ARCHBISHOP Chrysostomos’ visit to the Apostolos Andreas monastery yesterday took everyone by surprise.
Chrysostomos, the figurehead and frequent financial backer of the rejectionist camp, was the last person we would have expected to go through the checkpoint and travel across the occupied territory to the tip of the Karpas peninsula. After all, this was the man who had previously publicly censured Orthodox bishops who had crossed to the north and held services in occupied churches.
The fact he did not have to show any ID or fill out any of the regime’s forms could hardly be a defence of his action, even though he seemed to think so. In order to cross north without presenting any documentation, he still had to make the arrangements with the ‘officials’ of the pseudo-state and he certainly disapproved of such contacts when they were made for holding church services in the north. And whilst at the monastery he met the ‘minister of tourism,’ who is in charge of all the monuments in the north, in order to discuss what work needed to be done.
It was amusing hearing two radio hosts, correcting him yesterday morning for not using the obligatory ‘so-called’ when referring to the north’s minister of tourism. He sprang yet another surprise on one of yesterday’s radio shows when he said that ‘we’ (the Greek Cypriots) were to blame for the dilapidated state of the monastery (he does not often show such generosity towards the occupiers) because of past disagreements over the repair work. Thanks to the disagreements nothing was done and the building is now on the verge of collapsing, making the building repairs a matter of great urgency.
These were not the only surprises sprung on us by the Archbishop. A couple of weeks ago it was reported that he had exchanged letters with Turkey’s Prime Minister, regarding the need to repair the monastery, while yesterday it was announced that he would visit the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul next month and while there he might even meet Tayyip Erdogan.
Everyone is wondering about the reasons for this apparent political softening by the Archbishop, exemplified by his willingness to cooperate with the pseudo-government and his desire to meet Erdogan. Perhaps, there is nothing more to all this than the realisation that Apostolos Andreas monastery will collapse if repair work does not commence very soon. He may have decided that saving the monastery was more important than political rhetoric, but that in itself is a sign of progress.
What is certain is that his visit to the north is a positive move that will contribute to the improvement of the political climate and help build trust. When a hard-line nationalist like the Archbishop crosses to the north and has direct dealings with the occupation regime we can safely say that the times are changing.
