Archbishop Yannulatos obtains Albanian citizenship

The Archbishop of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania, Anastasios Yannulatos, declared two days ago in a televised interview for a Greek channel that his successor would be Albanian.

“Do you imagine such thing? Would we accept to have someone from Bulgaria or Serbia as head of the church for so many years? No. I think it’s more than reasonable for the successor to be Albanian. We didn’t go there to form a colony, but to form the Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church”, Yannulatos said.

A few days after this declaration, the President of Republic, Ilir Meta decided to grant Albanian citizenship to Archbishop Janullatos, who has been the head of the Albanian Orthodox Church for the past 25 years.

Meanwhile, the Foreign minister of Greece, Nikos Kotzias, has reacted on Twitter by saying: “This act recognizes the great humanitarian contribution and strengthens trust between our two nations”.

After the decree

Reactions/Meta: He deserved it, he revitalized the Church! Yannulatos: Important decision for us

The decision of granting to the Archbishop of the Albanian Autocephalous Church, Anastasios Yannulatos the Albanian citizenship, has been commented yesterday by President Ilir Meta. He explained the reasons why he came to this decision, while praising Yannulatos’ role and contribution in our country. “Yannulatos has given the best answer. It’s like the wine. It’s a symbol of gratitude for the great work that he has done for the past 25 years, revitalizing the Albanian Orthodox Church. We just need to see the cathedral in front, which several years ago it didn’t exist. This was a very good opportunity to promote Albania as a European country, a country of values and religious cohabitation. The Albanian successor?

It concerns his work and like he said, “the older it is, the better is the wine”. Meanwhile, I would say “the more years go by, the more value will be attributed to his figure, his work for the development and modernization of the church and his investment for religious cohabitation and harmony in Albania”, he said. On his part, during yesterday’s mass on the occasion of Christmas Day, the head of the Orthodox Church in Albania thanked President Meta for granting him the citizenship, while asking the participants to applaud for him.

“His decision is important for us”, said Archbishop Yannulatos. Among others, he compared the President’s decision with the wine, which, according to him, “the more it ages, the more qualities it has”.