[MGSA-L] On the ongoing plight of the Ecumenical Patriarchate

Sat Nov 5 20:11:15 PST 2005

Since the ongoing plight of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate seems to be lately off the radar screen
of certain Human Rights NGOs specializing in the
Balkans/SE Europe, ordinary members of Romiosyne like
myself often feel obliged to make a few statements for
the record.

In a recent posting one of the subscribers of MGSA-L
raised (albeit implicitly) the issue of "legitimacy"
of the self-described "Türk Ortodoks Patrikhanesi"
("Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate") [see footnote 1]. 
Also, the same person offered a recounting of her
encounter with the "dear wife" of the late Selçuk
Erenerol [a.k.a. papa Eftim II] in the Karaköy
(Galata) district of Istanbul.  She stated that she
witnessed people entering the church, an observation
suggestive that they "were still holding services
there."
http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/mgsa-l/2005-October/006167.html

Yet the evidence is there to indicate that the
so-called "Turkish-Orthodox Patriarchate", is, for all
intents and purposes, a covert and failed instrument
of the Kemalist regime, a schismatic Church without a
flock, which is not recognized by any Christian church
worldwide [1].

Aside from the obvious lack of credence of any claims
of "legitimacy", there is yet another interesting
twist and -unfortunately- a darker side about this
self-described religious institution.  The latter has
to do with the affiliation of members of the Erenenol
family with hardcore ultranationalist elements in
Turkiye. 

By sheer serendipity we have now learned that the
daughter of the late "papa Eftim," Sevgi Erenerol, who
is the spokesperson of the so-called "Türk Ortodoks
Patrikhanesi", led last week a rabid mob of protesters
outside the barricaded Patriarchate in Phanar [on the
occasion of the 82nd Anniversary of the Turkish
Republic]. The protesters -who lately have become
frequent visitors of the Ecumenical Patriarchate- were
shouting slogans calling for the banishment of the
Great Church from Turkey while setting ablaze the
dummy of Patriarch Bartholomew.
http://www.in.gr/news/article.asp?lngEntityID=659851&lngDtrID=244
http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=551920
http://www.rnn.gr/greek/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=46

Appended below is the news story published in TDN:

****************************************************
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=27099
Excerpted from the Turkish Daily News. For ‘fair use’
and educational purposes only. © 2004 Dogan Daily News
Inc.  

Nationalists demonstrate against Greek Orthodox
patriarch

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Demonstrators on Friday held banners aloft and waved
Turkish flags in a protest in front of the Greek
Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul's Fener district. 

ISTANBUL -- TDN with wire services

Turkish nationalists demonstrated on Friday outside
the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul to protest
its desire to use the title "ecumenical," which is not
recognized by Turkey, witnesses said.

Waving Turkish flags and that of the extreme
right-wing Nationalist Movement Party, about 150
protestors laid a black wreath at the door of the
Patriarchate on the European side of the city bearing
the words "Off to Greece with the Patriarchate". 

"Patriarch! Do not lose your way, do not exhaust our
patience," the demonstrators chanted amid a heavy
police presence before dispersing peacefully. 

The protest came a week after the head of the Orthodox
Church, Patriarch Bartolomeos I, told a conference in
Istanbul that Turkey was preventing him from using his
"ecumenical" title, which denotes leadership of 250
million Orthodox worshippers around the world. 

Ankara says its legislation does not allow the
patriarch to use the title and treats him as the
spiritual leader of only some 2,000 Orthodox Greeks in
Turkey. 

The Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul, which dates
from the Byzantine Empire, is a regular target of
demonstrations by Turkish nationalist movements that
accuse the institution of seeking an independent,
Vatican-like status and international support to
extract concessions from Ankara.

© 2004 Dogan Daily News Inc.  
******************************************************

-- A final note on the ecclesiastical crisis in the
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. 

Although the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC) is
currently considered as schismatic, the Mother Church
(Constantinople) is genuinely eager to mediate in
hopes of facilitating a permanent settlement and
putting an end -once and for all- to the intractable
ecclesiastical dispute. Those who have encouraged the
MOC to undermine the Ecumenical Patriarchate by
demanding the revocation of the 1767 Decree of Sultan
Mustafa III over the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric
of Ochrid
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200510131856-1279-RT1-CRO-0-NF51
are doing a disservice to the Christian Orthodox
faithful in FYROM whom the Ecumenical Patriarchate
embraces as brethren.  I suggest that those misguided
patrons of parochial "Makedonism" should think
carefully before embarking on such ambitious legal
adventures in unison with certain sympathetic ears in
Türkiye.

