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| Halki Theological Seminary |
This year, that event fell just a few weeks before the crucial general elections in Turkey on June 12.
There are several religious and social occasions where one can meet the few thousand Rums who remain today in Istanbul. Their historical churches spread all over the city and the Princes’ Islands were busy preparing their flocks with daily masses for the apex of the Greek Orthodox faith, Easter Sunday, occurring this year on April 24.
The physical center of Orthodoxy, the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Fener, was the busiest of all holy locations, not only carrying out the ancient duties of the Holy Passion but also hosting a number of important religious and secular dignitaries who paid visits to its headquarters and attended mass in the Patriarchal Church of St. George.
But it was not the religious aspect of this year’s celebrations that caught my attention most, although Orthodox Easter has never ceased to move me deeply since my childhood. It was the interesting conversations I managed to have with Istanbul Rums on the margins of several social events that accompanied this year’s religious festivities. These showed me that a few weeks before Turks decide whether or not they want a Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government for the third time, an ancient minority group like the Rums is as split as the country they belong to.
Istanbul Rums have in general benefited from the AKP’s rise to power in 2002. The selection of the European Union as a national target by the present government created strong hopes among the Rums that their rights could be safeguarded within the framework of the EU acquis. These hopes were much enhanced when Turkey was declared officially a candidate member in 2004 and, even further, when formal accession negotiations started with the EU one year later. Hopes multiplied yet further when one of their major demands from the Turkish state was accepted and after 2007 they were able to hold elections for new councils of their self-governed community foundations.
These elections – although still not carried out by all the foundations – brought younger Rums in the administration of their “vakıfs” and inserted new energy in the community. Not only that, the foundations were also allowed to manage their estates in a way that would be most beneficial and profitable for them provided that they received the permission of the Turkish General Directorate of Foundations. The appointment of a Rum to the directorate’s council representing all the minorities in Turkey was an additional reason for optimism.
However, some 25 Rum foundations, which include churches, monasteries and their estates, continue to be considered as “mazbut” (occupied) by the Turkish General Directorate of Foundations. A legal battle is going on and the Rum foundations are claiming back hundreds of their properties that were taken from them after 1936. There have been a few important turning points in this ongoing struggle. The recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights to return the ownership of the Greek orphanage on the Princes’ Islands provided a strong legal precedent to the Patriarchate’s recognition as a legal entity.
“But our real problem is the demographic problem,” a respected member of the Rum community pointed out to me during the ceremony in Fener for the launching of a new book entitled “Ecumenical Patriarchate.” A collection of articles by several Turkish and Greek intellectuals, scientists and theologians under the editorship of the Turkish prominent journalist Cengiz Aktar contributes with new arguments in favor of the use of the title “ecumenical” for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Fener. The title, although a spiritual attribute to the Orthodox Patriarchal throne in Istanbul – and in spite of official promises by even the Turkish prime minister – remains an issue of dispute between the Turkish state and the Orthodox community.
“In 2006 we held a conference here in Istanbul for the past and the future of our community. It was the first-ever conference of all the Rums. What did we agree to then? That we have to restructure our community on the basis of complete transparency and with the view to persuade the Rums who had left the city to return to it. Five years later, what have we achieved? Very little. The Turks give promises without any concrete results, they do not even allow the children of Greeks to study in the schools of the Istanbul Rums. How, then, can we make them come back?” my elderly friend, a retired school teacher, continued in frustration.
For him, and for some of the Istanbul Rums, what is more important for the survival of their community is the creation of a trusted infrastructure created by the Turkish authorities to make the few remaining Rums feel safe and to persuade the ones who left the city or were expelled from it to return to their homeland. This group believes that although issues like the legal recognition of the Patriarchate and its ecumenical role, as well as the issue of the return of “captured” properties of the Rums and the reopening of the Halki Seminary, are of major importance, they should not overshadow the cardinal issue of the numerical shrinkage of the community.
This group does not intend to vote for the AKP as they feel that the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has not delivered on its promises. This is not the same for the other part of the community, which is generally happy with the relatively positive climate in the relations between the community and the Turkish authorities. Among this second group are several representatives of the new administration of the foundations who see their institutions benefiting from the new state of affairs.
This split picture of such a tiny community may not play a major role in the big social issues at stake in these coming elections for the future orientation of Turkey. However against such a chaotic general picture, the Istanbul Rums’ stubborn dynamism for survival cannot help but move us.
Ariana Ferentinou
Hurriyet Daily News
Sunday, May 1, 2011
