About the situation in Sinai following the decision of the Egyptian Justice to close the Monastery of St. Catherine to make it a museum, while confiscating her property, Archbishop Sinai, Faran and Raito and Abbot of the Holy Monastery of St.

As he stated to ‘Preacher“,” For over ten years we have been in the courts constantly because we are denying our property. On the one hand they are sacred places and are visited by the people who come to Sinai and the Egyptian government benefits, but they do not want to recognize us as our own territories. “

His Highness stressed that “we are strongly protesting but all our protests are gone because the strongest says so I will do so.”

He even pointed out that “we fell into riots then with the episodes of fanatical Muslims and began to see us as conquerors, that we bought these estates as many who bought land completely and are illegal.”

Archbishop Damianos also added that “the authorities tell us that you are using us and ask us for money for use. At the moment there is no lawyer in Egypt who knows Greek or be Greek to defend us. “

“It became an agreement of our southern Sinai and the Greek state – and the Egyptians. People from Greece came as trained as possible and we have reached an agreement so that the monastery moves more freely, recognized one property. If we didn’t have the earth how would we live? And while we agreed in this text, they changed it and we are presenting completely different things, ”he said.

Asked at the moment where the issue is, he said: “The Egyptians are trying to downgrade it, they say they love the monastery, but in reality they are drowning”, while stressing that “the Egyptians did not want the issue to be made public, but they themselves were out. It’s a big deal, an international affair. ”

The claimed estates outside the monastery

The Egyptian court ruling mentions the confiscation of 71 real estate, satellite of the monastery.

As Archimandrite Porphyrios, a spokesman for the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine of Sinai, told SKAI today, there are Byzantine and post -Byzantine buildings in these properties, such as the church located in the Holy Peak – the place where Moses was located.

“Along with them is a vital space around the monastery, do not imagine anything great, with olives and vegetables, so that the monastery can live. Only for our candles we need 7 tonnes of oil a year, ”he said characteristically