ROME — Cypriot Archbishop Chrysostomos said Sunday it would be a mistake for Ukraine to retreat rather than stand up to Russian aggression in the country.
“Since February 24, we have all been watching with deepest pain the invasion that Russia, a Christian country, has waged against another Christian country, Ukraine,” said the archbishop in his message for Easter, which Cypriot Christians celebrate on April 24 this year.
“We are all witnessing the horrors of war, the death of thousands of people on both sides, the destruction of entire cities and the downfall of important historical and cultural monuments,” he said.
The archbishop declared that as members of the Church of Christ, “we boldly declare that we are against any military invasion of one country against another.”
“We declare respect for the preservation of the territorial integrity of the countries of the world and, in particular, for the preservation and protection of human life and property of every human being,” he added.
In his address, Chrysostomos related Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine, which has occasioned the displacement of millions of people, to Turkey’s 1974 invasion of Cyprus, whose consequences are still being felt.
Ever since the Turkish invasion, the island nation of Cyprus is divided into two parts separated by the U.N.’s so-called “green line.”
The territory below the line, which comprises approximately 59 percent of the surface area, remains in effective control of the Republic of Cyprus, while the zone to the north is run by the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of the North of Cyprus.
“And despite all the painful concessions we have made, in a sincere effort to find a peaceful solution to the Cyprus problem, this not only remains unresolved, but, on the contrary, we accept threats to settle the enclosed area of Varosha with the obvious Turkish intent to occupy the whole of Cyprus,” the archbishop said.
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