Patriarch of Russia visits Turkey

From a Turkish news service:

Turkey’s Premier Erdogan Receives Patriarch Kirill

Published: 7/6/2009

ANKARA – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Patriarch Kirill of the Moscow Orthodox Church in Ankara on Monday.

The meeting lasted for nearly one hour.

Head of the Religious Affairs Department Ali Bardakoglu will also meet with Kirill on Monday.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow arrived in Turkey on Saturday and visited the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul, and had a meeting with Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew.

This visit by the Patriarch of Moscow is very important for a couple of reasons:

1. The Orthodox seminary in Istanbul, Turkey has been forcibly closed since 1974. Despite the Turks being supposedly a “secular” democracy, they do not have the least problem to this day in harassing the Orthodox Church (and other Christians). The European Union has made the re-opening of the seminary a condition of Turkey’s entry into the EU. But, Turkey also wants good relationships with Russia, and the visit by the Patriarch of Moscow sends the message that Russia considers Orthodoxy to be important. Not surprisingly, Turkey has just announced that they may allow the seminary to re-open. They cannot afford to have both Russia and the EU unhappy with them, particularly with the number of Russians working with and in Turkey.
2. Here is a little known fact for you. There are actually more Orthodox in Turkey from Russia than of Greek descent. This makes for an interesting contretemps for both the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Patriarch of Moscow. On the one hand, the Patriarch of Moscow recognizes that when you move into the territory of the another patriarch, you are under that patriarch. However,  on the other hand, the reality is that Russians now outnumber the very few Greek-descended Christians left in Turkey. This brings into relief the fact that the Ecumenical Patriarch directly oversees very few people. And, the Patriarch of Constantinople has been quite touchy about the Patriarch of Moscow since the Russian Orthodox Church is the largest of all the Orthodox Churches, and therefore, claims a certain right to lead in world Orthodoxy.
3. Notice that the Turks do not recognize the Patriarch of Constantinople as that or as the Ecumenical Patriarch. In fact, the news service speaks of the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul. There is no mention of Constantinople. There is no recognition of Ecumenical Patriarchate, and “fener” is the nickname of a section of Istanbul in which mostly people of Greek-descent live. The Turkish government has, for decades, steadfastly and officially considered the Patriarch as merely a Turkish citizen who happens to be a bishop, but has not other persona, see point 1 above. In fact, Turkish law currently forbids a non-Turkish citizen from becoming Patriarch. So, the Patriarchate is in a serious danger of disappearing as the number of Orthodox Turkish citizens continues to decline. The current total number is 2,500 Turkish Orthodox.

Both former President Bush and President Obama have met with the Ecumenical Patriarch, and both have expressed support for the re-opening of the seminary and for the freedom of the Patriarchate to pursue appropriate religious goals within Turkish society. President Obama went as far as bringing up the seminary during his speech before the Turkish Parliament recently, and when he spoke to the Turkish President.

We can only hope that the Turks listen, change their regulations, allow the seminary to open, and allow non-Turks to be elected as Patriarch. Otherwise, we may be facing the loss of the Patriarchate someday in the not so far future.