Foreign Ministry spokesman Gregory Delavekouras issued the following statement today regarding the transfer of the deed to the Prince’s Orphanage back into the name of the Ecumenical Patriarchate:
The registration – in implementation of a European Court of Human Rights ruling – of the Prince’s Orphanage back into the name of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is deeply significant and is welcomed with particular satisfaction.
This development, to which Turkey had committed itself politically, vindicates the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s years of tireless struggle and strengthens the arguments for granting legal personality to the centuries-old institution of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
At the same time, it opens the way to the preservation and use of this historic architectural monument.”
November 29, 2010