TURKEY: Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis meets Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul as a part of his official visit to Turkey

Record ID: 644648

  • Title: TURKEY: Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis meets Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul as a part of his official visit to Turkey
  • Date: 25th January 2008
  • Summary: (W5) ISTANBUL, TURKEY (JANUARY 24, 2008) (REUTERS) VARIOUS GREEK ORTHODOX PATRIARCHATE IN ISTANBUL CAR WITH GREEK FLAG CARRYING GREEK PRIME MINISTER COSTAS (*** FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ***) KARAMANLIS ARRIVING AT PATRIARCHATE PRIESTS WAITING FOR KARAMANLIS AT GATE OF PATRIARCHATE KARAMANLIS AND HIS WIFE NATASHA KARAMANLIS GETTING OUT OF CAR AND SHAKING HANDS WITH PRIESTS GREEK ORTHODOX PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW SHAKING HANDS WITH GREEK FOREIGN MINISTER THEODORA BAKOYANNIS GREEK ORTHODOX PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW WELCOMING KARAMANLIS AND WALKING INTO HALL JOURNALISTS GREEK ORTHODOX PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW MAKING HIS WELCOMING SPEECH STANDING/KARAMANLIS (LEFT) AND MRS. KARAMANLIS (RIGHT) SITTING (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) GREEK ORTHODOX PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW SAYING: "Our Patriarchate and minority functions as a bridge for two people to come closer, help the two countries to develop and need protection as peaceful citizens abiding by laws." KARAMANLIS LISTENING PRIESTS LISTENING PATRIARCH GIVING GIFT TO KARAMANLIS GIFT PATRIARCH SHOWING GIFT TO JOURNALISTS KARAMANLIS AND PATRIARCH KISSING MAN TAKING PICTURE PATRIARCH GIVING GIFT TO MRS. KARAMANLIS GIFT OF LARGE PAINTING PICTURE OF JESUS CHRIST ON WALL PATRIARCH, KARAMANLIS AND HIS WIFE SITTING DRINKS BEING SERVED GREEK FOREIGN MINISTER BAKOYANNIS SITTING AND TALKING PATRIARCH TALKING WITH MRS. KARAMANLIS KARAMANLIS JOURNALISTS KARAMANLIS AND HIS WIFE LEAVING PATRIARCHATE AS BELLS RING KARAMANLIS SHAKING HANDS WITH PRIESTS BEFORE GETTING INTO CAR KARAMANLIS AND HIS WIFE GETTING INTO CAR AND LEAVING PATRIARCHATE
  • Embargoed: 9th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Domestic Politics,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA5XT0EL7D1V7EQHQFNM8HIW55L
  • Story Text: Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Thursday (January 24th) met Greek Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Greek Orthodox Christians, on the second day of an official visit to Turkey.
    Karamanlis pledged support for the rights of Turkey's tiny Orthodox community.
    Istanbul is the ancient seat of Orthodox Christianity, but Christians often complain of discrimination and prejudice in predominantly Muslim but secular Turkey.

    "Our Patriarchate and minority functions as a bridge for two people to come closer, help the two countries to develop and need protection as peaceful citizens abiding by laws," said Patriarch Bartholomew in a welcoming speech to Karamanlis at the Patriarchate.
    Bartholomew, an ethnic Greek but Turkish citizen, said he hoped Karamanlis's visit would cement better ties with Turkey.
    Bartholomew has said failure to reopen the Halki seminary, a training college for priests located on an island near Istanbul and shut down by the Turkish authorities in 1972, could spell the end of the Greek Orthodox church in Turkey. The European Union, which Turkey hopes to join, has also called for the reopening of the school.
    Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, a pious Muslim, said on Wednesday after talks with Karamanlis in the capital Ankara that his government was working on the problem.
    Some Turks fear reopening the Halki seminary will lead to a relaxation of laws governing Muslim schools in Turkey, which still keeps religion under tight state control and fears a possible increase in militant Islam.
    Bartholomew has also been locked in a dispute with Turkey over his use of the ancient title "ecumenical", which means "universal"
    in Greek. Turkey argues that the title has political overtones that could undermine Turkish sovereignty.
    Erdogan seemed to signal a softer stance on Wednesday when he said the title was an internal matter of the Orthodox Church.
    Turkish nationalists often accuse Bartholomew of wanting to create a Vatican-style mini-state in the heart of Istanbul, a claim the Patriarch and most foreign diplomats reject as absurd.
    Istanbul, the former Constantinople, was capital of the Greek-speaking Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire for centuries until it fell to Muslim Ottoman Turks in 1453.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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