By Marina Spanos
Editor of HellasFrappe
When the Vatopedi case comes to mind people automatically characterize it as a scandal where money laundering and embezzlement walked hand in hand between government officials and simple Monks. This is because both the domestic and international press worked hard at spreading many falsifications about this case, which today are very difficult to prove otherwise.
The reason is obvious: The case has never been presented to the public in the correct manner for all the obvious reasons. Vatopedi was the tool used by the "establishment" to bring down the popular Karamanlis government which we all know had turned its back on the West and was looking towards Russia and the BRICS countries for prosperity. (In terms of energy and pipelines).
Also HellasFrappe wants to draw your attention to something which has never been noted until now. Since 1998 -and under the Simitis-PASOK led government- all the governments who ruled this country formally recognized the property rights which Vatopaidi has on the Vistonida Lake and its surrounding areas. In fact this was once again finalized by the Simitis government in 2002-2003. Everything you heard on television is a lie, check the government gazettes, as well as all the court documents and you will see that this is clearly stated. This too has never, ever been revealed to the public.
So we here at HellasFrappe decided to take the evidence presented by Triantafyllopoulos and do our own research and present as much information as we could for you because we respect and honor the truth!
But before we do that let's go back to the beginning, and find out why this issue began in the first place. After presenting the information, we will also present the repercussions involved. And trust us... They are many and they are very, very dangerous for Greek national interests (especially in the area of Thrace).
What some people do not know is that the Vatopedi issue basically surfaced -or made it to prime time- when the government of Karamanlis declined to help oligarch D. Kontominas out of a swindling deal. Kontominas, the enigmatic Greek billionaire known for numerous international financial swindles, and who is the owner of ALPHA Television channel in Greece, was accused a decade ago for criminal acts which his companies conducted in other foreign countries.
"Kontominas case Prosecutor Panayiotis Athanassiou charged the former president of the Interamerican insurance company and current owner of Alpha TV, Dimitris Kontominas, with embezzlement following a two-year investigation. (Kathimerin, 10-07-2008) - Source Diclib
In fact Kontominas' channel -via one of his star reporters- were the biggest critics of the Karamanlis government after that. So what did Kontominas get in return? Several months later, his case was closed, and he never suffered any of the repercussions for these alleged criminal acts. Check this out:
"Ελεύθερος με την επιβολή περιοριστικών όρων αφέθηκε μετά την απολογία του ενώπιον της 1ης τακτικής Ανακρίτριας ο επιχειρηματίας Δημήτρης Κοντομηνάς που κατηγορείται για πλαστογραφία και υπεξαίρεση σχετικά με δραστηριότητες της ΙΝΤΕΡΑΜΕΡΙΚΑΝ στη Νότιο Αφρική πριν το 2000. Οι κατηγορίες σε βάρος του άλλοτε ισχυρού άνδρα του ασφαλιστικού Ομίλου, αφορούν καταγγελίες ομογενών της Νοτίου Αφρικής περί εξαπάτησης τους μέσω επενδυτικών συμβολαίων που δεν τηρήθηκαν. Η υπόθεση έφθασε στην Δικαιοσύνη το 2005 μετά από δημοσιεύματα που φιλοξενούσαν καταγγελίες ομογενών. Source - inews.grAnd more recent news claims that reporter Kostas Vaxevanis (who also lead the march against Karamanlis - and whom some also say was aiding Kontominas) deleted the name of Dimitris Kontominas on the Lagarde list he had published. (Till this day, it is unknown what relationship Kontominas has with the Greek government, but it is believed that Vaxevanis is a known associate of his).
ENGLISH TRANSLATION - Dimitris Kontominas, accused of forgery and embezzlement on the Interamerican activities in South Africa before 2000, was released under restrictive conditions following his deposition before the first magistrate on 30/4/2010. The charges against him involved complaints from expatriates in South Africa who claim they were cheated by his companies via investment contracts that they say were never respected. The case was filed in 2005 -during Karamanlis rule- following a series of complaints that were filed by many Greek expatriates.
So obviously Kontominas had a huge stake in bringing down Karamanlis.
What the reports on ALPHA never mentioned, however, is that the only link between the Karamanlis government and the case of Vatopedi was via the name Katerina Peleki who is the wife of former Merchant Marine Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis. She was the acting notary in the land swap deals, and had submitted legal documents by September 2 of that year, when the details of the alleged scandal had already been made public.
