Speaking to reporters following his meeting with Ban, in response to a question by a Greek journalist, Bartholomew said the Cyprus issue and Turkey's European Union membership process were not on the agenda during their talks.
“We particularly talked about our prime minister and the Spanish prime minister's initiative, and the secretary-general expressed his great appreciation for this initiative,” Bartholomew said, referring to the Alliance of Civilizations initiative which was launched in 2005 by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan following a joint proposal by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Later on Wednesday, Bartholomew also had talks with former US President Bill Clinton. Next week, he will have talks in Washington with US Vice President Joe Biden, while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to host a dinner in Bartholomew's honor. Turkey's ambassador to the US, Nabi Şensoy, is also expected to host a luncheon in the patriarch's honor while he is in the US capital.
During a landmark official visit to Turkey in April, US President Barack Obama held talks with the İstanbul-based patriarch as well as with representatives of other religious communities in Turkey.
Bartholomew is the spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians around the world. Ankara rejects Bartholomew's use of the title “ecumenical,” or universal, arguing instead that the patriarch is merely the spiritual leader of İstanbul's dwindling Orthodox community.
