Theological School of Halki

Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy met with Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos in Istanbul on Saturday and discussed issues affecting the Patriarchate, according to a press release from the Patriarchate.

Archbishop Elpidophoros of America held talks in New York on Thursday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was in the American city for the United Nations General Assembly.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has urged the "immediate reopening" of the Theological School of Halki, off the coast of Istanbul, which Turkey shut down in 1971.

"We urge the immediate reopening of the Halki seminary," Pompeo said during introductory remarks at the presentation of the 2018 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom in Washington, DC, late on Friday.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (4-L), his partner Betty Peristera Baziana (2-L), Greek Orthodox Patriarch Vartholomaios (3-L) and Ibrahin Kalin (L), a special adviser to the President of Turkey, visit the Theological School of Halki, Wednesday. Tsipras and Vartholomaios both voiced hope that the seminary, closed since 1971, will soon reopen. [EPA]

The current Greek population in Turkey is estimated at fewer than 2,000.  But this population decline was not due to natural causes; the Greek community has become nearly extinct due to many state-sponsored attacks and pressure.

The largest attacks took place during the last years of the Ottoman Empire with pogroms and discrimination continuing until the present day.

The Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomaios, the spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians, called at the weekend for the reopening of the Theological School of Halki, which Turkish authorities shut down in 1972.

Constantinople, the one-time largest and wealthiest city of Christianity, still lies asleep in the shadows of the skyscrapers of present-day Istanbul… All you need to do is look.