Behind the Scenes of the Sudden Diplomatic ‘Hiccup’ in the Sinai

A shocking ruling by a provincial Egyptian appeals court over the fate of the historic Saint Catherine Monastery of the Sinai a week later sparked delicate negotiations between the Greek and Egyptian governments.

Greece traditionally maneuvers as a backer of Orthodox Christianity around the world and is highly attuned with Greek Orthodox communities and institutions, a policy that progresses to an acute sensitivity when dealing with Orthodox Churches and faithful in the Middle East and the Holy Land.

As has been widely reported, a top Greek delegation headed by Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis traveled to Cairo last week for talks with the Egyptian side, including with Foreign Minister Badr Abdelati. What emerged, at least officially, is that both sides want to settle the issue soon, yet until then few if any statements will be forthcoming.

However, this period is crucial for a number of reasons.

International dimension

First of all, the media and public opinion in both countries have paid close attention to the sudden emergence of a previously obscure legal challenge against the monastery’s status and assets. The primates of the Greek Orthodox Church issued statements in support of the monastery, something that may also be forthcoming from the Catholic Church, which is following developments with concern.

Greek MEPs have declared themselves ready to bring the case before the European Parliament, while professors from 18 universities in Europe and North America have signed an appeal for support. In other words, it’s not only Greek-Egyptian relations that are threatened, but possibly the way that the rest of the world perceives Egypt in 2025, given that the monastery’s brotherhood seek to shed international light on what they perceive as an existential threat to the 1500-year-old institution’s survival.

A possible blemish on the country’s image around the world is a factor that some internal forces in Egypt may have underestimated. At the same time, the negative fallout may result in egging on nationalist sentiments in the North African country, as some political quarters will try to play the “national sovereignty” card, a prospect that will complicate indirect country-to-country negotiations, as the official interlocutor is the Archdiocese of Sinai, which revolves around the monastery.

Athens has so far avoided turning the issue into a bilateral one, possibly in a bid to facilitate a resolution and future framework by the two entities directly involved: the governor of South Sinai and the monastery’s brotherhood.

Nevertheless, Greek leadership has still not heard any tangible reason of how an Ismailia appeals court ruling could have abolished 15 centuries of religious and customary law status and ordered the seizure of St. Catherine and its dependencies by the Egyptian state.

Official Egyptian policy in 2002, when the monastery was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, accepted that the venerable institutions and its glebes are “property of the Greek Orthodox Church and belong to the (Orthodox) Archdiocese of Sinai,” and that its legal supervision is exercised by the autonomous religious foundation of the Greek Orthodox Church in Egypt.

Legal challenges

The agreement along those lines was, in fact, was ready to be signed last February, yet it was delays by Egyptian side, with some circles pointing to the foreign affairs ministry in Cairo, that scuttled the arrangement. The roughly 20 monks of the St. Catherine brotherhood are now asking for the status quo that existed before the judicial decision was issued to be maintained, especially ownership of the actual monastery buildings. Quite possibly, the focus could then turn to a formula by which the monastery would lease, from the state, the adjoining lands from which the livelihood of the brotherhoods is dependent.

The legal challenges to the monastery’s lands and status arose some two decades ago with lawsuits filed by local officials, many of whom were affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood – now designated as a terrorist organization in many countries – with the latter accusing the monastic brotherhood of “encroaching” on Egyptian state lands.

What followed was the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government led by the late Mohamed Morsi and the establishment of a more secular and progressive administration under current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who won the 2014 presidential election and was sworn into office as President of Egypt in June 2014 after having previously led a coup to depose Morsi. It was under Sisi’s watch that witnessed a trilateral relationship between Egypt, Greece and Cyprus blossom and for a partial delimitation of EEZs between Egypt and Greece to be achieved. In terms of the Sinai monastery, an out-of-court agreement was sought through an initiative by the Egyptian side. As such, the fact that the Sisi government did not stop the legal challenge against St. Catherine Monastery raised eyebrows.

According to well-informed diplomatic sources, although Sisi is very powerful, his government is not homogeneous and that there are internal rivalries. For instance, while the foreign ministry is now taking a more compromising position, Egypt’s justice ministry is viewed as toeing a hard line. Additionally, many analysts point to an unduly significant influence in the country’s justice by the Copts, the largest Christian minority in the country, whose attitude has also raised questions in foreign capitals.

The official position, however, is that the Egyptian side wants an understanding over the Sinai Monastery in a way that does not leave any side exposed, something that official Greece also wants.

If, on the contrary, nationalist elements prevail in either country, the sources predict a diplomatic ‘catastrophe’. The Monastery of St. Catherine in the Sinai enjoys a renowned reputation in Christianity, and if Greek-Egyptian relations are soured, Cairo would lose its greatest ally in the EU setting.

‘Guests’ in their own home

According to the decision by the Court of Appeal in Ismailia, a lengthy 160-page document, the ownership of the monastery is transferred to the Egyptian state, with the onsite property belonging to the monastic brotherhood. Of the 20 or so monks, with the exception of Archbishop Damianos, the abbot (hegumen) of the monastery, who is an Egyptian citizen, all the other monks are foreign nationals and thus issued annual renewable visas, meaning that the sense of precariousness renders them as “guests in their own home”.

“Despite the activity regarding the issue of the Sinai Monastery and its property, and despite the good intentions of the governments of Greece and Egypt, there has been no substantial development in the matter,” according to Archimandrite Porphyrios Fragakos, a spokesman for the Sinai Monastery.

Compared with the sudden legal and political conundrum, the Sinai Monastery has for most of its existence been place of harmonious coexistence between the three “Abrahamic” religions.

“The famed Saladin used to pray in the monastery, which had a Muslim mosque within its walls since the 11th century,” according to Georgios Manginis, the scientific director of the Benaki Museum in Athens who spoke with “BHMA”.

“In the 19th century, Mohammed Ali, the founder of modern Egypt, also prayed at the monastery, which was an important landmark for Muslims. Muslim pilgrims have been visiting Sinai as early as 680, as Sinai and Moses are mentioned in the Koran. The pilgrimage was followed in later years by many Jews, as Sinai is an Old Testament landmark. Since the Middle Ages there has been a mosque in the monastery, and until the 15th century there was a Roman Catholic chapel,” Prof. Manginis adds.