Turkey's Compliance with its Obligations to the Ecumencial Patriarchate and Orthodox Christian Minority

A century ago, there were millions of Orthodox Christians yet present in Asia Minor, including the Greek Eastern Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodx Armenians, Syriacs, and Assyrians. Between the periodic pogroms culminating in the Genocide of the First World War years and the exchange of populations from 1923, the population in Turkey was much reduced. Anti-Greek riots (occurring whilst the authorities stood aside) in the 1950s in Istanbul increased immigration, so that by 2004 there were only about 1500 Greek Orthodox Christians left in the city. The Oriental Orthodox presence is negligable, as well, with possibly more ancient, crumbling churches spread around the country than actual, living Armenians.



The Fourth Ecumencial Council met at Chalcedon in Anno Domini 451. Canon XXVIII confirmed Constantinople (now Istanbul) as the second Apostolic city only after Rome, and ahead of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. Yet today the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, in the Phanar, is greatly weakened, in many ways due to the oppressive nature of the Turkish government. Although officially secularist, many (especially under the current Islamic-oriented government) view Christians as second-class citizens. At a hotel in Goreme, Cappadocia, we were told by the Turkish manager that no one was there before the Turks came, nevermind that we were staying in millenium-old converted monastic cells (a great place of pilgrimage, and a lot of fun, too). Here is a recent White Paper on the conduct of the Turkish government towards its Christian minority, from Yale University. More news on the situation can be found here.