| Country | Didymoteicho, Greece |
| Year | 2021 |
| Affected group/minority |
Turkish community in Western Thrace |
| Perpetrator | Archbishop of Athens Ieronymos II |
| Type of case | Hate speech |
| Type of act | Verbal aggression |
| Media | Traditional media (printed, radio, TV) |
| Reactions | Organisations and civil society members representing the Turkish community in Western Thrace strongly condemned the expressions used by Ieronymos II, and members of Muslim associations in Athens also had similar statements. The president of the Athens-based Muslim Association of Greece (MME), Naim Elgadhour had written an article to Efsyn newspaper publicly condemning those expressions. |
Brief description:
In January 2021, in an interview with “Open TV”, a free-to-air TV channel based in Greece, the Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece, Ieronymos II, said that “Islam is not a religion but a political party and pursuit, and its followers are people of war…They are the people who spread, this is characteristic of Islam.” The prelate of the Greek Orthodox Church also called Muslims the people of ‘expansion’.
The Archbishop's speech occurred during the bicentenary celebrations of the Greek uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1821. Although there was some reference to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, also known as Mehmed the Conqueror, who took control of Istanbul back in 1453, putting the Byzantium Empire to an end, his comments came ahead of Turkey and Greece’s decision to resume talks aimed at reducing tensions between the neighbours. The talks were planned for January 25 following Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s invitation to Greece to restart efforts to resolve the disagreements.
More information on the case can be obtained through the links:
https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/greek-archbishop-insults-islam-says-it-is-not-a-religion-43359
https://www.milletnews.com/greece/turkey-greek-archbishops-insulting-remarks-slammed
https://www.milletnews.com/greece/muslim-scholars-condemn-greek-archbishops-remarks
Photo: ShooterStock
