Istanbul Greek Patriarchate removed from joint statement of Ukraine Peace Summit

By Busranur Koca

ANKARA (AA) - The Greek Patriarchate of Istanbul was removed on Thursday from signatories to a joint statement released after the June 15-16 Ukraine Peace Summit in Switzerland.

According to Turkish diplomatic sources, the patriarchate was removed from the joint statement, which was added days after the summit, due to a backlash from Türkiye.

The patriarchate originally was not included among the signatories when Türkiye was put in the joint declaration, but was only added days after the end of the meeting.

Following a negative reaction from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Swiss and Ukrainian authorities published a new list and removed the name of the Istanbul Patriarchate.

Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who was expected to moderate a panel on food security at the summit, returned to Türkiye without taking part in other activities upon learning that Israel and the Greek Cypriot administration had also been invited to the meeting.