Metropolitan of Austria: Patriarch Bartholomew’s departure before the coup d’état is coincidence

The departure of the Ecumenical Patriarch a few hours before the coup is "pure coincidence", says the Greek Orthodox Austria-Exarch Metropolitan Arsenios in an interview to the news agency of the Austrian Roman Catholic Church "Kathpress", as reported by Romfea.gr.

Metropolitan Arsenios, who came with the Ecumenical Patriarch on a short vacation to Slovenia, categorically denies rumors linking the departure of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople with the failed coup attempt.

According to him, the trip to Slovenia was planned two months ago, and the information that was updated just before the impending uprising of the Turkish Air Force and Infantry is false as easily demonstrated by the airline tickets which had been bought weeks earlier.

The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will support every democratically elected government in Turkey, as well as democratic and in accordance with the rule of law institutions in the country and is also against any form of violence, says Greek Orthodox Austria-Exarch of Hungary metropolitan and Central Europe.

The Ecumenical Patriarch was informed two hours after arriving in Slovenia about the attempted coup in Turkey and asked to immediately reimburse in Istanbul, which was impossible because of the Ataturk airport closure, and now intends to cut the duration stay in Slovenia.

In an interview to the "Kathpress", Metropolitan Arsenios also refutes the news broadcast on Saturday by Turkish media that the Ecumenical Patriarch with the manager of the Office for Religious Affairs Mehmet Görmez and the Turkish Chief Rabbi Isak Caleb allegedly signed a Friday night communiqué condemned the attempted coup and expressed their lament for "the terrorist attacks, aiming to destroy the peace of our great nation and the world."

As the bishop points out, the statement was signed by the all three already on Thursday, long before the onset of the attempted coup, and it was stated against terrorism in general, without anything to do with the coup, which at the time of signing the communiqué nobody could know anything about.

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