Ankara denies: the kidnapped Syrian bishops are not in Turkey
November 2, 2013: The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called the allegations
which have been circulating in recent days "baseless and misleading" with regards
to the two metropolitan bishops of Aleppo abducted last April and held hostage by
Chechen militants out of Syria, in the Turkish territory, with coverage of the secret
services in Ankara. The blunt denial, re-launched by Turkish agencies, refers to the
vice-president of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, Elena Agapova who had given
assumptions about the fate of the two abducted bishops to the Grand Mufti of Damascus
Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, who on 28 October had met with representatives of the Imperial
Society in the Russian capital.
According to the Turkish press, even the intelligence
services of Ankara are working to obtain the release of the two Syrian bishops - the
Greek Orthodox Boulos al-Yazigi and the Syrian Orthodox Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim
- abducted on 22 April, and whose seizure has never been claimed by any of the acronyms
operating on the scene of the Syrian conflict. The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society,
was founded in 1882 by Tsar Alexander III. (Source: Agenzia Fides 31/10/2013).