The 23rd session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to the Countries of Origin or their Rehabilitation in Case of Illegal Appropriation (ICPRCP), began in Paris on May 18 and will end on May 20, 2022.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday spoke with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, with the former expressing his and the government deep sadness and abhorrence with condition of the Hagia Sophia, a World Heritage Site and the greatest basilica of eastern Christendom.

Thanks to concerted diplomatic actions of Greece, the UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property to its Countries of Origin (ICPRCP) issued for the first time a Decision, not only a recommendation, regarding the issue of returning the sculptures of Parthenon to Greece, as we used to do the years before. This decision (22.COM 17), which was adopted unanimously last September at the Committee’s 22nd session, acknowledges the just request of our country and for the first time the United Kingdom is invited to enter into a dialogue with Greece.