Za "Time" from Thessaloniki
"This is the biggest scandal in Greek post-war history," public prosecutor Vassilis Floridis said back in 2009 in the report he submitted after the investigation into the "Vatoped" affair. This case cost the Greek state about two billion euros and was at the same time one of the main reasons that early elections took place in September 2009, where the previous government of Constantine Karamanlis and the New Democracy (ND) convincingly lost to George Papandreou and his PASOK . No more ink was "spilled" on any affair in the Greek press, no more documentaries were recorded on any scandal, no more parliamentarians' and ministers' heads "fell" due to any abuse. The "Vatoped" affair, which was exposed in 2008, continues to shake Greece.
The main protagonist of the affair is father Jefrem, the abbot of one of the largest monasteries in Mount Athos, Vatopeda. In December 2011, the court finally issued a decision on the temporary detention of the abbot, who is charged with the crime of "moral incitement to fraud, money laundering and issuing false certificates and invoices for enormous sums of money." Thus, on December 27, 2011, just after Christmas, which the Orthodox Greeks celebrate according to the Gregorian calendar, the powerful Father Yefrem moved from the cell of one of the largest monasteries of Mount Athos to the cell of the largest Greek prison, Korydalos, in Athens.
In previous years, Father Yefrem received the highest state officials in his monastery, such as the Prime Minister of Greece, Kostas Karamanlis, or the President/Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Politicians, businessmen, distinguished people from all walks of life and from the Orthodox world came to him for gifts and blessings. He had the reputation of a "spiritual man", but at the same time, with the help of his "right hand" father Arsenio, he ran a large company, which the Greek media called a "holy enterprise". The goal of the apparently successful company was to increase the wealth of both the Vatoped monastery and all its residents: at the time when the murky business was exposed, Vatoped's property was valued at around two billion euros. Not a bad balance for father Efrem, who arrived on the Holy Mountain twenty years ago from Cyprus as a poor monk.
VALID BYZANTINE REGULATIONS: Only two decades ago, the Vatoped monastery in Svetogorje, founded in 985 (the second after Hilandar), was on the verge of collapse. A small number of monks barely made ends meet and with enormous personal sacrifices and with great effort maintained the large, dilapidated thousand-year-old monastery. Until 1990, Vatoped was "idiorhythmic" (idiorythmos), which means that each monk took care of his own living expenses. With the arrival of today's abbot Efrem and a group of then young monks from Cyprus, the system by which the monastery functioned changed. They introduced the "kinovian" principle (koinos bios), which means that everyone works together and contributes to the needs of the monastery and shares the welfare.
The monastery not only recovered, but flourished and became known throughout the Orthodox ecumen. The question soon arose: how did the modest monastery in Svetogorje manage to acquire property valued at two billion euros in such a short time?
The secret is hidden in the word "chrysovulja", which is nothing more than the name for an official, written order written in gold, by which the emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) presented property and privileges to the monasteries of Mount Athos, and which was later adopted by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. called "ferman". Paradoxically or not, only according to the laws of the modern Greek state, those chrisovuli are still in force: every order on handing over land to a monastery, which was signed ten centuries ago by one of the Byzantine emperors, still legally binds the modern Greek state, which was founded only 181 years.
Greece, however, had good reasons not to change anything about those Byzantine laws. Thus, for example, the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople and the Greek Patriarchates in Jerusalem and Alexandria have large possessions outside of Greece, which they received in ancient times as a gift from Byzantine emperors, Arab emirs and Ottoman sultans, precisely on the basis of charters and firmans. If the modern Greek state questioned those Chrysovuli, all present-day ownership of all Greek patriarchates and monasteries in the Middle East, such as St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, would also be questioned.
Thus, Athens did not change anything on the legal importance of chrysovuli, and when Father Ephrem became abbot of Vatopeda, he could ask the Greek state to recognize his ownership of the coastal lake of Vistonida in Greek Thrace, which was gifted to Vatopeda by the Byzantine emperors in the Middle Ages.
TRUMP OF TWO BILLION: After a short court hearing, held in the small town of Xanthi in Western Thrace, which is located near the lake, the Greek state gave up the "battle" with Mount Athos, and 6700 hectares of sea-lake habitat passed into the hands of the Vatoped monastery. However, under modern Greek law, the shoreline, whether of sea or lake, is considered public property and is protected by environmental laws. In addition, Vistonida lagoon, rich in diverse living world, is protected by the Ramstar international environmental charter. Thus, Sveta Gora could profit from its newly recognized possession only by renting the lake to local fishermen, from which it would have only a meager income.
That's why Abbot Yefrem and his advisers proposed to Athens to "return" this lagoon to the state in exchange for state properties that were located in various parts of Greece. The Greek government not only agreed to this proposal but also "rewarded" it: Although the value of the lake is estimated at 100 million euros, the sale price of the area that the Greek state gave in exchange to the Vatoped monastery is estimated at two billion euros. Among the possessions were valuable construction land, but also already built areas, such as parts with Olympic athletic halls and buildings where the Olympics in Athens 2004 were held, then tourist attractive lands around Thessaloniki, large areas around Ouranopolis and Halkidiki. "Trampa" with Vatopeda was signed by ministers of the New Democracy who, through relatives and intermediaries, participated in this exchange, with the aim of personal enrichment. A whole series was used for money laundering overseas a company based in Cyprus, as well as Greek entrepreneurs. Companies such as Rassadel (Cyprus), Madeus (Cyprus), Noliden Ltd. (Cyprus) or Antemias Kataskevastiki A.E. overnight, through their cooperation with the Vatoped monastery, they became the owners of large, valuable properties. Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis himself acted as a sponsor of the monastery.
