15/02/2012
Ecumenical Patriarchate and Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew support the territorial integrity of Georgia and recognize Abkhazia as canonical territory of the Georgian Apostolic Orthodox Church. Journalists were told about this in the Patriarchate of Georgia after the visit of the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Tbilisi.
This position was voiced by the delegation at a meeting with the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II who also has the rank of Metropolitan of Bichvinta (Pitsunda) and Tskhum-Abkhazia. The meeting was held on the evening of February 14th. Today, the delegation returned to Istanbul.
Earlier, Patriarch Bartholomew received a delegation of the so-called “Holy Metropolia of Abkhazia” (one of the two conflicting groups of Abkhazian dissenters) and after that Sukhumi started to make claims about future recognition of “independent Abkhazian Church” by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
