Last November, a Turkish Admiral demanded a crackdown on the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Admiral was seeking to revive allegations by Turkish ultranationalists and jihadists in previous years that the Patriarchate’s diplomatic activities were directed against Turkey. This should be a serious concern considering how low Patriarch Bartholomew’s reputation in Orthodoxy has sunk.
The US Commission on international religious freedom for 2022 has a section on Turkey. It mentions the closure of Halki but not Hagia Sophia of Constantinople or the Churches of occupied Cyprus. The State Department has been documenting Halki for decades.
At the present, Ukrainian officials are cracking down hard on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Bishops are being arrested and Churchgoers attending the legitimate Churches are being harassed by mobs. Patriarch Bartholomew is complicit in the persecution of the Ukrainian Church which is why his problems in Turkey are bound to fall on deaf ears in the Orthodox world.
In Christianity, the door is always open for repentance. Patriarch Bartholomew can do the right thing. He needs to abandon his claims to Ukraine and disavow all he had done in Ukraine over the past five years. Otherwise, he is going to bring about the Patriarchate’s demise.
3 replies on “The Ecumenical Patriarchate And Turkey”
Bartholomew has been naively used to Western globalist elites. When he is no longer any use to them, they’ll dismiss him and any concerns he has about persecution by Turkish authorities. The damage his Tomos has done to the UOC is significant, it’s up to him to recognize that and make amends. I used to have tremendous respect for the Ecumenical Patriarch, he led the world in environmental concerns as the ‘Greek Patriarch’ among other things. It would be a shame if the policies he is best remembered for were those which led to diminishing and marginalization of his own Office and schism to the Orthodox Church.
Patriarch Bartholomew survived several assassination attempts in Turkey which indicate that he is brave and heroic. That legacy has been tarnished by his actions in Ukraine. It really is tragic.
Indeed. Incidentally, I meant ‘Green Patriarch’ above. My eyes are not so good anymore and I used to catch things like that before I posted.