CONFESSION AND TREATMENT OF CANCER: This entire undertaking was not only of an economic nature. Because Abbot Yefrem and his brotherhood projected into the world a characteristic Mount Athos profile of "Orthodox spirituality" with which they attracted thousands of believers and thus "managed" the politicians of the then right-wing government. In an interview, former Deputy Prime Minister Petros Doukas says: "The monastery monks influenced Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis himself." How great this influence was is also shown by the fact that Mr. Angelou, the secretary of the Prime Minister's office, believed that he would defeat cancer if he went on a pilgrimage to Mount Athos, specifically to Vatoped." Petros Doukas' description of his first meeting with the monks of Mount Athos is also characteristic. in connection with the exchange of land. "They asked me if I wanted to confess," says Dukas. And when they asked him to sign the document by which the state gives the land to the monks, he refused, saying: "Shit, I'm not signing it!" However, "someone still gave them full rights to the lake, and everything else they needed is to cash it in," said the former deputy prime minister, who later stated the same in court. And the comment of the American "Venity Fair", which published the interview, was that "if this brotherhood pulled the strings in the Greek Ministry of Economy, Greece would not have any problems with debts and deficit"!
Finally, in the fall of 2008, Greek journalists exposed this scandal in all its magnitude and put the Karamanlis government at the time in a very awkward position. The same government, however, with the help of a special legal decree in the spring of 2009, managed to free all its ministers who were involved in the "monastery" affair and practically granted them asylum. The Greek judiciary, however, under the pressure of public opinion, continued with the investigation. Assets were returned, bank deposits were frozen and part of the profits were confiscated to the detriment of the Greek government. After three years of judicial investigation, fundamental disagreements between the investigating judge and the public prosecutor, the court ordered that father Jefrem be detained, and not be released on bail of 200.000 euros. A police helicopter landed on Mount Athos and the abbot was transported to prison where he awaits the continuation of the trial. Efrem gave only one statement to the media, that "it is unfair that they are taking him to prison."
REACTIONS IN RUSSIA: There were numerous reactions to the arrest of Father Jefrem. Monks and Orthodox believers protested in front of the court with slogans such as "godless judges judge Orthodox believers." Ultra-right political parties have also expressed their support for Father Yefrem, as has the Greek Church, which has maintained that Abbot Yefrem is innocent. However, the greatest support for the abbot came from abroad, namely from Russia, both from the political and state leadership and from the Russian Orthodox Church. After all, a few weeks before he was arrested, Father Yefrem went on a tour of Russia carrying "under his arm" the miracle-working relic of Mount Athos, Agiya Zoni (Holy Belt). According to legend, the Agia zone is a sacred belt from the Virgin's dress, i.e. the remains of that belt which, after a long and complicated history, arrived in Vatoped and are kept there. According to the belief and tradition of Orthodox Christians, this holy belt of the Virgin has miraculous and healing power. Abbot Yefrem was welcomed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with the highest state honors at the Moscow airport last November. Thousands of Russian believers worshiped the Holy Mountain relic, which visited 20 Russian cities between October 28 and November 2011, 11. The faithful left large sums of money as a sign of gratitude. It should be noted that in the past, the Vatoped monastery twice refused invitations to transfer the Holy Belt to America and Romania, but it did not ignore the invitation from Russia.
The leaders of the Moscow Patriarchate called the arrest of Yefrem an "unprecedented barbarity." The Russian Foundation of the Apostle Andrei Protoclitus characterized the event as "unacceptable politicization of a court verdict, because the Greek judicial authorities want to show in the West their willingness to continue denying the principles and organization of Orthodox spiritual life." A hundred Russian monks and Orthodox Christians organized protests in front of the Greek embassy in Moscow and demanded the release of Father Yefrem. The whole event had a great echo in the Russian media. The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs also reacted: "Greece is a legal state with a long democratic tradition and respect for human rights, within which there is absolute respect for an independent judiciary and a clear separation of powers." For the above-mentioned problems, Greece does not accept suggestions." In the same announcement, it is added: "Greece and Russia are bound by relations of deep friendship and understanding, which are based on common spiritual and civilizational values. Our two peoples share a common Orthodox tradition, the light of which was transferred from the Byzantine Empire to Russia, and they have mutually developed very strong ties, which for centuries have been interpreted as an unbroken relationship of brotherhood and trust. We remain committed to strengthening and deepening Greek-Russian relations."
Given the well-known rivalry between the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Patriarchate of Moscow over spiritual supremacy over the Orthodox world, Russia's interference in Greece's internal affairs is not over. Abbot Jefrem is still in prison and awaiting trial, perhaps having in mind one of the epigraphs hanging on the walls of the Vatoped monastery: "A wise man confesses, while a fool insists."
The authors are the founders and editors of the Greek magazine "Zenit".
