Patriarch Bartholomew<\/p><\/div>\n

Turkey Hurriyet Daily News is reporting that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is optimistic that the Halki Seminary – closed since 1971 – will reopen by next year, following pledges by Turkish authorities. But will elections in Turkey affect this decision?<\/p>\n

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew says he has a promise from the Turkish prime minister and related authorities that the Halki seminary will reopen next year, according to reports in Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News. He says he has been asked many times why he has not moved the Ecumenical Patriarchate outside of Turkey to serve under better conditions. “As Turkish citizens, we are loyal, we love our country and we don\u2019t want to leave.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew expressed optimism that Turkey will next year allow the reopening of the historic seminary that was shut down nearly four decades ago.<\/p>\n

The seminary, located on Halki (Heybeliada) island off Istanbul, was a main center of theological education for more than a century before Turkish authorities closed it in 1971 under a law designed to bring universities under state control. The European Union has long asked Turkey to reopen the seminary to prove its commitment to human rights as it strives to become a member of the 27-nation bloc.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are optimistic that our government will reopen the school next year at the latest after nearly half a century has passed since the school closed in 1971,\u201d Patriarch Bartholomew told members of the Greek Orthodox community following a religious sermon at a small chapel next to the Halki seminary on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the promise of Prime Minister Erdogan, the minister of education [Nimet Cubukcu] and Mr. Egemen Bag?s, the chief negotiator for EU talks, who have told us repeatedly that there is no legal obstacle to reopening the school,\u201d said Patriarch Bartholomew. <\/p>\n

The government, keen to boost its bid to join the EU, has in recent years taken steps to improve the rights of its non-Muslim minorities but has so far refrained from any move on the seminary. Still, there have been positive signals that the government will reopen the school, as it has been working on a formula to bring it in line with the existing university system in Turkey. Yet it remains to be seen if Ankara will be able to open it next year during an election year.<\/p>\n

Patriarch Bartholomew said the school \u2013 when it functioned before \u201cunfortunately the authorities of our country closed it down\u201d \u2013 served not only the needs of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate but also the needs of other Christian Orthodox churches. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ecumenical dialogue is one of the priorities of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and human beings all over the world, because those who completed their education at the school not only served in Greece but in many countries around the world where they were sent by the Church,\u201d said Patriarch Bartholomew. Turkish authorities do not recognize the patriarch as \u201cecumenical,\u201d regarding him merely as the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in Turkey. This has drawn heavy criticism from the international community, which routinely castigates Turkey for issues relating to religious freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been here as an institution for 1,700 years and this is a great privilege for Turkey,\u201d said Patriarch Bartholomew. He then shared an interesting anecdote from his recent meeting with the former prime minister of Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Turkish citizens we are loyal, we love our country and we don\u2019t want to leave, because I am asked many times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd only a few days ago I was asked by the former prime minister of Canada who last Tuesday visited the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which is our headquarters, and when we had a cup of coffee in my office, he asked me, \u2018Do you think you will leave this country some day sooner or later and go somewhere else\u2019 in order to serve the ecumenical mission under better conditions? I said, \u2018No, we have never thought about this. We don\u2019t accept this possibility. We want to stay here because our legacy is here. Our roots are here. In the final analysis, we love our country.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Bartholomew also expressed strong support for Turkey\u2019s membership in the EU.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pray for the entrance of Turkey into the EU, the European family,\u201d he said. \u201cWherever I go internationally, I support it wholeheartedly \u2026 because we do believe that Turkey is a part of Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: Hurriyet Daily News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If Halki is reopened, and the EP continues its policy of centralizing Greek Orthodoxy worldwide under Constantinopolitan authority, will this mean that Halki we also become the only seminary? Source: The National Herald Turkey Hurriyet Daily News is reporting that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is optimistic that the Halki Seminary – closed since 1971 – will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1784],"tags":[45,866,296],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7131"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7134,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131\/revisions\/7134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aoiusa.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}