The “Gaps” in the Egyptian Authorities’ announcements about the ownership status – a standby attitude by the monastic community
The landscape remains cloudy, with regard to the major issue of ownership of the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, following the ruling of the Ismail Court, with the Greek government moving the priority of ensuring the worship Greek Orthodox character.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis talked to President al -Sisi and according to the Prime Minister’s press office, he emphasized the importance of preserving the pilgrimage and Greek -Orthodox character of the monastery and resolving the issue in an institutional way. The two leaders agreed that the solution is in the already recorded common understanding of the two sides, as well as to what had been agreed privately and publicly announced during the visit of the President of Egypt to Athens on May 7.
On Monday, June 2nd, a Greek delegation will go to Egypt, with the aim of rapidly completing the agreement, as Athens and Cairo reached the limit to cool, with the Egyptians trying through the presidency’s announcement to throw the tones, but not only to the ownership. “The Presidency of the Republic reaffirms its full commitment to maintain the unique and sacred religious regime of the Monastery of St. Catherine and not to harm this regime and confirms that the recent court ruling is consolidating this regime,” said a statement.
Cairo describes the relations of the two peoples “brotherly”, with Athens showing good faith, but noted that there is no room for deviations from the agreed framework. On the part of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, the monks of Sinai appear as users and not the owners of the area of the area: as he said in a statement “because of the interest in the spiritual and high religious value of the monastery, the court ruling stipulates that the monks of the monastery still allow the monastery”.
In Athens, they are awaiting the mission of the 160 -page ruling of the Egyptian Court of Justice, which concerns a decades of pending in a complex civil affair. On the basis of the evidence, however, the decision in principle accepts the appeal of the monastery. The Court seems to have rejected lawsuits against the monastery and involving 28 temples -pilgrimages, 17 land -peaks for which there are sale contracts and 11 lands, because it did not prove that the monastery had expressed their possession or control.
Concerning the ownership, however, Cairo clarifies that areas that are described as “remote” and “non -habitable” have already been confiscated. A spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs states: “The court ruling indicates the existence of remote areas and natural shelters away from the monastery, without residents and without substantiated ownership or occupation documents. Therefore, these areas are considered state land. ” Well -informed sources say that the court ruling has nothing to do with the identity and character of the monastery, whose worship remains, as is the legal possession of the monks.
Attitude from the monastic community
The monks of St. Catherine held a meeting on Friday afternoon and decided not to open the monastery to visitors tomorrow Saturday and this as a sign of protest for the court ruling. However, Archimandrite Porphyrios, a spokesman for the monastery in Athens, says the monastery will openly open and that the monks will pray for the salvation of the monastery.
Every day at least 2,000 people visit the monastery to worship its grace. According to ERTnews’ envoy to Sinai, Costas Nousi, monks and priests hold a stand -by, until the decision is cleaned and, in particular, translation on translation, so they can see what is really mentioned and see what attitude they will take.