Foreign Ministry spokesperson Konstantinos Koutras made the following statement in response to journalists’ questions on today’s Turkish Foreign Ministry announcement no. 121, regarding the fire that broke out early on the morning of Friday, 17 April, in the courtyard of the Mahmud Aga Mosque in Komotini:

“The fire that broke out at dawn on Friday, 17 April, in the courtyard of the Mahmud Aga Mosque in Komotini was, according to the fire department’s initial assessment, due to a short circuit. The fire department’s investigation will be completed soon (early next week), at which point the findings of the committee of experts that has been set up for this purpose, as well as regarding the trees of the Alankuyu Prayer Room, will be disclosed.

Of course, we would expect the Turkish authorities, who are hastening to jump to conclusions regarding an investigation that is still under way, to show corresponding haste in investigating the cases that occur from time to time of destruction of Greek Orthodox monuments in Turkey.

Finally, and as concerns the Treaty of Lausanne, which governs the status of the Muslim minority of Greece and the Greek minority in Turkey, history and numbers bear decisive witness to which state has implemented it conscientiously and with respect for its citizens, and which state has methodically and systematically infringed it for decades, violating both the spirit and the letter of the Treaty.”