Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov has stated that the current schism within the Bulgarian Orthodox Church “could have serious implications not only for Bulgaria but for the entire region,” Bulgarian National Radio reported late Monday.

The argument between the synod of Inokentii and the main Bulgarian Orthodox Church ended up at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in late January.

The court gave its backing to the Inokentii synod in their bid for independence and ruled that Bulgaria had violated the right to religious freedom and that the Bulgarian Government had intervened disproportionately by appointing patriarch Maxim as the ruler of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

In light of the decision of the Strasbourg court, Parvanov is now pleading with the Russian Patriarch to give his support to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and prevent the potential rift.

The court also set a time frame of three months in which the alternative synod of Inokentii and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church are to resolve the controversy surrounding the ownership of about 100 pieces of property.