Turks Say "No" to Reopening Halki School ("training center for Christian talibans") (!)

The National Herald | September 12, 2004 | Theodore Kalmoukos

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

BOSTON - The Theological School of Halki of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will not open as was highly expected and despite the many assurances given by the Turkish government to U.S. President George Bush during his visit to Turkey last June, and to Greek Orthodox Church leaders.

According to exclusive information acquired by The National Herald, the Council of National Security of Turkey has decided to "freeze" indefinitely the issue of reopening the Theological School of Halki. The Herald has learned that the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was confronted with strong opposition, even threats, by the military generals and other high-ranking army officials-members of the Council of National Security. It should be noted that the army continues to play a pivotal role in the governance of Turkey despite the secular form of government in place.

The issue of reopening the Theological School of Halki was discussed during Bush's visit to Turkey last June during the NATO summit. Prime Minister Erdogan had also assured Prime Minister of Greece Costas Karamanlis during Erdogan's official visit to Athens just a few months ago that the reopening of the school was imminent.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate has not been officially informed as yet of the negative decision of the Turkish Council of National Security, neither has it been reported in any other media outlet. The Turks were afraid that a possible leak of their negative decision regarding Halki during the official visit of the European Enlargement Commissioner Guenther Verheugen this past week would have a negative impact on Turkey's attempts to secure specific dates to open the process for its accession into the European Union.

The Theological School of Halki was forced by the Turkish government to cease operations in 1971. Its buildings have been well kept all these 33 years and today it is operating as a Monastery of Holy Trinity headed by its Abbot, Metropolitan Apostolos of Mochonisia. Some three years ago the Turks even prohibited the use of the facilities of Halki for purely social conferences, meetings and seminars, such as those on the environment.

The "gray wolves" who attacked the Patriarchate and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomaios last Sunday are threatening to organize more and stronger demonstrations against the Headquarters of the Patriarchate and its Prelate, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomaios. The leader of the "gray wolves" in recent statements in their newspaper, "Yeni Char," called the Theological School of Halki a training center of "Christian talibans."

Knowledgeable sources of the ecclesiastical and ethnic matters of the Greek Orthodox Community of Constantinople told the Herald that "the ultimate purpose of the Turks is to take over completely the Theological School of Halki , as they have done for so many other Greek Orthodox institutions of Constantinople via the Vakoufia (Department of Religious Affairs).

It should be emphasized that the Ecumenical Patriarchate is not legally fortified in Turkey, which means that the Patriarchate does not have the right to have ownership nor administrative authority on the existing institutions, even on those which are purely religious, such as churches, cemeteries, and monasteries.

If a specific church is not liturgized due to lack of faithful, then the Turks take over the building, according to law number 2762, which contradicts Article 40 of the treaty which recognizes the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on churches and religious institutions. On the contrary, law 2762 places the churches and the institutions in a category called "abandoned" and in this way assumes their ownership.

Despite the European orientation Turkey passed in the year 2002, legislation numbers 4771 and 4778, which provide for the return of the confiscated properties to their initial owners, the Vakoufia continue their usual policy and politics of taking over Greek Orthodox properties.

[rocksblues]

More from the religion of Peace!

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

This is an issue of tremendous importance to Orthodox Christians, because of the crisis facing the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which has mostly to do with Turkish laws. The Ecumenical Patriarch must, according to Turkish law, be a natural-born Turkish citizen. Even though the Ecumenical Patriarch is generally considered the first-among-equals of Orthodox Patriarchs, and his jurisdiction is generally recognized by Orthodox Christians to extend outside of Turkey -- to the "barbarian lands" (i.e. countries not traditionally Orthodox), Turkish law restricts him to shepherding the faithful in Turkey. Because of the dwindling numbers of Orthodox Christians in Turkey, and because the continuing closure of Halki is a barrier to the training of monastic priests, finding a "legal" (according to Turkish law) successor to the patriarchate is likely to become more and more difficult in the future.

Concerned Orthodox Christians, and others who value religious freedom and the historical significance of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, need to write to President Bush and the Turkish ambassador about this issue.

[Kolokotronis]

Rumor hath it that the agreement of the Greek government to allow the building of a huge, Saudi financed Mohammedan cult center outside of Athens was tied to the agreement of the Turks to allow Halki to reopen. One wonders what will happen now.

While it seems obvious that the Turks should allow the reopening of Halki for any of a number of secular and religious reasons affecting both Christians and Turks, there are those Orthodox (not particularly me, by the way) who fear that the reopening of Halki will only serve to provide an EP with papal like ambitions (like the present occupant of the Throne, some would say) with a opportunity produce a cadre of Patriarchal loyalist monks from which to staff the hierarchies of the various Eparchies of the Patriarchal throne thus assuring his (or his successors') control of, for example, the comparatively wealthy and politically connected Churches in America, Australia and Canada and preventing any movement toward an autocephalos American Orthodox Church.

By the way, the problem in Constantinople is not the lack of Halki trained monks,there are a number of seminaries around the world turning out educated priest-monks, but rather the ever shrinking Orthodox population in Turkey from which to draw Turkish citizens to fill the Throne and the Synod. The recent seating of non-Turkish citizen hierarchs on the Patriarchal Synod caused an uproar in Ankara.

A final word of caution here, the National Herald always has an agenda.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

"A final word of caution here, the National Herald always has an agenda."

Thanks for the caveat. I'm not terribly familiar with them. I like to go to Liturgy, say my prayers and try to live an Orthodox life, and generally steer clear of church politics!

[Kolokotronis]

My old people always said that the further one stays away from hierarchs and their machinations, the better. Remember the Ladder of Divine Assent!

[MarMema]

ping

[MarMema]

ping

[MarMema]

Rumor hath it that the agreement of the Greek government to allow the building of a huge, Saudi financed Mohammedan cult center outside of Athens was tied to the agreement of the Turks to allow Halki to reopen.

Fascinating.

[Kolokotronis]

<> Nevertheless, perhaps true. Don't put anything past the Eurocrats in Athens or anywhere else.