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INFORMATION AND PRESS SERVICE

Section "Religious Intolerance and Discrimination"

December 11, 1998

TURKEY

TURKEY REINSTATES GREEK ORTHODOX SEMINARY BOARD by Barbara G. Baker

HRWF (11.12.1998) - Turkish authorities suspended an order to dismiss the board of trustees of the Greek Orthodox Church's theological seminary in late November, canceling new elections set for November 29.

The apparent reversal order reinstated the four board members of Halki Theological Seminary accused of financial mismanagement and propaganda against the Turkish state. The initial order from authorities in Ankara in mid October had banned the fired trustees from election to any other Greek foundation board.

"We are very happy over this news," board chairman Laki Vingas told Compass. "We have been given back the authority now for all our activities. The official report was saying that the whole thing will be re-examined, but I think it's going to be dropped now."

A brief November 27 notice from the Directorate of Foundations' Istanbul office announced that the order to fire the trustees had been suspended until "further examinations" could be completed. "It has been requested that the issues constituting the reason for dismissal be again re-examined," the notice stated.

Local observers attributed the reversal to a rare public protest from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I over the matter, coupled with an official demarche lodged by the U.S. government.

Bartholomew had openly criticized the Turkish state's "high-handed abolition of the school's board" in early November. He declared, "I have a duty and obligation to report that our rights are not being respected." Under the Lausanne Treaty, Turkey's ethno-religious communities are guaranteed the right to elect the boards of their respective minority foundations.

Speaking two weeks after the 75th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, Bartholomew questioned to what degree the equality of rights, justice and religious freedom promised in the Turkish Constitution were "only valid on paper."

"We are not inserted, transplanted or intruders," Bartholomew said. "We are the native elements of this land. We were born here, and we will die here."

Since Bartholomew's election in 1991, Turkey has ignored his campaign to reopen the seminary, established 154 years ago on the grounds of a patriarchal monastery on Heybeli Island off the coast of Istanbul. The government closed down both the Greek and Armenian Orthodox seminaries in 1971.

Coming fresh on the heels of formal U.S. legislation to monitor religious persecution by foreign governments, the Turkish order prompted keen interest by U.S. officials, who described the arbitrary action as a "violation of the human rights of a religious minority." After filing a demarche with Ankara, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Mark Parris also paid an official visit to Patriarch Bartholomew over the matter.

During a St. Andrew's Day reception November 30, Bartholomew again called for the reopening of the Halki seminary.

"The spiritual, educational, philanthropic and ecclesiastical institutions of our patriarchate ... must be accorded respect, support, freedom of development and action," the patriarch said in his address. "Nearly 30 years of deprivation are enough to call for a new inquiry into this matter, in order that what was a decision made in haste might be reconsidered, and an error might be corrected."