On August 24, staff at the Agios Eleftherios cemetery in Istanbul found that the barbed wire fence around the cemetery had been cut, gravestones desecrated, holes dug and the cemetery's guard dogs sedated.
The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate condemned the vandalism, calling it a "deliberate act of desecration and hatred for the Greek Orthodox community" that showed a "contempt for religious freedom". The Archons also criticised the Turkish government's lack of an adequate response and committment to protect the "increasingly precarious position of religious minority communities in Turkey".
The Greek Foreign Ministry has called on the Turkish authorities to take appropriate measures against the egregious vandalism of the Greek Orthodox cemetery of Agios Eleftherios in Istanbul.
Media: Archons; The Greek Herald