TURKISH PARLIAMENT TRIES TO AVOID REOPENING ORTHODOX SEMINARY
By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Worldstream
September 21, 2006 Thursday 12:52 PM GMT
Turkey’s parliament on Thursday was divided over the wording of a
resolution regarding minority schools, with opposition lawmakers
fearing that it could allow a Greek Orthodox theology school closed
35 years ago to reopen.
Turkey has been resisting pressure from the European Union to reopen
the Halki Theological School, on the Heybeliada island near Istanbul,
which was closed to new students in 1971 under a law that put religious
and military training under state control. The seminary remained open
until 1985, when the last five students graduated.
On Wednesday, lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party
voted by hands to approve the resolution allowing foreign students to
attend minority schools in Turkey, acting on a last minute request
from the Foreign Ministry to allow children of foreigners living in
the country to attend such schools.
But legislators from the opposition Republican People’s Party strongly
opposed the resolution, arguing that it would reopen the Orthodox
seminary.
The opposition forced parliament to postpone the debate until Tuesday,
to wait for clarification from the Foreign Ministry and Education
Ministry.
Lawmakers from the ruling party argued Thursday that the resolution
was restricted to the first eight grades and would not apply to the
Orthodox seminary, which is a high school.
EU officials and the United States have repeatedly called on Turkey
to open up the religious seminary that has trained generations of
Orthodox leaders, including current Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I,
and restore property to minority Christian groups that was seized by
the state after a decline in the size of their congregations.
The parliament is expected to address the property issue also next
week. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has said reforms would address the
problems of minority religious groups, such as Greeks and Armenians,
but was not clear if they would allow the groups to reclaim property
that has since been sold to other people.
The Halki school trained generations of church leaders, including
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, and Orthodox officials say the
school’s reopening is important for educating future leaders.
After the college closed, the Patriarchate tried to train future
leaders of the church by sending them to theological schools abroad
after they finished the high school here. But most never returned,
something church officials complain starves them of possible new
leaders.
The Orthodox leadership elected a young ecumenical patriarch
intentionally in 1992, Bartholomew, who was only 51 at the time.
Under a 1923 treaty with Greece, the ecumenical patriarch must be a
Turkish citizen. That was the condition set by Turkey for allowing
the Patriarchate to remain in Istanbul.
Turkey has been accused of using its control over the Patriarchate
in Istanbul as a weapon against Greek moves on the Muslim minority in
Greece. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently complained about
Greece’s refusal to recognize the authority of a religious leader,
or mufti, elected by local Muslims there.
The patriarchate in Istanbul dates from the 1,100-year-old Orthodox
Greek Byzantine Empire, which collapsed when the Muslim Ottoman Turks
conquered Constantinople, today’s Istanbul, in 1453.
Istanbul-based Bartholomew I is the leader of the world’s Orthodox
Christians, although only a few thousand Greeks now live in Turkey.
He also directly controls several Greek Orthodox churches around the
world, including the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
But Turkey has long refused to accept any international role for the
patriarch, a Turkish citizen and ethnic Greek, and rejects his use
of the title "ecumenical," or universal. It argues the patriarch is
merely the spiritual leader of Istanbul’s dwindling Orthodox community.
Turkey’s desire to contain Bartholomew’s influence to Istanbul stems
from a deep mistrust many Turks feel toward the patriarchate because of
its traditional ties with Greece, Turkey’s historical regional rival.