AHI Participates in State Department Hearing to Oppose Cultural Property MoU With Turkey
WASHINGTON - Elias Gerasoulis, American Hellenic Institute (AHI) board member, participated in a September 2025 State Department Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC) hearing and provided testimony opposing the renewal a cultural property Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the United States of America. Mr. Gerasoulis testified on behalf of the American Hellenic Institute, as well as the Global Heritage Alliance, a cultural property advocacy group, of which Mr. Gerasoulis is the Executive Director.
Mr. Gerasoulis, during his remarks, highlighted Turkey’s persecution of Christian minorities and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as well as Turkey’s conversion of Christian sites, such as the Hagia Sophia and Chora Church, into mosques.
The AHI actively opposed the original proposed cultural property MOU between the US and Turkey when it had been introduced in 2020 and implemented in 2021, arguing that it would help Turkey justify future conversion, destruction, or confiscation of minority religious sites and property.
The American Hellenic Institute (AHI) is a non-profit policy center and think tank founded in 1974 that promotes the interests of the United States in foreign affairs involving Greece, the Republic of Cyprus, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Southern Europe.
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