The exchange had originally been part of a wider deal but was put on hold after it emerged that some 80 of the 330 hectares originally meant to be given to the monastery had actually not belonged to the state since 1951. The revised paperwork was submitted on September 2, once details of the wider exchange had begun to be made public and Voulgarakis insisted that he was not linked to the deal, but the Greek press continued to spread false information that he was. We here at HellasFrappe cannot vouch for the ex-minister's father-in-law Dimitris Pelekis who also appears as the monastery's legal representative on the paperwork, because we do not have any information, but Voulgarakis who lost everything because of this so called fake scandal lost everything and was blacklisted from Greek political life because of it.
(Some may recall that Karamanlis stood up for Voulgarakis at a news conference at the Thessaloniki Trade fair, this too was used against Karamanlis by the provocateurs and twisted in such a way to show that he was covering up for his friend's criminal dealings.)
The exchanges which took place were not really the choice of the monastery but surfaced because the people in the area wanted to exploit the land. Basically local authorities in this area of Thrace wanted to throw out the Monastery from this region and even though the Monks showed that they had Byzantine and Ottoman decrees proving that the land belonged to them, these too were ignored.
So who were the forces that wanted the Monastery out of the area: Among them was the Metropolitan of Xanthi, Socrates Xenides, who is president of the Litigation Group of Xanthi, PASOK undersecretary (under Papandreou government) George Petaliotis. This clearly shows that all these people had bowed to the local authorities’ demand to instigate the withdrawal from the area, which eventually led to the infamous case of Vatopedi.
In other words, the Monastery was pressured into giving up the land in the area in exchange for other land of the same value, to keep the peace in the area as well as allow the area to develop -as designed by some local opportunists there-. And as you can see, the protagonists involved in this affair were none other than leading PASOK cadres that were later given top positions in the Papandreou government.
As a result of this pressure the Monastery sent a letter, dated December 2nd, 2004, to the KED, and the former minister Basiakos and the former undersecretary Doukas, in which it stated that it had finally agreed to proceed with the exchanges and had been asking them to show us the pieces of land which were going to be exchanged.
(*Note - Xinides’ brother was the secretary general of PASOK and Petalotis later became the undersecretary. Coincidence huh?)
In the videos above, the wife of George Voulgaraki explains how her connection to the case was used against her and her family - and to a larger extent how it was used to bring down the government of Costas Karamanlis. She also explains how geopolitics and Turkish interests in the area of Thrace also played a major role, and this is also something that was not covered by the Greek press (for obvious reasons, because Greek oligarchs are weeling and dealing with rich Turks in this area.)
Several days after Peleki submitted the documents the monastery was suddenly implicated in a real estate scandal and accused of trading low-value land for high-value state property in a deal with the New Democracy government of Costas Karamanlis. At the time we were told that the cost to the state at was somewhere near 100 million Euros. At the time, several PASOK deputies -for SHOW purposes only- had stated that it had even reached as much as one billion.
(They probably based their information on the writings of financial writer Michael Lewis who had said that a Greek parliamentary commission estimated the value of government property received by the monastery at one billion euros. In his book titled Boomerang, Lewis even compared Father Arsenios and Father Ephraim, to the Enron executives Jeff Skilling and Ken Lay, as "poster children for greed and corruption".)
When the story became public in August 2008, the Karamanlis government was caught off guard and in its panic it made many many mistake. Firstly it cancelled the land deals. (This was also interpreted as a sign of weakness from the part of Karamanlis' government and the media used it to discredit his government even more.)
As a result of this move, and following weeks and weeks of pressure from the Greek and foreign media, two ministers resigned. This gave even more ammunition to the incompetent PASOK party and its leader at the time George Papandreou who found it very difficult to gain popularity with the Greek people and bring his party to power.
(Some may recall that months before the Vatopedi case came to light, Greece experienced some of the most devastating fires in history in the Peloponnese. When the fires died down, and knowing that they were used as a first tool to bring down his government, Karamanlis held national elections again and he once again gaining a second term in government. This was not appreciated at all by the "establishment". Karamanlis had the support of the people, and a leader who has so much popularity with his people is a difficult player to topple. The establishment on the other wanted him out of the way, so the only thing left to do was to strike at him directly. And this is exactly what PASOK did via the Vatopedi case. In fact Greek television networks pumped up their attacks on the New Democracy government, shrinking its popularity in the polls and for the first time after more than six years, PASOK began leading in the polls once again. Read the Wikileaks cables at the time which clearly state how there were foreign interests that started these fires, and how these interests used the Greek press to elevate Papandreou and PASOK to fame. Click here to read the cable
Tonnes of propaganda and mudslinging later, the PASOK party -with a lot of help from the Greek and foreign media, specific members within the New Democracy party, public sector officials, as well as regional and local opportunists- forced the Karamanlis government to set up a commission to investigate the deal so that it could clear up its name.
