Religion
A man of the Church hopes for peace in Syria
The Syrian Orthodox Patriarch is a guest in Germany and President Gauck. He hopes for peace and the return of the exiled Christians – confident he is not. An Encounter.
So immediately, the German Federal President rarely gets a description of the current situation of Christians in Syria and Iraq. “It fills me with great concern,” said Joachim Gauck after the conversation. The Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church Ignatius Ephrem II., for ten days in Germany.
That Gauck him and his companions in the castle of Bellevue received, was a highlight of this stay. “Thank the German people for his generosity and his help,” says the 50-Year-old the German wave. We hope to have more support on our path back to peace in Syria and in Iraq.“
“Dangerous for all”
Just the head of the Syriac is to escape Orthodox Church in the middle of June a stop. A suicide bomber wanted to kill him, in Kamischli, his birthplace, in the North-East of Syria. Several security people of a Christian militia were killed when they stopped the terrorists. Now he dwells as witness to the suffering of the Christians under the Terror of the IS in Germany. And fights off the impression that he was more vulnerable than others. Other minorities were under pressure. “It is dangerous for everyone, not only for the Christians.”
Ignatius Ephrem: Christians in Syria in two ways a target of violence
And yet, he speaks of the Christians in two ways to the target of the violence. There are those extremist Islamist groups, which set the tone, to fight in the name of Islam were for a. And on the other attacked those forces of the Christian Syrians, who would regard this as a regime-loyal to the Assad Regime wanted to get rid. “We are not for or against someone,” said Ignatius Ephrem. “We are committed to peace and Coexistence in our homeland Syria.”
Refuge in Germany
Gauck said after the conversation, in Syria and Iraq, the Christianity is “since his early time at home,” had threatened the life of Christians “by war and Islamist terrorist existentially”. You will be a victim of Islamist terror, “such as Yazidis, Shia and Sunni, which did not represent the radical views of Islamist terrorists.” Therefore, it is in urgent need of a political solution to the conflict in Syria and bring peace to the Middle East.
Gauck was grateful to all those defending it, “the many Persecuted find a safe refuge in Germany.” Of course, also brought the Patriarch to the language: German refugee districts he knows, as well as from homes in Sweden, several accounts of harassment and Attacks on Christians who were fleeing the Islamist violence in the Middle East.
Patriarch: thanks for the German commitment
And yet, the Patriarch emphasized the gratitude for Germany’s commitment. Like a few other countries, the German support is set to reach directly over the churches in Syria, the suffering of the population. With the help of his churches. After that, he was President of the Confederation, moved some of his companions to the foreign office and the Ministry of development. Because Ignatius Ephrem looks ahead. And hopes to help the settlement go to a calming of the situation to the back of those who had fled from war and violence.
“Many of the fighters are foreigners”
He hopes not, because he sees the murderous violence of the Islamic state primarily as a Syrian terrorist. Part of it were young people who had been seduced in the substrate under the Wahhabi-inspired influence in the mosques and Koran schools. “But many of the fighters are foreigners.”
Whether he expects the return of many refugees? “It is our home since the beginning of Christianity. We are Syrians, we are the indigenous people of this Region – but return? I have little hope that the Refugees return home. I wish it would, but it is difficult.“ As a worldly man of the Church, which was itself 15 years as the Metropolitan in the United States and politics knows speaks. Since his election to the Patriarch of a Church that sees itself proudly as one of the original churches, he visited Beirut, the migrant communities, but he travels also to the Pope or Putin to Brussels or Berlin.
“It is our home to stay”
Berlin, where he meets with the President, but also the local Syrian Orthodox Christians. 100,000 believers live in Germany. In the capital city alone there are four parishes. They were established before the refugee wave from the middle East and they also deal with refugee families. Half of Germany was sitting on Thursday night in front of the TV and cheered for the German national football team. Ignatius Ephrem spoke to the faithful in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Last weekend, he inaugurated in Wiesbaden, Germany, a new Church, of Berlin, went to Gütersloh, according to Warburg. On the Sunday following the casting, where the Aramaic believers, since 2001, over ten years, your own house of worship buildings.
Ignatius Ephrem is 50, he looks older. Even if he has young eyes and alive can tell. One suspects in conversation, is what drives him. As he tells the story of the two archbishops kidnapped in April 2013 near Aleppo. For a time she had been on secret channels of information that they lived in. Now since two years…. “It’s still our home,” said Ignatius Ephrem.