ECUMENISM" "
The Greek government, through the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Archbishop of Athens Christodoulos, primate of the Church of Greece, have reaffirmed the ecumenical character of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and denounced the Turkish government that refuses to recognise the primate who fills the see of Constantinople in the Orthodox world. The Turkish government in fact recognises Patriarch Bartholomew solely as spiritual head of the small Greek community in Turkey, composed of roughly 2,000 people, and denies him any international responsibility. This position of the Turkish government was recently repeated by the spokesman of the Turkish premier, Saban Disli, on intervening at a conference on dialogue between the Orthodox Church and members of the European People’s Party (PPE) in Istanbul last week. “The Patriarchate the spokesman of the Turkish government said is a Turkish institution that has to do with Turkish citizens”. The reaction of Greece was immediate. The spokesman of the Greek Foreign Ministry said that the position assumed by the Turkish government “is contrary to the criteria requested by the EU in the framework of Turkey’s negotiations for accession” to the Union. And Archbishop Christodoulos added: “We deplore what is happening. We form part of the ecumenical Patriarchate”. As part of the debate that has opened on Turkey’s bid to enter the EU, Greece has for some months insisted on the need for Turkey to cease prohibiting Bartholomew from using the title “ecumenical”. During the Istanbul conference, MEPs made a further appeal for the reopening of the Orthodox seminary at Halki, closed since 1971 despite numerous promises by the Turkish government.