C.D.K.

P.S. It is noteworthy that the news of the passing of
Selçuk Erenerol in December, 2002 were disseminated in
the Balkan Human Rights List. However, the relevance
of this news story in the context of human rights
remains puzzling.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/balkanhr/message/4936

FOOTNOTE

[1] The "Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate" is, literally,
"a church without a flock." It was launched by Mustafa
Kemal Pacha (Atatürk) in 1923/4 for one and only
purpose: to subvert the Ecumenical Patriarchate [see
the treatise by Professor Harry J. Psomiades titled
"The Ecumenical Patriarchate Under the Turkish
Republic: The First Ten Years"]
http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/texts/Psomiades_ecupat.html

 "The Turkish authorities seized in 1924 and in 1965
four Greek Orthodox Churches of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate in Karaköy (Galata) and their property
and granted them to the so-called "Turkish-Orthodox
Patriarchate", a schismatic Church with no faithful,
not recognized by any Christian church
internationally.

The churches of Galata and their property, seized by
the heirs of the infamous papa Efthim, must be
returned to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, because the
so-called "Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate" is de facto
non-existent and the sustaining of this issue exposes
Turkey to the international community." 

>From a Turkish perspective:

http://www.istanbulguide.net/istguide/artetarch/eglises/patturc.htm

-- See photos of the churches in Karaköy (Galata),
which are claimed to be the seat of the "Turkish
Orthodox Patriarchate"
http://www.roxanephoto.com/turquie/istanbul/beyoglu/galata-sud-est/karakoy/photos/karakoy_patriarcatorthodoxeturc01.htm
http://www.roxanephoto.com/turquie/istanbul/beyoglu/galata-sud-est/karakoy/photos/karakoy_patriarcatorthodoxeturc03.htm

-- "The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and the
Turkish-Greek Relations, 1923-1940" by Dr. Bestami
Sadi BILGIC
http://www.turkishweekly.net/articles.php?id=86

-- "BARTHOLOMEOS, THEOLOGICAL COLLEGE AND ECUMENICISM:
NOTES FROM THE ACTIVITIES OF THE PATRIARCH" by Salim
GÖKÇEN, Department of History, Atatürk University
http://www.stradigma.com/english/april2003/articles_07.html

-- "Between Religious and Ethnic Identity: Papa Eftim
and the Republican Turkish Orthodox Church" by Dr
Anthony O'Mahony, Heythrop College, London.
http://www.swansea.ac.uk/cssee/cnfrencs/gregynog/speakrs2.htm

RELATED LINKS

-- Letter of Patriarch Bartholomeos to the Deputy
Chairman of the Justice and Development Party (AKP)
emphasizing four points of contention.
http://www.enet.gr/online/online_text?dt=04/11/2005&c=110&id=16229872

-- Resolve of the Mother Church in the face of
unrelenting provocations
http://www.rnn.gr/greek/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=58&Itemid=46

-- GREEK SUPPORT TO THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE
 http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=552098
http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=552087

-- [MGSA-L] The plight of the Ecumenical Patriarchate,
a loyal supporter of Turkey's European aspirations
http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/mgsa-l/2005-October/006031.html

-- [MGSA-L] Pontifical visit to Phanar gets off to a
rough start
http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/mgsa-l/2005-September/005922.html
http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/mgsa-l/2005-September/005958.html

-- [MGSA-L] Pictures from the exhibition of General
Çoker's photographic collection
http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/mgsa-l/2005-September/005976.html

-- [MGSA-L] European Court of Human Rights: 20
September hearing on Greek and Armenian minority cases
in Turkey
http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/mgsa-l/2005-September/005822.html

-- [MGSA-L] 50th Anniversary of the Kristallnacht of
Romiosyne in Istanbul
http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/mgsa-l/2005-September/005838.html
http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/mgsa-l/2005-September/005852.html

-- [MGSA-L] Not even a Children's Summer Camp! [was
Re: Beyond anthropology and Human Rights]
http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/mgsa-l/2005-July/005591.html