The Holy Community returned the “ball” to the police of Mount Athos just in case intervention scenario a large number of policemen with heavy vehicles in the Perivoli tis Panagia, in order to execute a court decision and to remove the zealots of the Monastery of Esfigmenou from the delegation but also the main building of the monastery.

At yesterday’s (Monday) meeting, the request of EL.AS was discussed. as it is described in the leaked document which essentially announces the planning of the operation. Including the police request was described as “vague”. and it was decided to request its concretization in order to bring it to the attention of the Holy Episcopate.

The case of the activation of the court decisions for the expulsion of the Esfigmenos zealots from the two buildings on Mount Athos came back a few days ago. Zealots have been labeled schismatic since 2002, when it was decided to expel them from the State of Athos and since then the decision to expel them is pending. The new brotherhood of Esfigmenou, founded in 2005, proceeded to take court decisions in order to evacuate the two buildings. In the implementation of one of these decisions, the sad events of 2013 were recorded when zealots reacted by throwing Molotov cocktails at a bailiff and a crew who violated the entrance of the old representative office (konaki) of Esfimenou using a digger. In fact, those episodes led to the condemnation of the monks in multi-year trials, while among the condemned is also the abbot of the zealots, Methodios.

This time the new brotherhood of the Monastery of Esfigmenou proceeded to execute two decisions for the return of the mobiles and real estate of the monastery to its members, which is implemented by the forced expulsion of the zealots from the two buildings. Both of these decisions, of the Multi-Member Court of First Instance of Polygyros in 2018 for real estate and for mobiles of the Thessaloniki Court of Appeal in 2020, were requested by the zealots to be overturned, but the appeals were rejected and have become irrevocable by decision of the Supreme Court in June 2023. “Now there is nothing pending, all the decisions of the courts have been taken to evacuate the monastery and the old konak,” said circles of the new brotherhood in Voria.gr noting that last year they did not proceed with the procedures because the country was in an election period.

The execution of the decisions has now been taken over by a bailiff and they refer to the document of the Mount Athos Police Department requesting assistance “in order for our service to respond immediately and with operational precision to a request made by a bailiff for the execution of evictions in areas of the Agios Georgios state ”, exactly as stated in the document.

“We don’t want episodes”

During yesterday’s Assembly of the Holy Community, many of the representatives of the twenty monasteries of Mount Athos expressed their concern and concern. “We don’t want anything to happen and cause incidents,” they noted. Mount Athos was traumatized by the images that went around the world when a zealous monk threw a Molotov cocktail from the window of the representative office in Karyes, but also by the sad events of December 2006 when the images of the bloodied monks of the old and new brotherhood were transferred to hospital after a fierce fight.

Valid Voria.gr information they reported that at yesterday’s meeting it was decided to be requested by Mount Athos Police Directorate to specify its request regarding the availability of monasteries to host a large number of police officers for a long time, as well as clarifying exactly what the police mean by the use of roads and the passage of large vehicles. The police will be asked to rephrase the exact request to the Holy Episcopate and if it is discussed there, it may then be referred back to the Holy Community.

In the meantime, the deadlines, at least for this period, are particularly tight. Enforcement is prohibited from 1st to 31st August as provided by the Code of Civil Procedure (section 140A in conjunction with section 943), so any move by the bailiff to vacate buildings can be made until next Wednesday 31st July. Otherwise, the process will be repeated from September.

It is considered certain that for a plan of this magnitude to be implemented by the police and if it gets the green light from the natural leadership, a few days are not enough. Sources even said that the document of the prosecuting authorities was essentially exploratory, without the staffs having progressed in drawing up a plan linked to a possible intervention. The same sources said that there was no relevant information even to the prosecuting authorities. On the other hand, on Mount Athos, many people disagree with the image of a large number of police officers in its premises, especially at this time when the Monastic State is flooded with pilgrims, mainly from abroad.

With reference to the document, some described it as a “firework” considering that by sending such a document, even shared with all the monasteries, it is probably difficult to implement any intervention. What is certain is that no movement was observed until last night.