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Greek premier pays historic visit to former Istanbul seminary
Greek premier pays historic visit to former Istanbul seminary
Alexis Tsipras on Feb. 6 became the first Greek prime minister to pay a visit to the Orthodox Halki seminary located on Heybeliada Island, the second-largest of the Princes’ Islands in the Sea of Marmara. Click through for the story in photos...
On day two of his official visit to Turkey, Tsipras visited the site of the Theological School of Halki along with İbrahim Kalın, Turkey’s presidential spokesman.
At the seminary site, Tsipras took part in a religious ceremony headed by Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew. After lighting a candle, he attended the service by the patriarch’s side but did not pray.
It is the first visit to the service at the seminary by a Greek prime minister since it was closed in 1971 under a law that placed religious and military training under state control.
“Next time I come I hope we reopen the school with [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan,” Tsipras said. “The minorities in Greece and Turkey are no reason for conflict but are here to build bridges,” he added.
“We pray that the momentous and significant day will arrive soon when this seminary that cultivates our theological education will once again open its doors,” Bartholomew said.
On Feb. 5, Erdoğan suggested the seminary could be reopened if Athens improved conditions for the Muslim community in Western Thrace, an area of Greece with a large Turkish Muslim population.
“Mr. Tsipras and previous [Greek] prime ministers have brought up this [the opening of the Halki seminar]. And when they did, I have told them about the problems of muftis,” Erdoğan said at a joints news conference with Tsipras in Ankara.
The election of religious leaders or muftis has been a key problem of Greece’s Muslim Turkish minority of some 150,000 — concentrated in the Western Thrace region — since 1991.
The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne also guarantees the religious freedom of the Muslim minority in Greece. However, Greece annulled the Greek Act in 1991 and started appointing the muftis itself. The Halki seminary was the main school of theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church’s Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople until 1971. The theological school’s premises of the school continue to be maintained by the monastery and are used to host conferences.
It is possible to visit the island where it is located via boat in approximately one hour from the shore of Istanbul.
Before visiting Heybeliada, Tsipras visited the Hagia Sophia Museum. Tsipras met Kalın at the museum. “You can feel the burden of history here,” Tsipras told reporters at the museum.
The Greek premier listened enthusiastically as a guide accompanying the delegation explained the history of the edifice. Police tightened security measures around the museum.
Built by the Byzantines, Hagia Sophia served as a Christian church until it was converted into a mosque in 1453, when the Ottomans conquered Istanbul. In 1935, under the Turkish Republic, it was turned into a museum.
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