedom?

If the political and religious leaders of the Republic of Cyprus understood the value of religious freedom, then they would have been present at the international conference on peace and religious freedom, organized in Yerevan. We would also claim our rights in a different way, and we would be more understanding of Archbishop Elpidophoros and the Greeks of Turkey. Because then we would see how much they have suffered under the Turkish regime, as they strive to be a beacon of Hellenism and Christianity for all of us.

Turkey is cleverly using Russia against us, favouring a Russian to the rank of the Ecumenical Patriarch in order to hold the Ecumenical Patriarchate under its sway and control. I haven’t heard a single politician asking for explanations as to why Russia is building a nuclear power plant in Akkuyu, 80 km from the shores of Cyprus. Nor have I heard President NicosAnastasiades asking for explanations or interrupting trade relations between Cyprus and Russia, and protesting the fact that the Russians are building a power plant that constitutes a terrible threat for the entire Mediterranean, as it is built in a seismogenic area.

Turkey is playing the game of depriving and suppressing religious freedom in Cyprus, using it as a political weapon for 47 years now. In the occupied areas, the Turks have destroyed, pillaged, looted and desecrated more than 550 Orthodox churches and monasteries, whilst also having ruined churches of the Armenians and of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, anda Jewish cemetery, among others.

To perform liturgy, our churches in the occupied areas need permission from the occupying authorities. By contrast, the Maronites are unhindered, supported as they are by the Pope, and falling outside the religious jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

The Turks are fighting the Ecumenical Patriarchate; they essentially hold it captive. Only a naïve person would see Elpidophoros as Archbishop of America and not as a beacon of Hellenism, an afflicted hierarch and Greek reflecting our own pain and history, along with the beliefs of Hellenism. At the end, it doesn’t matter whether Elpidophoros will become Patriarch or not; in any event, nobody can ignore the History of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its symbolism for Orthodoxy and Hellenism.

Therefore, I address you, Elpidophoros, Archbishop of America, on behalf of all our brethren in Cyprus, politicians and clerics, to ask for forgiveness of our sins and to extend a big “thank you” for everything you do and everything you all suffer as Greeks in Turkey. I ask you to forgive some of our brethren’s lack of sensitivity regarding what you represent and what the Phanar and Christians are faced with in Constantinople and, more broadly, Turkey.

It is high time all us Christians united our voices against Turkey and its wealthy friends such as Azerbaijan. We should denounce the Turkish policy of blatant violation of religious freedom. Erdogan aspires to finish what Ataturk, the proponent of genocide and ethnic cleansing, has left unfinished, in a bid to surpass his grandeur. Will the faithful of every doctrine, especially Christians of the world, allow this?

*Activist, founder of Walk of Truth