His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Tuesday, June 16, with discussions focusing on issues affecting the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox community, including the long-awaited reopening of the Holy Theological School of Halki.
Accompanied by Elder Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon and Bishop Kassianos of Arabissos, Abbot of the Holy Trinity Monastery of Halki, the Patriarch expressed gratitude for the opportunity to discuss the matters in a “cordial atmosphere.”
A key focus of the meeting was the future of Halki Seminary, which has been closed since 1971 following a Turkish Constitutional Court ruling that private higher education institutions had to come under state control.
The school, founded in 1844 on Heybeliada island near Istanbul, trained generations of Orthodox clergy, including Patriarch Bartholomew.
The meeting comes amid renewed discussions between the Turkish Ministry of National Education, the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) and the Ecumenical Patriarchate over the possibility of reopening the institution.
Patriarch Bartholomew said restoration work at the seminary was expected to be completed in September, adding he was awaiting approval from Turkish authorities for the school to resume operations.
“President Recep Tayyip Erdogan instructed Education Minister Yusuf Tekin in 2024 to examine the possibility of reopening our school,” Bartholomew said.
The issue has also gained attention ahead of next month’s NATO leaders’ summit in Turkey, which is expected to be attended by US President Donald Trump. The reopening of Halki Seminary was among the issues Trump raised during Erdogan’s visit to the White House in 2025.
“We are ready to do whatever is incumbent upon us on the Heybeliada school,” Erdogan told Trump at the time.
The meeting also took place amid ongoing tensions between Turkey and Greece over Aegean issues and minority rights.
Bartholomew has previously called for minority communities in both countries to be treated equally, saying Turkey’s Greek Orthodox citizens wanted to be regarded “not as second-class citizens.”
Turkey has historically linked the reopening of Halki Seminary to the treatment of the Muslim Turkish minority in Greece’s Western Thrace region.
Source: Orthodox Times
