Turkish President Abdullah Gul told reporters in Chicago there are still some issues that need to be resolved before his government can finally fulfill its promise to reopen the Greek Orthodox seminary at Halki, which was closed decades ago.
“Let me start by saying that we respect everyone’s faith and belief and we also believe that everyone should be free to exercise and practice their beliefs,” Gul said through an interpreter during an interview with the editors of the Chicago Tribune and the paper’s reporter John Kass.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of NATO’s summit in Chicago on May 22.
According to Gul, the seminary is an issue that has to do with his country’s constitution and the principle of secularism. “We have to treat all religions equally,” he said. “And to find a solution to the seminary it was suggested to attach it to the department of theology under the Istanbul University, but this was not a suggestion that was accepted. This is something that we’re looking into.”
The Halki Seminary was founded in 1844 to provide training for new priests who would cover the religious and spiritual needs of the Ecumenical See and Orthodox Christians around the world. But Turkey closed the school in 1971 under legislation prohibiting private religious higher education.
“People of all faiths should be free to learn their faith and teach it, and I’m sure that with this work that is ongoing with the drawing up of the constitution, this is something that can be resolved,” added Gul, a moderate with strong Islamic roots.
In his article, Kass said he also mentioned to Gul that there were once thousands and thousands of Greeks in Istanbul and that Greeks and Muslims had lived there together for centuries, but that in the last 100 years or so, under the secular Turkish state, that number has dwindled to about 1,200 (mostly elderly).
Before meeting Gul, Kass spoke to the chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos.
“We have great hopes that Halki will be reopened, and expectations, as this was promised,” Bishop Demetrios said. “There have been great changes in Turkey, and reason for optimism, adding that “Opening Halki would be seen so positively,” said Bishop Demetrios. “To talk of religious freedom, and then to demonstrate it to the world. That would tell the world that Turkey has truly changed.”