From Today’s Zaman<\/a> (Dec. 24). No statement yet on the Patriarchate’s site.<\/p>\n

The patriarchate\u2019s statement said: \u201cThere are similar idioms in all languages, and they are not evaluated in their narrow meanings but in their broad sense in that language. While answering questions in that regard, the patriarch obviously did not intend to imply any pressure from our government.\u201d The statement also said that there was a need to make a public announcement about the issue because the patriarch\u2019s words were interpreted in a way that goes beyond their meaning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Turkish government officials continue to denounce<\/a> the patriarch for his crucifixion remark:<\/p>\n

In \u0130zmir, speaking at a conference organized by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Deputy Prime Minister B\u00fclent Ar\u0131n\u00e7 called the patriarch\u2019s criticism \u201cunacceptable,\u201d while reiterating that Turkey doesn\u2019t consider the patriarchate to be ecumenical in line with the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, which governs the status of the Greek Orthodox Church in Turkey.<\/p>\n

Ar\u0131n\u00e7 recalled a rare meeting during which Bartholomew and leaders of the small Armenian, Jewish, Syriac Orthodox and Syriac Catholic communities had lunch with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan and senior ministers, including Ar\u0131n\u00e7, on B\u00fcy\u00fckada, an island near mainland \u0130stanbul.<\/p>\n

At the meeting held in August, Erdo\u011fan promised democratic reforms, highlighting the issue of minority rights, a key stumbling block in Turkey\u2019s EU membership bid. Ar\u0131n\u00e7 said all religious leaders attending the August meeting, including Bartholomew, then stated that they enjoyed their religious rights during the AK Party government and thanked them for that. \u201cIf a speech like this is delivered four months later, then it is an unfortunate speech,\u201d Ar\u0131n\u00e7 said.<\/p>\n

The CBS interview was recorded in May, months before the B\u00fcy\u00fckada gathering. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But a number of Turkish journalists continue to defend Bartholomew and criticize the Turkish political culture. Mehmet Ali Burand<\/a> in Hurriyet:<\/p>\n

It seems we\u2019ve been living in an underworld full of people preparing coups and conspiracies, a world of political mobs and vulgar gangs. Some may be true and some may be exaggerated accusations, but investigations and operations done in succession reveal a completely different Turkey and the presence of hundreds of hidden cells and thousands of armed people running around.<\/p>\n

Please take a look at the latest situation:<\/p>\n

– Even if we set aside published allegations within the frame of the Ergenekon case due to lack of evidence, those based on concrete evidence suffice. To tell the truth, people have organized themselves for a coup.<\/p>\n

– Armed organizations have established associations that are anti-Armenian, anti-Christian and anti-Greek. That\u2019s how Hrant Dink was murdered. Priest Santoro and others were slain because they did missionary work. And all this happened in front of the eyes of the gendarmerie or police, who just watched.<\/p>\n

– Gangs have formed with the slogan \u201cOur country is indivisible\u201d and are going on manhunts in order to shoot Kurds.<\/p>\n

– Then there are also security forces that have participated in similar events or illegal deeds. Almost every day we encounter operations or gangs in which chiefs of security forces are involved, such as the scandal over the skin of the slaughtered animals after the Feast of the Sacrifice.<\/p>\n

– And let\u2019s not forget to add to all that the PKK with its sub-organizations, those taking up weapons in the name of Shariah, the Taliban and al-Qaeda.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Today’s Zaman (Dec. 24). No statement yet on the Patriarchate’s site. The patriarchate\u2019s statement said: \u201cThere are similar idioms in all languages, and they are not evaluated in their narrow meanings but in their broad sense in that language. While answering questions in that regard, the patriarch obviously did not intend to imply any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1784],"tags":[45,200,181,114,160,296,48,50,49],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5268"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5278,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5268\/revisions\/5278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}