Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered officials to resume discussions on reopening the historic Halki Seminary, a long-standing issue raised by US President Donald Trump ahead of his expected visit to Ankara next month.
The Orthodox Christian theological school, founded in 1844 on Heybeliada island near Istanbul, was closed by the Turkish state in 1971.
It served as the main theological institution of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and trained generations of Orthodox clergy, including the current Bartholomew I, who is based in Istanbul.
Trump raised the issue during talks with Erdogan in Washington last year, while Greece, the United States and the European Union have repeatedly urged Turkey to allow the seminary’s reopening.
Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon said the issue had entered a “new phase” after Erdogan instructed Turkey’s higher education authority to continue discussions with a Patriarchate committee.
“For the Patriarchate, after decades of inaction, the water has entered the trough,” Metropolitan Emmanuel said, indicating that institutional work on the process had begun.
He said further steps were still required, including completing renovations to the complex and reaching agreement on the legal and educational framework under which the school would operate.
The seminary was closed following a 1971 Constitutional Court ruling that private higher education institutions must be affiliated with state universities, a condition rejected by the Patriarchate.
