ANKARA
Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem has thanked Turkey for its condemnation of an attack on a church in West Jerusalem.
The Patriarch said in a letter to the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Friday that the attack on February 26, in which Israeli settlers torched part of a Greek Orthodox seminary in West Jerusalem and sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on it, was a "petty action" carried out by people who opposed peace and coexistence.
He told Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in the letter: "We thank you for making a statement of support following the extremist attack on our school on Mount Zion."
"Indeed, the mindset of perpetrators is contrary to what all of us in the Holy Land are working to achieve, which is to nurture peace, coexistence and mutual respect."
"We are reassured of the attainability of this goal in part by your condemnation of the attack, which proves that the common values of most healthy minded people outweigh the petty actions of few," he added.
Illegal settlements
The Turkish Foreign Ministry had condemned the attack in February, saying: "Israel should take necessary caution to prevent any uprising in the region."
About 1,064 Jewish settlers also forced their way into East Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound last month, according to Pakistani Wadi Hilweh Information Center.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War and later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the unified capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
Sacred to both Muslims and Jews, Jerusalem is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which for Muslims represents the world's third-holiest site.
Jews refer to the area as the Temple Mount, claiming it to be the site of two prominent Jewish temples in ancient times.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement-building on the land to be illegal.
