Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew met the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, early on Wednesday 25th April 2018, in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Also present was the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
The two men discussed matters relating to the patriarchate and the Greek community in Turkey.
Bartholomew requested support from Erdoğan for the protection and restoration of the Greek orphanage on Büyükada Island, which is deemed to face immediate risk of collapse.
Büyükada, formerly known as Prinkipo, is the largest of Princes’ islands.
The Greek orphanage has been included in the “Seven Most Endangered” program for 2018 by Europa Nova, the leading heritage organization in Europe, and the European Investment Bank Institute.
The building was designed by French architect Alexandre Vallaury in 1899 and functioned as an orphanage until its closure in 1964. Spread across five storeys, the building is comprised of 206 rooms. It is considered the largest wooden building in Europe and the second largest in the world.
Patriarch Bartholomew also raised the question of reopening the Halki Seminary on Heybeliada, another one of the Princes’ Islands, according to sources.
He thanked Erdoğan for the returning of properties to the minority communities, the reopening of Greek schools on Gökçeada, the largest Aegean island, and helping to revive religious ceremonies at churches across Anatolia.
However, he also pointed out that the population of the Greek community on Gökçeada Island has decreased to 3,000, requesting the naturalization process to be easier for the descendants of Greeks who were once citizens of Turkey.
The requests will be taken into consideration, Erdoğan replied, adding that minority communities should not feel like foreigners in the country.
The meeting also took place five days after the patriarchate’s synod in Istanbul where the Orthodox clergy decided to “coordinate with sister Orthodox churches” on bestowing autocephaly or a type of independence for bishops to rule their own church in Ukraine, .” Russian clergy and the Patriarchate vie for control of Ukrainian Orthodox churches, a delicate matter for Turkey which maintains close relations both with Ukraine and Russia. Russian media outlets have reported that Ankara may act as a mediator in the crisis.
The patriarchate, in its self-appointed ecumenical status, has been based in Istanbul but still referred to as Constantinople by the Greeks.since the times of the Byzantine Empire that collapsed after the Ottoman conquest of the city.