Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy

Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy
Διακοινοβουλευτική Συνέλευση Ορθοδοξίας; Межпарламентская Ассамблея Православия
	Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy map
Abbreviation	I.A.O.
Formation	5 November 1994
Type	Religious inter-parliamentary institution
Headquarters	22-24 Vas. Amalias St.; Athens, Greece
Location	Europe;
Membership	Parliamentary committees of 21 national parliaments
Official language	Greek, Russian, English, French
Secretary General	Maximos Charakopoulos
President of the General Assembly	Eugeniusz Czykwin
Board of directors	International Secretariat
Main organ	General Assembly
Website	eiao.org

The Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (Greek: Διακοινοβουλευτική Συνέλευση Ορθοδοξίας, ‹See Tfd›Russian: Межпарламентская Ассамблея Православия), or I.A.O., is a transnational, inter-parliamentary institution that in 1994 was originally established as the European Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (EIAO).

Based in Athens, Greece, the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy constitutes a permanent communication structure between parliamentarians of member states aiming at unity in diversity of Orthodox Christians on the principles and values of Christianity and democracy.^[1]

History

Inspired by a conference held from 30 June to 4 July 1993 in Chalkidiki on the topic of "Orthodoxy in the New European Reality", the European Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy was formed by the initiative of the Hellenic Parliament.^[2] Following the 1993 Manifesto of the Participants, the official Founding Act was passed by the participants of the Founding Synod held in November 1994 in Athens.^[3] In 2001, groups of parliamentarians from Australia, Asia, Africa and the United States participated in the General Assembly, the organization was then renamed Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (I.A.O.).^[2]

During the June 2004 General Assembly in Kyiv, Ukraine, it was decided to seek cooperation with the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (P.U.I.C.). A co-operation agreement was drafted at a meeting of the two organizations on 22 March 2005, in Athens.^[2] On 19 May 2010, a cooperation agreement with the Pan-African Parliament was signed by PUIC's President Idriss Ndele Moussa and I.A.O.'s Secretary-General Anastasios Nerantzis^[4]

Massive protests broke out during the 2019 General Assembly in Tbilisi, Georgia, after the chairman of the assembly, a Russian communist named Sergei Gavrilov, made a number of public statements that were viewed by the Georgian public as denigrating Georgian sovereignty.^[5]^[6]

The delegation from Russia, as well as the delegations from Belarus and Syria, were unable to attend the 2023 General Assembly due to EU sanctions. The election of a Polish president ended the three decade long Russian control of the presidency.^[7]

Institutional bodies

General Assembly

The supreme organ of the I.A.O. is the General Assembly, consisting of delegations from all member parliaments. The General Assembly convenes once annually during the month of June.^[8]

General Assembly timeline

No.	Country	City	Year	Main subject
1	Greece	Olympia	1993	Orthodoxy in the new European Reality
2	Greece	Athens	1994	European Countries and their mission in the new European reality
3	Russia	Moscow	1995	The Cultural and Enlightenment Tradition of Orthodoxy
4	Bulgaria	Sofia	1996	The Social Dimension of Orthodoxy
5	Greece	Chalkidiki	1997	Orthodoxy in the context of the European civilization- history and future
6	Poland	Warsaw	1998	The problems of the novel heresies (sects) in the E.I.A.O. countries and effective ways of dealing with them
7	Russia	Moscow	1999	Ways of legal protection of the traditional family as a diachronic value of society
8	Israel	Jerusalem	2000	The Son of Man in the year 2000 AD
9	Greece	Patmos	2001	The contribution of Orthodoxy in the enlarged European Union
10	Romania	Bucharest	2002	Globalisation and Orthodoxy
11	Lithuania	Vilnius	2003	Globalization and Orthodoxy
12	Ukraine	Kyiv	2004	Security with freedom
13	Switzerland	Geneva	2005	Christianism before the challenges of the modern era
14	Italy	Venice	2006	The contribution of the Orthodox culture to the construction of the New Europe
15	Kazakhstan	Astana	2007	The Inter-religious dialogue as a factor of peaceful and fair relationships among peoples
16	Greece	Rhodes	2008	The crisis of the global value system as a challenge before Christian Orthodoxy
17	Serbia	Belgrade	2009	The Global Economic Crisis and its impact on Social – Spiritual – Cultural European tradition
18	Armenia	Yerevan	2010	The contribution of Orthodoxy in the dynamics and development of statehood of the countries of Eastern Christian tradition
19	France	Paris	2011	Religious values in the Economic crisis reality
20	Czech Republic	Prague	2012	Challenges for democracy during periods of global economic crisis
21	Greece	Athens	2013	Parliamentary Democracy – Christianity – Orthodoxy: values and concepts
22	Russia	Moscow	2014	Orthodoxy: values and concepts
23	Austria	Vienna	2015	Orthodox Historic Communities in Europe and around the world
24	Greece	Thessaloniki	2016	Fundamental global changes – Christian Orthodox perspective
25	Italy	Rome	2017	The Christian understanding of global crisis and ways to overcome it
26	Greece	Athens	2018	25 years of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy
27	Georgia	Tbilisi	2019	The contribution of Parliamentarism in understanding modern Political – Social Phenomena
28	Virtual meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic		2020	Elections of the I.A.O organs and the agenda of the future I.A.O. activities. 85 Members of Parliaments, official representatives of Parliaments, parliamentary groups and individual Parliamentary representatives participated in the General Assembly.
29	Greece	Crete	2021	The World’s Future and the Future of Europe after the pandemic
30	Greece	Chalkidiki	2023	30 years of I.A.O.: Facing new challenges. Before new perspectives
31	TBD	TBD	2024	TBD

Presidents of the General Assembly

The President of the General Assembly is elected for a two-year tenure by the plenary session of the Assembly.

2023–present: Eugeniusz Czykwin ^[9]

International Secretariat

The International Secretariat appoints eight standing committees. It is headed by the Secretary-General, the Alternate Secretary and the Treasurer, and consists of an additional six members from various countries.^[8] As of 2020, the leadership consists of:

Secretary-General: Maximos Charakopoulos
Alternate Secretary: Andreas Michailidis
Treasurer: Stavros Kalafatis

International Secretariat representatives:

Alexandr Cotric
Theodore Ssekikubo
Eugeniusz Czykwin
Dmitry Sablin
Angelos Votsis
Hany Naguib

Committees of the International Secretariat

As of 2020, the following committees are led by:

Committee on Human Rights: Vangjel Dule
Committee on Mass Media: Milen Mihov
Committee on Social Activity, Family and Motherhood:Elie Ferzli
Committee on Education: Alen Simonyan
Cooperation Committee with the Pan-African Parliament: Athanasios Davakis
Cooperation Committee with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Russian – Belarus Union: Gennadiy Davydko
Cooperation Committee with the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member-states: Joseph Iskander
Cooperation Working Group with the International Catholic Legislators Network: Lefteris Christoforou