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ANKARA – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan ordered officials on Sunday to resume talks on reopening an Orthodox Christian seminary near Istanbul, an issue raised by U.S. President Donald Trump, who is expected to visit Ankara next month for a NATO summit.
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The Halki seminary, founded in 1844 and shut by the Turkish state in 1971, played a central role in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s main theological school. It trained generations of Orthodox clergy, including the current patriarch Bartholomew, who is based in Istanbul.
Trump raised the issue in talks with Erdogan in Washington last year. Muslim and secular Turkey has long faced pressure from Greece, the United States and European Union to reopen the theological school on Heybeliada island near Istanbul.
Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, whose diocese covers Istanbul, said the issue had entered a “new phase” after Erdogan instructed Turkey’s higher education authority, to continue discussions with the Patriarchate’s committee.
Although there is no timetable yet for the reopening of the school, Metropolitan Emmanuel said: “For the Patriarchate, after decades of inaction, the water has entered the trough” signaling that institutional work has begun.
Emmanuel added that both sides still needed to complete renovation work on the building complex and agree on the legal and educational framework under which it would operate.
Halki seminary was closed in 1971 following a Constitutional Court ruling that private higher education institutions must be affiliated with state universities, a requirement rejected by the Patriarchate.
(Reporting by Omer Berberoglu, Writing by Zeynep Berkem; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
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