Karamanlis, who knew that there was no scandal involved in this case made another mistake by allowing PASOK to steer it towards forming an investigative committee. And investigation after investigation it was always the same result. NOTHING. The estimations of the public agencies for the exchanged real estate objects were found to have been in order. In other words... THERE WAS NO SCANDAL, there never was any scandal, and the only thing that was scandalous was calling this a scandal.
But the damage to Karamanlis' reputation had been achieved. The establishment was able to discredit him via PASOK and it was indeed pleased!
Basically, the establishment scratched Papandreou's back by allowing him to rise to fame, and he scratched theirs by allowing Greece to be tied hand and foot to the Memorandums of shame. (Kind of rhymes doesn't it?)
The case was sent to be investigated by the Greek justice system and PASOK went about its dirty dealings as we all now know, however, when a document by the Hellenic Institute of Chartered Accountants revealed that the whole case was nothing more than a plot set up by PASOK to topple the Karamanlis government, some people in Papandreou's government began to tremble. Terrified that at some point the truth would be revealed, Papandreou activated his buddies in crime (or George Papakostantinou and other opportunists).
The only body accredited worldwide for its objective property valuations is the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICA). That is the reason why in cases of discrepancy between the valuations of a citizen and the state, the law gives the former the right to apply to the ICA, because its valuation is binding on the Inland Revenue.
They revealed that not one, not two, but FOUR valuations have been carried out by the ICA which indicated the same thing: The Greek state did not undervalue the land to be exchanged so that the monastery would benefit. The only case where excessive value may have been achieved concerned the few pieces of exchanged land which underwent a change of use from forest land to a building plot. (But this is another matter.)
PASOK did not like the ICA valuations, because it did not serve its interests in its war against Karamanlis, and the Ministry of Finance, under strict instructions from Papakonstantinou, sent a letter to the ICA trying to negate their conclusions because they showed nothing reprehensible.
The ICA’s reply was a catapult.
The state instructed ICA to carry out two valuations before March 2009. Both valuations showed nothing inappropriate.
At the time, the pseudo scandal was in full swing, and the ICA -at its own initiative- requested a foreign, rival Institution to carry out a valuation: The result was the same. Nothing reprehensible. And while this was going on, the monastery on its part instructed the biggest foreign institution worldwide to value the land. The result was exactly the same: Nothing inappropriate!
Papandreou and his regime began to sweat.
So PASOK did what it has always done best. It ignored the facts, and spread even more lies!
The ICA reacted immediately and they were very clear cut in their valuation about the land deals which PASOK was insisting were shady. In fact in their correspondence between the Ministry of Finance and the ICA, the Ministry used the word scandal when talking about the Vatopedi case, while the ICA which is no political party's coffee shop, only used inverted commas around the word "scandal" implying that it is not a damn scandal!
With the help of the establishment which feared that the whole case would blow up in their faces, the government of Papandreou (on June 28, 2010) decided to sue the monastery over the land deal. Greece’s Legal Council filed its case against Vatopedi monastery on June 25th asking that an Athens court recognize the government as the owner of 180 hectares (or 44.5 acres) in northern Greece that was part of a land exchange deal in 2007, and they also asked for 10 million Euros ($12.3 million) in moral harm payments.
In December 2010 a Court of Appeals found guilty and imposed a ten-month imprisonment (with three years suspension) to ex-judge Maria Psaltis on charges of misconduct and violations of judicial secrecy. The same penalty was issued to Abbot Ephraim and monk Arsenios on instigation (for reasons that cannot be explained until today).
On September 7, 2011 a Wikileaks cable was released which confirms all the above information and proves without a shadow of a doubt that the issue of Vatopedi was nothing more than a "tool" to kill the popularity of the conservative government of Karamanlis and shake the confidence that Greeks had in the Greek Orthodox Church. Remember what Kissinger said about hitting our religion, our culture, etc? Here is a small sample of what that particular cable said:(Link to this cable has been given in the related articles below)
"The scandal involving land exchanges between Vatopedi Monastery and the Greek government (reftels) has led to the resignation of two high-profile ministers and shaken public confidence in the Greek Orthodox Church. The GoG and Vatopedi have tried to limit damage by proposing measures to reverse the transactions. On November 7, a northern Greek court invalidated the most controversial land swap, involving Lake Vistonida in Thrace, on the grounds that the lake and environs are protected public property. Vatopedi claims it has Byzantine era titles proving ownership of the lake property and is threatening to challenge the court’s decision in the European Court of Justice. The Church has sought to portray the scandal as isolated to Vatopedi but is concerned the fallout could affect other monasteries and patriarchates with similar ancient land holdings. Public criticism of the affair could claim other political victims and is likely to drag on for the foreseeable future. END SUMMARY.
