THERE CAN BE NO AGREEMENT WITH THE PRIESTS
Priest
Hrisostomos who has a large following within the Greek Cypriot community
has excommunicated almost 100,000 Greek Cypriots for saying 'YES' to the
Annan Plan.
Using
religion as a tool to constantly put pressure on the Greek Cypriot people,
the Greek Cypriot priests are trying to ensure that religion plays a major
factor in politics, especially the Cyprus issue, and the recent remarks
made by Paphos Metropolitan Hrisostomos against those supporting the Annan
Plan once more highlighted this fact.
Paphos
Metropolitan Hrisostomos accused the 100,000 Greek Cypriots who had voted
'yes' to the Annan Plan of bringing the Turkish policies to the forefront
and of having a low national consciousness.
Speaking at
the "14th Conference for Greek Cypriots Living Abroad", he
strongly criticized political party leaders for the stance they had
adopted during the referendum.
Indicating
that a national strategy independent of the views of political parties had
to be identified, Metropolitan Hrisostomos referring to the referendum
period accused the officials of some political parties and NGOs in the
Greek Cypriot side of being "the transporters of Turkish policies" and
said: "Today, the winds against the lamp of Hellenism civilization is
starting to blow in our country".
