Archbishop of Zimbabwe, Seraphim, was judgmental regarding the support of the Greek Church towards the dictatorship of Papadopoulos and Ioannidis.

During his interview in “Agioritiko vima”, Seraphim, commenting the civil war that Syria faces, stressed that Greek people should not forget the slogan “Greece of Greek Christians” with which the Church supported Papadopoulos and Ioannidis during the seven-year dictatorship in Greece and compared that time to the era of Evren in Turkey or Mubarak in Egypt.

Archbishop Seraphim said that “The problem of civil war in Syria began forty years ago when a military coup d’etat occurred and a military officer took charge of the country. No one said anything back then and now we are trying to find out what went wrong without knowing how things will end. Only God knows. But what we all know is that the entire population of Syria suffers, more that 150,000 people are dead, whereas the refugees are millions.”

“The Christians of Syria didn’t let us speak back then about protecting the democratic institutions and they still keep the same attitude. They don’t understand that Democracy cannot be protected by coup d’etat and dictatorships. Of course, other religious people made the same mistake in the past and we all paid for it. Let’s don’t forget the slogan “Greece of Greek Christians” with which the Church supported Papadopoulos and Ioannidis during the seven-year dictatorship in Greece.”