DAMAGE CONTROL: MONASTERY, GOG TRY TO REVERSE LAND DEALS
(SBU) The GoG and Vatopedi Monastery of Mt. Athos are struggling to contain a major scandal (refs A-C) involving lucrative land exchanges that, according to some media, may have benefited GoG officials. According to media and post’s contacts from Mt. Athos (the semi-autonomous northern Greek peninsula administered by Orthodox monasteries, including Vatopedi), in 2005-2007 Vatopedi traded some of its Byzantine-era land holdings for public land, mostly in northern Greece. The most controversial property traded by Vatopedi was some 7000 acres in the area of Lake Vistonida in Thrace. As reported in ref C, senior Prosecutor of the Supreme Court Giorgos Sanidas contends that in that trade, the GoG gave Vatopedi public land worth over Euro 100 million more than the Lake Vistonida property. Media speculate that Vatopedi planned to sell the public land and give some of the profits to GoG officials.
(SBU) Under heavy criticism from local residents and the media, Vatopedi offered on October 17 to reverse the land deal (return GoG land or proceeds in exchange for Lake Vistonida and other property claimed by Vatopedi). The GoG also took steps to cancel the transaction, including by revoking all ministerial decisions acknowledging ownership of Lake Vistonida by the monastery. In accordance with a Supreme Court prosecutor’s September 15 order, the GoG took steps to freeze Vatopedi’s land holdings and proceeds from land sales. In addition, two high-profile GoG ministers with alleged links to the scandal resigned (refs A and B), and Parliament began a fact-finding investigation into the affair on November 3. GREEK COURT INVALIDATES DEAL, VATOPEDI MAY APPEAL TO HIGHER AUTHORITY
(SBU) On November 7, a Rhodopi (northeastern Greece) first instance court ruled that Lake Vistonida and most of the 7000 acres of surrounding land claimed by Vatopedi is non-transferable public property (e.g. national park land). According to the court, Vatopedi possesses rights to only 430 acres of the 7,000 it claims. The decision in effect ignores Vatopedi’s Byzantine era land titles to the lake property and invalidates the land exchange with the GoG. The court reached the same decision in 2003 but withheld it due to a last minute out of court settlement between the GoG and Vatopedi. The Supreme Court ruled on October 24 that the 2003 decision should have been issued.
Vatopedi abbot Efrem has threatened to defend the monastery’s ownership claims in the European Court of Justice if necessary. Vatopedi bases its claims to numerous properties in addition to Lake Vistonida on Byzantine and Ottoman era decrees. Media and opposition politicians have questioned the validity of these ancient documents, but the Rhodopi court and Supreme Court have yet to comment explicitly on the issue
On January 11, 2012, the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court accepted the proposal of the Deputy Prosecutor of the Supreme Court Law Mr. Tsangas: it set aside the decision under which Psaltis, Ephraim, and Arsenios had each been sentenced to 10-month imprisonment (with three years suspended).
Note that the Supreme Court of Greece considered that the contested decision of the Court of Appeals had no legal justification and presented logical gaps, inconsistencies, and shortcomings. Moreover, the Supreme Court ruling that any disclosure of the outcome of the conference only a court is no longer a criminal offense [sic], which means that the three defendants will be treated under more favorable conditions when judged again by the court.
Thankfully and much to the surprise of PASOK, the Greek justice system finally stood on its ground -without any political influence- and after a careful review of the case passed judgement that there were no criminal acts noted in the Vatopedi issue. Nonetheless, the "dark side" of the ruling socialist empire took over, and the issue was once again brought to center stage a few weeks later with even more falsifications. So many in fact that the case is still being fought out in the courts today.
If the truth surrounding the Vatopedi case ever surfaces, then it would destroy the socialist PASOK party as well as directly ridicule George Papandreou.
Today we know there was much political intrigue and other dark purposes that were behind the so called Vatopedi issue as we also know that it was totally exploited by the ruling socialists at the time, for obvious reasons, because George Papandreou's popularity could never challenge that of Karamanlis.
This is probably why it took so long to investigate this case because it was very smartly set up. Till this day not one criminal act, on a political level has linked any political dirty dealings with this case. Not one penny was found to be laundered by the State and the whole issue did not cost one penny to the Greek people!
Nonetheless people still refuse to see the truth and till this day they talk about this affair as if it was a scandal
HellasFrappe is pleased that Triantafyllopoulos decided to re-surface this subject not only because we know that it was used to discredit Karamanlis but because it totally exposes the criminal dealings of PASOK!
