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MP Panicos Leonidou, head of the Cypriot delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Orthodoxy (IPA), led a delegation of the Assembly to Hungary, which included Serbian MP Mr. Alexander Chotrich, the representative of the Greek minority in the Hungarian National Assembly, Mr. Laocratis Koranis and the IUCO Councillor Mr. Kostas Mugdalis. László Kövér and had a meeting with President Imre Vejkey and Members of the Prayer Prayer Group in the Hungarian National Assembly.
During the meetings, Mr. Leonidou said that the visit of an IOA delegation to Budapest is mainly aimed at strengthening the relations and cooperation between the IOA and the National Assembly of Hungary, in the context of the efforts made for the accession of the Hungarian Parliament as a full member of the Organization. Mr Leonidou noted the presence of a significant Orthodox community in Hungary, a country, he pointed out, with a long history and deep religious faith, which has maintained relations with Byzantium since the 9th century AD. Leonidou stressed that through unity and fraternity among Christian denominations, efforts should be strengthened to protect persecuted Christian communities and Christian heritage and to integrate Christian values into contemporary parliamentary discourse and in the context of the Dialogue on the Future of Europe.
Leonidou said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused indescribable unimaginable pain to human souls, millions of refugees, destruction and suffering. He underlined that this war is raging between two founding members of the IOA and, by extension, between two peoples with common religious and cultural traditions and wished that it would end soon and that the principles of international law, respect for Ukraine's independence and territorial integrity, human rights and universal values would prevail. Mr Leonidou also pointed out that while the Cypriot people continue to suffer for forty-nine years the consequences of the Turkish invasion, the international community does not demonstrate the same principled attitude as in the case of Ukraine and Cyprus.
In addition, today, the IOA's tribute volume entitled "Hagia Sophia: The Temples of the Wisdom of God around the World", at the Byzantium Centre of the Eötvös Loránd College in Budapest, which is part of the Assembly's global campaign to raise awareness of international public opinion regarding the condemnation of the conversion of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a mosque.
In his speech, Mr Leonidou said that the IOA, during its thirty-year course in international parliamentary life, has been working with consistency and dedication for the unity of Orthodoxy on the one hand, and for the promotion of Christian principles in Europe on the other. The Cypriot MP noted that the Christian tradition is a fundamental pillar of European culture and history and an additional strong and unifying cultural foundation of modern Europe. Leonidou also noted the efforts made by the Assembly to protect endangered Christian monuments in Kosovo, Nagorno Karabakh, northern Syria and the Turkish-occupied territories of the Republic of Cyprus, as well as in Turkey. He made particular reference to the desecration of the most emblematic temple of Orthodoxy, Hagia Sophia, as, apart from the arbitrary and unjustifiable decision of the Turkish leadership to turn it into a mosque, it is also being used as a venue for election rallies and speeches by the re-elected Turkish President.
(The text as sent by the House of Representatives)
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