MIDDLE EAST In memory of the bishops of Aleppo, ‘ecumenical day’ for the missing

The initiative promoted by the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) is scheduled for April 24. It will be an act dedicated to the metropolitans Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yaziji, on the tenth anniversary of their kidnapping. During the seminar there will be testimonies from kidnapping victims and a final message from the patriarchs of the two communities.

Aleppo () – The Churches of the Middle East are promoting an “Ecumenical Day for the kidnapped and forcibly disappeared” to be celebrated every year on April 22, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the disappearance of the two Orthodox bishops of Aleppo ( in 2013). The initiative, promoted by the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), will be presented next Monday. The day includes a seminar organized with the support of Yohanna X, Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch (brother of Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi and current president of the MECC) and Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch.

Since April 22, 2013, there has been no news of Monsignor Yohanna Ibrahim, Bishop of the Syrian Orthodox Diocese, and Monsignor Boulos Yaziji, Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Aleppo. Both were kidnapped shortly before 6:00 p.m. in the town of Kafr Dael, about 10 km from Aleppo. His whereabouts have been unknown for 10 years, as has that of the Italian missionary Fr. Paolo Dall’Oglio.

These are unusual kidnappings, since there were no claims and negotiations for their release were not initiated. According to witnesses, the two prelates were negotiating the release of the priests. Fr. Michel Kayyal and Fr. Maher Mahfouz, kidnapped in February of that year. When they reached a highway checkpoint, the car was flanked by armed men, possibly Chechen jihadists, who shot and killed the deacon who was driving the vehicle. According to witnesses, the group was made up of foreigners who did not speak the Arabic language.

The episode is one of many that marked the bloodiest stage of the Syrian conflict, with the presence of jihadist groups in the territory (including the Islamic State) to further inflame the situation. Hence the choice of the Churches of the Middle East to dedicate a day to the kidnapped prelates and the people who disappeared without a trace in recent years. It has been a frequent phenomenon in the region and, in particular, in iraq, where more than a million people have disappeared in 50 years. At the end of the commemorative seminar, the declaration proclaiming April 22 “Ecumenical Day of the Kidnapped and Forced Disappeared” will be read.

The seminar is divided into four parts, focused on different topics and problems. It will begin with a joint communiqué of the Patriarchates of Antioch and of the entire East, addressed to the Greek Orthodox and Syrian Orthodox Churches. It will also include video testimonies from some kidnapping victims, reflections on the rights of disappeared persons and will conclude with two messages from the patriarchs of the two communities to which the kidnapped bishops belonged. In recent years, rumors and news about the case leaked, which later turned out to be unfounded.

An investigation of the digital platform medium.com he referred to the involvement of the Turkish secret services in the kidnapping and revealed that the bishops were killed and buried in an unspecified location around December 2016, while areas east of Aleppo were being recaptured by the Syrian army. The reconstruction was based on public knowledge news, and on other inferences that later turned out to be unfounded and without objective evidence. Commenting on the investigations, the Greek Orthodox and Syrian Orthodox Patriarchates of Antioch said in a joint note that they had no evidence to confirm or deny the “disturbing reconstructions” surrounding the kidnapping. And that they are “totally independent of the efforts made in the search for our two missing archbishops.”