Greek Orthodox Church leader calls Turks 'barbarians' unworthy of EU membership
ATHENS, Greece, Dec 04, 2003
(AP WorldStream via COMTEX)
The leader of Greece's powerful Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, described Turks as "barbarians" on Thursday and said the predominantly Muslim country should not join the European Union because "we cannot live together."
Christodoulos has in the past opposed Turkey's bid to join the EU and equated Greek government support for its membership to a second Ottoman invasion of Europe.
He made the comments during a church service celebrating the life of Bishop Seraphim, considered by the Greek Orthodox Church to have been martyred for his faith when he was killed in 1601 by the Ottomans.
"That is why they skewered him," Christodoulos said of Seraphim. "And now these are the ones wanting to join Europe. The barbarians cannot come into the family of Christians. We cannot live together."
The Socialist government, which has staunchly supported Turkey's EU candidacy, immediately sought to distance itself from Christodoulos' comments.
"Everyone is entitled to his own views," government spokesman Christos Protopapas said. "The European course of Turkey serves our national interests, security in the area and economic development."
EU leaders are to decide in December 2004 on whether to open entry negotiations with Turkey.
Athens has backed Turkey's EU aspirations, hoping it will help ease tensions between the two neighbors over boundary disputes in the Aegean Sea and the divided island of Cyprus. Turkey and Greece have come close to war three times in the past 28 years.
But Christodoulos dismissed such views as "lacking historical knowledge" and warned that "we should not lose everything in the name of diplomacy."
"We should not lose everything in the name of diplomacy. Diplomacy is good, but we should not forget our history," he said.
Foreign Minister George Papandreou, who has led efforts to improve relations with Turkey, said that unlike Christodoulos, Greek history had taught him a different lesson.
Papandreou, attending a NATO meeting in Brussels, said in an announcement that he found inspiration in Rigas Ferraios, a 19th century hero of the Greek war of independence against Ottoman rule.
"He had a vision of a Balkan peninsula at peace, free and democratic where all ethnicities and all religions - Orthodox, Catholic, Muslim and Jew - will have a place. This vision is today becoming a reality with the completion of the European Union and inclusion of the Balkans," Papandreou said.
"This," he added, "is the vision supported by the vast majority of the Greek people."
Christodoulos in the past has also spoken out against European unification and globalization. He recently campaigned for inclusion of a reference to Christianity as Europe's predominant religion in the EU's constitution.
The Ottoman Empire, which stretched from the Balkans to the Middle East at its height in the 16th century, gradually shrank until its final demise after World War I. Turkey became a republic in 1923.
