Announcement on developments on the Greek section of the International Council of Monuments and Locations (ICOMOS). In this he points out his concern about the ruling of the Egyptian Court and emphasizes the dangers of it.
Recall that for this reason, George Gerapetritis will travel to Cairo on Wednesday to meet with his Egyptian counterpart.
In detail the announcement
“Greek ICOMOS expresses its strong concern about the ownership status and the confiscation of the assets of the Agia Catherine Monastery on the Sinai peninsula, as a recent decision by Egyptian justice.
The monastery was founded in the middle of the 6th century by Emperor Justinian A ́, and is the oldest monastery that operates continuously for 15 centuries, remaining Orthodox. Its monastery and its environment have emerged over time in a sanctuary for 3 religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism, and had remained largely untouched by major interventions until the early 21st century.
In 2002, the monastery with the surrounding area of 60,100 hectares was recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Monument. At the same time
The area has been declared as a natural ecosystem shelter, which includes rare samples of geological formations and rare species of plants and animals. During the last decade, the implementation of a Great Transfiguration Project has begun. This program, before it is completed and operated, has already changed the look and character of the place.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has asked the Egyptian authorities to respect the contracts applicable to World Heritage Sites: to discontinue construction projects in the area, until detailed studies are carried out, including their impact studies on the impact of their implementation. World Heritage Site, as well as its management plans. There is no intention of the Egyptian authorities to interrupt work.
The problem that has emerged, with the adoption of a decision by a court, pending for years on the monastery’s status, is not isolated. Enrolled in a
Network of policies and actions on a global scale, which are inextricably linked to those who are finally escalating in the eastern Mediterranean and causing radical changes to the region’s political, economic and ecological balances.
Egyptian authorities’ assurances that the religious and functional nature of the monastery will be safeguarded does not negate the substantial confiscation of its land. The impact “on the safeguarding of the monastic way of the Holy Brotherhood and the pilgrimage” will be irreversible, resulting in the desolation of the monastery and the annexation of the Arab population to the great transformation.
The monastery will be maintained as a tourist attraction, without essential religious content. There is no reference to the impeccable relics, which have been kept for centuries in its buildings, which are recorded in both material and intangible heritage and which, consequently, are protected as an integral part of the exceptional global value of the “UNESC” monument of the world.
The issuance of the Egyptian Court of Justice has highlighted one of the major and complex problems in the management of the World Cultural Heritage, in the widespread sense of the management of the World Humanitarian Heritage, at the cultural and social level. In the area of the Sinai and Palestinian peninsula, monuments and sanctuaries are “crowded”, associated with the beginning of three great religions.
The perspective of the tourism exploitation of these monuments and sanctuaries, as well as their natural resources, arouses the interest of economic giants, which do not hesitate to destroy meaningful values of cultural and humanitarian heritage, which they claim to exploit. In such a context, even at best, the monuments become objects of a figurative historical – cultural – humanitarian reality, without serious content.
The Greek IComos is concerned about the future of the Monastery of St. Catherine on the Sinai Peninsula, and he thinks that the Governments of Egypt and Greece, UNESCO, the ICOMOS National Committees, the UN and the European Community must take measures to cancel this decision. of the World Heritage Site.
We also consider it appropriate, such as the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, at its upcoming Council in July 2025, enroll the Monastery of the Saint
Catherine on the Sinai Peninsula on the World Heritage List at risk in order to take enhanced measures to protect it. “