Also, because the hits against Vatopedi were not conducted by chance. This is a Russian Orthodox Monastery which has been targetted by western interests for the longest time.
Now on to the juicy part of the story, or as some would say the conspiracy part.
We all know women cannot step foot on Mont Athos and this tradition (which dates back many centuries) is still practiced today. This special status, and the "sacrosanct" as well as the "revolutionary" Brotherhood of this holy place is what is really being threatened. Mont Athos is like the Vatican in Italy and this "glorified" status is what is really at stake here. There are forces within Greece that do not want another holy state, and are working with western interests to brake long-standing traditions such as the one mentioned above.
In such a framework many debates have already been held on a European level on how to lift the "sacrosanct" (or rather how to allow women to step foot on this holy place) which we must once again clarify is a long-standing tradition (right or wrong). At the same time a women's movement (including men as well) was also set up at a European level in order to do just that and some may also remember that leading the pack in this move was none other than PASOK Euro deputy Anna Karamano (in 2003).
Some articles at the time said that these moves were being orchestrated by the Ecumenical Patriarchate himself, but we here at HellasFrappe could not confirm this. It has also been rumored that those who have designed these moves are forces in Europe and the US.
(Question: Are these the same forces that wanted Karamanlis out of the way? Think people think!!!)
There are also other articles that have been posted on the net claiming that the attempt to remove the "sacrosanct" on Mont Athos has been devised so that all these foreign interests can eventually control the monastic state. (This last bit kind of scared us)
In fact the same articles claim that in the first phase, the plan aims to abolish one monastery in the east and one in the west. As coincidence would have it... Vatopedi is on the East and will be subject to this "experiment" of control. Obviously the only question that surfaces here is why are foreign interests so determined in removing the "sacrosanct"? This is what should trouble all Orthodox Christians worldwide!
Frappers, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize why interests of both a domestic and international sort would want to disturb the delicate balance of unity of Orthodoxy which is intertwined with Greece. The followers of the Greek Orthodox religion in this country amount to almost 97% of the population and are highly influenced by their faith. All these interests are in for one big surprise. Every effort to actually attack Mont Athos has never succeeded, AND NEVER WILL, because people are too sensitive about subjects that touch their faith. In fact most believers view all these moves as part of a wider plan to injure the Greek Orthodox Church with the ultimate goal being the fall of Mont Athos.
So now you know why Vatopedi was the scene of this war.It is all about control!
Now you must learn why the Abbott Ephraim was targeted and why he is loathed by all these interests.
A little after the Greek crisis began, Ephraim went to Russia. While there more than three million Russians rushed to pay homage to the Holy Belt of the Virgin Mary (which is safely kept at the Vatopedi Monastery). When he returned, it was discovered that he had also met with Vladimir Putin, someone who we all know is not well liked in the West.
Who else was on good terms with Putin? Why it was Karamanlis... (Are you starting to get the picture?)
When the Abbott returned he brought back a check of several million euros with him which he then gave to the Archbishop of Greece for the soup kitchens and needs of the poor in the dormitories of the Church of Athens and Thessaloniki, and this did not sit well with the "establishment".
They immediately made it look like he was trying to escape from the country. Which is ludicrous because he had just returned to Greece after being in Russia for one month! If Ephraim was such a "dangerous" man and had the intention of fleeing the country, as his critics said at the time, then why didn't he just stay in Russia? This is after all the reason that was given to us by the corrupt Greek press when he was arrested on Christmas Eve in 2011 right?
Come on folks. It is so obvious what happened here. Aside from foreigners wanting to control Mont Athos and devising scandals that connected the Karamanlis administration -and which never existed-, Ephraim was a pro-Russia monk, just like Karamanlis was pro-Russia, and apparently this did not sit well with a US led Europe (or as we always say the "establishment").
If the US and Angela Merkel's idea of Europe is against Russia, that is their problem, not ours. And certainly it is not the problem of our Church!
Aside from the geopolitical Pandora's box that was opened by PASOK in the region of Thrace over this issue -because we all know that Turkey wants to Kosovize this area- all these forces, both in Greece and abroad worked feverishly to unlink Greece from any Russian ties. This is what it boils down to... Whether some want to accept it or not.
So what did they achieve? Good question. They only thing achieved was a bad effort to tarnish the reputation of this grand monastery and its huge mission which has forever been smeared. In fact Vatopedi's huge charitable and cultural effort, the writings, the books, the relics and the priceless art that are kept there, including its historic contribution to Orthodoxy, was totally scrapped in the name of political power and a big fat lie.
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