President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Sunday stressed the need to end sources of conflict in the Middle East and deal with the region’s refugees, while receiving the members of the International Secretariat and Committee Chairpersons and Rapporteurs of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO) at the presidential mansion.

“One understands how important the message of Orthodoxy is today for Europe and the whole world, when there are even in our country phenomena of humanitarian crisis and wars, especially in the Middle East, that create waves of refugees that must be dealt with from the standpoint of protecting human worth,” he said.

Mr. Pavlopoulos noted that, since 1993, the IAO has contributed greatly to the formation of the European architecture which is based on three pillars: ancient Greece, through freedom and culture, Rome, through the state and justice, and Christianity, including Orthodoxy, through the values of solidarity and social justice.

Deputy Foreign Minister and IAO general secretary Yiannis Amanatidis assured him that the IAO was making efforts to “stop the disastrous consequences of wars in the surrounding region”.

IAO Chairman Sergey Popov stressed that its members strongly defend the ideals of Christianity and Christian values.

The members of the IAO are currently in Greece to attend the International Conference on “Religious and Cultural Pluralism and Peaceful Coexistence in the Middle East” organised by the foreign ministry, which takes place in Athens on October 18-20.