Spyros Staveris Differences with the other monasteries on Athos have led to violence, excommunications and criminal trials, exclusions and expulsions and the deprivation of fundamental human rights. ‘We recognize the Ecumenical Patriarchate but not the line the patriarchs are taking,’ the Esphigmenou monks say.By Nikos Vafeiadis - Kathimerini The Esphigmenou Monastery has frequently been in the news since last November in the form of scenes of violence at the Mount Athos port of Karyes, intervention by police, prison sentences for monks, expulsions from the Holy Mountain, riot squads on hand for a visit by the ecumenical patriarch and the...