His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros BBC Interview Transcription
INTRODUCTION OF PROGRAM
00:33
Huge crowds attend the first Friday prayers at Istanbul’s Agia Sophia
Mosque for more than 80 years, but one Greek Orthodox Archbishop weeps,
“This day is for us a mourning day. Its the day we grieve this decision
of the Turkish government.” (00:53)
INTERVIEW
(00:31)
Now two weeks ago the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip
Erdoğan, celebrated a legal decision which annulled the status of
Istanbul’s Agia Sophia as a museum, allowing it to revert to becoming a
mosque. Before it was a mosque it was, of course, a great Byzantine
Cathedral. And today the President led Muslims to pray inside Agia
Sophia responding to the first call to prayer there in 86 years.
…PRAYERS…
Thousands of people gathered in the city’s Fatih district, witnesses
to a reversal in the building’s status, which has been greeted with
dismay by many in the international community, including the US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Pope Francis and several Orthodox Church
leaders around the world. Among them Archbishop Elpidophoros, head of
the Greek Orthodox Church of America. We were hoping to speak to him
live but he will be leading a special service of prayers as he told me
earlier.
(32:09) “This day is for us a mourning day. It’s the day we grieve
this decision of the Turkish government to reconvert a monument, which
is so important for the whole world. This is such a painful situation
for us that we announced this day as a day for mourning. It’s like Good
Friday for all Christians.”
Clearly a very difficult day for you, that you are marking with
prayers and it does sound as though there is sorrow in your voice over
this decision, I wonder though if you would accept, or at least
acknowledge, that President Erdoğan has pledged that he will keep Agia
Sophia open for all faiths to visit and also that the Christian symbols
inside will be veiled only during Muslim prayers. Does that feel to you
as though that’s enough?
(33:13) “ We had never a problem to access any mosque in Turkey so I
don’t understand why is this is a gesture of goodwill. It’s not a
special situation. It’s not a special gesture. It’s everyday
business. It’s what’s happening all over the world. But, at the same
time, it will be a privilege of a Muslim to have access in that
monument, access of worship which is now deprived for the rest of the
citizens who are not Muslims in Turkey.”
I wonder if you would agree with the Prime Minister of Greece, Prime Minister Mitsotakis, who talked about sorrow, of course, to millions of Greek Orthodox Christians. He conveyed his sorrow but he also said that the changing of the status was not a show of power on the part of President Erdoğan, but evidence of weakness. I wonder if you agree with that perception.
I wonder if you would agree with the Prime Minister of Greece, Prime Minister Mitsotakis, who talked about sorrow, of course, to millions of Greek Orthodox Christians. He conveyed his sorrow but he also said that the changing of the status was not a show of power on the part of President Erdoğan, but evidence of weakness. I wonder if you agree with that perception.
(34:10) “I don’t know if it is a sign of weakness, but I can say that
it was not a wise decision. It was imposed mainly, if I can understand
it correctly, by the difficult political and geostrategic situation
where Turkey is right now and maybe from the financial serious
difficulties that Turkey faces, but there are certain monuments and
ideas who are vested with such deep history, and meaning, and respect
from the ages that we cannot touch them and its dangerous to play with
these things.”
Beyond this being a day of mourning and sorrow for you I wonder as a
Christian, as a Christian leader, you will now be campaigning for Agia
Sophia to be returned to becoming a museum?
(35:14)
“Certainly I can tell you that we will never stop. It’s a beginning
for us. We will start a campaign. I already, yesterday, had the
opportunity to express the concerns of all Orthodox Christians in the
United States to the President, Trump, who received me in the White
House, and to the Vice President, Mr. Pence.”
Archbishop, the President of the United States and the Vice President led you to believe that they fully support your campaign?
(35:43)
(35:43)
“This is my impression. They clearly stated to me that they are very
much sorry for this decision that Turkey has made and that they will
support the minorities in Turkey and particularly our Ecumenical
Patriarchate, the head of the Orthodox Church in Istanbul.”
That was Archbishop Elpidophoros who is the head of the Greek Orthodox Church of America. (36:13)
Listen to interview: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000l2cw.