“No government has dealt with the issue of the Sinai Monastery as much as the Mitsotakis Government,” Deputy Foreign Minister, responsible for financial diplomacy and extroversion, Tasos Hatzivasiliou, answering the House of Representatives.
Responding to the head of “Niki” Dimitris Natsio who accused the government of “national defeats”, the deputy minister recalled that “Greece signed exemplary EEZ and continental shelf agreements with Italy and Egypt”, while “preaching” International Law. ” He emphasized that the government “succeeded in the principle of unanimity in every bilateral agreement concluded by the EU. With a third country in the defensive regulation of Safe ยป.
Mr. Hadjivasiliou made it clear that “we are not talking about confiscation or monks’ emancipation”, since the Ismailia Court of Appeal has accepted the appeal of the Holy Monastery and confirmed the right to occupation of worship and settlement of monks. He pointed out that the government “is in close cooperation with the Brotherhood of the Monks”, while referring to an attempt to “examine all legal and political ways to ensure the implementation of the agreed”. As he noted, “the aim is to complete the pending bilateral agreement with Egypt and to protect and shield the monastery regime”, adding that Greece and Egypt are linked, with historical friendship but also because of geopolitical challenges.
Responding to Alexander Kazami from Freedom Freedom, the deputy minister spoke of “the study of the opposition for aggressive statements before the full content of a multi -page decision in Arabic”, calling for responsibility and seriousness. Finally, he recalled the public statements of President Sisi in Athens, as well as the relevant announcements of the Egyptian Presidency and the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “moving in the right direction”.
In closing, he said that “the Sinai Monastery is a lighthouse of Greek Orthodox faith”, assuring that the government “will do everything possible to maintain its pilgrimage and Greek -Orthodox character”. “You do not have the exclusivity in faith,” he concluded with Mr Natsio.