Athens, 20 July 2023. Participation of the IAO Secretary General in the 14th General Assembly of the World Hellenic Inter-Parliamentary Association (WHIA)

On Thursday, 20th July 2023, the Secretary General of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO), dr. Maximos Charakopoulos, participated in the 14th General Assembly of the World Hellenic Inter-Parliamentary Association (WHIA), held in the Hellenic Parliament.

In his greeting, the IAO Secretary General addressed to the inter-parliamentary institution, made up of MPs and senators of Greek origin, and expressed his satisfaction for the presence of parliamentarians “who also participate in the institutional framwork of the IAO representing their parliaments, such as Vangelis Dule from Albania, Gerasimos Quawas from Jordan and Laocratis Koranisz from Hungary”.

Subsequently, he referred to the inter-institutional linkage between the IAO and the WHIA for the achievement of mutually accepted goals. He underlined, among others, that: “in my capacity as the head of the IAO, also an inter-parliamentary institution, just three years older than yours, which brings together Orthodox parliamentarians from 25 countries, I had the pleasure of meeting and working with the WHIA leadership, the dear President, Senator of Rhode Island, Lou Raptakis, but also the entire board of directors. In these contacts we found that we share common goals and aspirations, such as the peaceful resolution of international disputes, the condemnation of revisionism and the violation of the principles of international law, as is currently happening in Ukraine, the promotion of democracy and respect for human rights”.

Finally, the head of the interparliamentary institution of Orthodox parliamentarians described the scope of action jointly developed with the WHIA. He emphasized the following: “Particularly, within the framework of the cooperation between the IAO and the WHIA, the foundations have been laid for a more active and coordinated intervention and joint actions on two extremely important issues. (…) One concerns the instrumentalization of religion by the Turkish leadership with the conversion of the Hagia Sophia Church in Istanbul into a Muslim mosque. (…) The second field of cooperation is our common concern for the preservation of the Christian presence in the Middle East, where the Christian population is in danger of extinction.”