The Ecumenical Debate Called to Mind by the Pope's Visit

Despite the reality of our history and society, the method we followed in the Kurdish issue was precisely this. We weren’t able to accept the existence of this matter for a long time. Today we are following a similar path in regard to the Alawi issue. We employed the same method in Cyprus until about four years ago. Except for one or two steps taken recently against the Armenian genocide claim, we are not able to take bold moves. It isn’t necessary to list problems with non-Muslim minorities, because the government has not even been able to resolve many issues in its relations with devout Muslims.

If we look carefully, we see that all of these problems have become internationalized one way or another. An issue’s taking on an international nature means this: Even if you do not want to, you lose the freedom of resolving the matter on the basis of your own truths. Most of the time problems that you did not solve become trump cards in the hands of others.

Of course, every problem mentioned here may not have an easy solution. However, the reason most problems grow is their being seen as insignificant when they first appear or their being neglecting over a long period. For this reason, the important thing is to have the will to resolve problems before they develop gangrene. One of our unresolved problems is the ecumenical issue.

Patriarch Bartholomeos, who is seen as religious leader of the Greek Orthodox Community by the nearly three thousand Greeks living in Turkey, uses the adjective “ecumenical,” meaning the universal leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians in the world. Turkey’s objection to this extends back to Lausanne, where there was discussion of the Patriarchate being moved outside the country. It is a debate that has continued for years in the form of dialogue between the deaf, or arm wrestling. However, the visit to Turkey by Pope Benedict XVI that began yesterday has brought the issue to the surface again, because the invitation made two years ago to the pope, religious leader of 1.2 billion Catholics, was an initiative begun by the Patriarchate. The attempt of the Patriarch, who is just the leader of a handful of Greeks, to take on the world-wide task of drawing the Orthodox and Catholics closer together, is incomprehensible when viewed from the perspective of official suppositions.

The final shape the pope’s visit became possible after intense diplomatic efforts to salvage this odd situation. The most important of these is the pope’s being invited as a head of state by Turkish President Sezer. Actually, his heavy criticism of Islam in a speech made at the Regensburg University on September 12th and the subsequent reaction of the Islamic world overshadowed this aspect of the crisis. However, the adjective “ecumenical” being used on the press cards distributed by the Patriarchate to reporters who wanted to follow the pope’s Istanbul program again inflamed the crisis.

The Patriarchate does not hesitate to use this adjective everywhere, from its official website to international events it participates in. Patriarch Bartholomeus expressed his approach to this issue in his latest interview with the Sabah newspaper as follows: “Administering a church is not easy. Churches in North and South America, England, Germany, Western Europe, New Zealand, Korea and Hong Kong are tied to us. But we are not ecumenical! We do not have an ecumenical problem. We have carried this title since the sixth century. We carried this title during the Byzantine, Ottoman and Republican periods and we will continue to carry it. The ecumenical title has created some difficulty in recent years. They write as if I had invented it…”

Actually there is no full concurrence among the Orthodox on this subject. According to the Moscow Patriarchate, the concept which only expresses respect is given other meanings by the Phanariot administration. Of course, this does not change the fact that everyone from the U.S. President to the pope accepts this title.