PM: Channels with Turkey must stay open

Responding to calls that his scheduled visit to Ankara on Monday should be postponed due to the conversion of the Chora monastery in Istanbul into a mosque, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed on Wednesday that this would not be the correct course of action as “open channels must be maintained.”

He did, however, say that he would express his “strong dissatisfaction” to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the conversion of the historic Byzantine monastery, which dates back to the 6th century AD, into a mosque.

“There is no shortage of mosques in the city. This is no way to treat cultural heritage. Polis [Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul] was the capital of Byzantium and Orthodoxy for over a thousand years. We protect the monuments, we would never do such a thing,” he said in a wide-ranging interview with Proto Thema.

“It is much better to go to President Erdogan myself to express my strong dissatisfaction with this choice of the Turkish government than to create a crisis in Greek-Turkish relations, which will cancel the important steps of progress we have achieved in the last year,” he stressed

Mitsotakis noted that Greece has not moved from its positions in recent years while respecting Muslim monuments.

Referring to the upcoming visit to Athens by Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama to address his fellow countrymen, Mitsotakis was clear that “he has the right to do so,” adding however that “it is an option that, at the present juncture, in view of the European elections, seems rather unnecessary to me.”

“We will neither prohibit nor facilitate it,” he added.

He also admitted that the case of the jailed ethnic-Greek mayor-elect Fredi Beleri has created great tension in Greek-Albanian relations. However, he noted, the issue “is not bilateral” but “concerns the rule of law and the way Albania treats minorities.”

Touching on the “conflict” with the Church of Greece over the marriage of same-sex couples, he described it as “a disagreement that was expressed openly and civilly.”

“From the very first moment we knew that the Church would not agree with this option, but I want to remind you that I was the first to respect the different point of view,” he said, acknowledging the Church’s difficulty in agreeing to it.