Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the leader of the 300 million-member Orthodox Christian Church, feels "crucified" living in Turkey under a government he says would like to see his nearly 2,000-year-old Patriarchate die out. His All Holiness speaks to 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon for a story to be broadcast this Sunday, Dec. 20, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Orthodox Christians trace their roots to the earliest days of Christianity but do not answer to papal authority in Rome. Bartholomew is, in effect, their pope. The Patriarchate in Istanbul, Turkey, dates back to Roman times, when the city, then Constantinople, was the center of Christianity. Since then, history has seen the Patriarch and the part of his church in Turkey - who are Turkish citizens of Greek ancestry - discriminated against in their traditional homeland inside what has become modern Turkey, where 99 percent of the people are Muslim. One and a half million were expelled in 1923 and another 150,000 left after violent anti-Christian riots in Istanbul in 1955. A population once numbering near two million is now around 4,000. "It is not [a]crime…to be a minority living in Turkey but we are treated as…second class," Bartholomew tells Simon. "We don't feel that we enjoy our full rights as Turkish citizens." Turkish authorities closed churches, monasteries and schools, including its only orthodox Seminary, the Halki School of Theology. According to Turkish law the only potential successors to Bartholomew must be Turkish born and trained at the Halki. "[The Turkish government] would be happy to see the Patriarchate extinguished or moving abroad, but our belief is that it will never happen," says Bartholomew. Leaving Turkey is not an option for Bartholomew, the 270th Patriarch, because his church was founded there 17 centuries ago. The area, Anatolia, is where the young Christian Church began to grow after its beginnings in the Holy Land near Jerusalem. Right in Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia can be found, the first great church in Christianity; the four gospels of Matthew, Luke, Mark and John were written in Turkey; in the Cappadocia region, hundreds of chapels contain amazing artwork - probably the oldest Christian art in the world - from the time Rome was ruled by the Caesars. The oldest continuously operating Christian monastery in the world in the Sinai desert in Egypt. It contains a letter that Muslims do not refute was written by the Prophet, Mohammad; the letter instructs Muslims to protect the Christians in the monastery and to respect their faith throughout the world. Bartholomew finds the letter ironic. "I have visited the prime minister, many ministers, submitting our problems…asking to help us," he tells Simon. But no help has come his way from the Turkish government, which prides itself on being secular and fears any special treatment for Orthodox Christians could lead to inroads by other religions, especially Islam. The Patriach is determined to hold his ground. "This is the continuation of Jerusalem and for us an equally holy and sacred land. We prefer to stay here, even crucified sometimes," says Bartholomew. Asked by Simon if he feels crucified, His All Holiness replies, "Yes, I do."
A U.S. lawyer says he has filed a class action lawsuit against Turkey for allegedly using U.S.-supplied arms to commit human rights violations in Cyprus. Athan T. Tsimpedes says U.S. law forbids countries from using American weapons to breach international law. He said Thursday that the lawsuit was filed last October in a District of Columbia court on behalf of three Greek Cypriots. Tsimpides alleged that Turkey used U.S. arms to evict Greek Cypriots from their homes in 1974 when it invaded after a coup by supporters of uniting the island with Greece. Tsimpedes, who is seeking $400 billion ((EURO)274.73 billion) in damages, said he's also suing authorities in the island's breakaway Turkish Cypriot north for promoting in D.C. the sale of Greek Cypriot property.
III. Greece's Greasy Pole
This shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but apparently enough investors were still not expecting it, so that Standard & Poor’s downgrade of Greece’s credit rating has pushed down global stock markets. On Thursday, December 17, S&P cut Greece’s credit rating one level to BBB+ from A-. This follows on the heels of a December 8 announcement that it was putting the country’s sovereign debt rating on credit watch. Fitch Ratings cut Greek debt to BBB+ that same day. S&P had lowered Greece’s debt rating to A- in January. The downgrade leaves Greek government debt ratings at investment grade, but only three steps above junk status. It puts Greek government bonds dangerously close to losing their eligibility as collateral at the European Central Bank. The Greek crisis is also a euro crisis. As of Thursday morning, the US dollar had climbed to its highest level in three months against the euro and was up against the world’s 16 most-traded currencies. The yen, another safe-haven currency, also climbed. And it has triggered a global jog (not yet fast enough to be called “flight”) towards safety. Following the recent pattern of if-the dollar-is-up-commodities-are-down, oil, gold, and copper all fell in morning trading. And so did emerging markets, as lower commodity prices and the move to safety weighed on stock prices from Brazil (down 1.2%) to Hong Kong (down 1.2%) and Shanghai (down 2.3%). It hasn’t helped that news out of the United Kingdom has also been negative today.
Željko Sačić, a former deputy of Croatian General Mladen Markač, has been arrested in Zagreb. Markač and two other former Croatian generals, including Ante Gotovina, are currently undergoing trial at the Hague Tribunal accused of war crimes carried out against the country's ethnic Serbs during the 1995 military onslaught known as "Operation Storm". Sačić's lawyer Zvonimir Hodak confirmed today in Zagreb that his client was arrested for "preventing the process of evidence", to then state that he "did not know exactly why". But the lawyer said that he believed the arrest was linked to the Hague Tribunal. “I think that Croatian authorities are continuing to ingratiate themselves with the Hague Prosecutor’s Office,” Hodak said, and added that the police were going to search his client's apartment. According to some Croatian media, the arrest has to do with the crime committed in the village of Grubor near Knin, when five Serbs were killed on August 25, 1995. The victims were identified as Đuro Karanović, Miloš Grubor, Jovo Grubor, Marija Grubor and Milka Grubor, aged between 45 and 90. The killings are listed in the Hague indictment against the three Croatian generals. Croatian police have confirmed the arrest, but without giving any further details.
NATO isn't willing to compromise with Russia on admitting Georgia to the Western military alliance, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday. Rasmussen said the treaty alliance wasn't prepared to compromise on issues of fundamental importance, such as plans to eventually admit Georgia and Ukraine, both former Soviet bloc countries, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported. Meeting in Moscow this week, Rasmussen and Russian officials said differences still exist between NATO and Russia, but the dissimilarities shouldn't affect common interests. Rasmussen said NATO was interested in expanding military cargo transit to Afghanistan across Russian territory, ITAR-Tass reported. "We are grateful to Russia for giving such a possibility for the NATO member states," Rasmussen said, expressing a desire to sign similar transit agreements with Russia's neighbors.
Presidents Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and Barack Obama of the U.S., who are expected to take part in the international summit conference on climate change underway in Copenhagen, plan holding a separate bilateral meeting upon the completion of the summit Friday, a source in the Kremlin told Itar-Tass. "The Presidents plan to have a meeting after the summit is over," the source said. "In the course of the talks, they are likely to discuss the pressing issues of Russian-U.S. bilateral relations, including the drafting of a new treaty that will replace the expiring START-1," he said. Medvedev is due in Copenhagen late night Thursday.
The Central Committee of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), meeting in Geneva from 16-19 December 2009, elected today the new President and Vice-Presidents of CEC in the persons of Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, President, Rev. Cordelia Kopsch and Bishop Christopher Hill, Vice-Presidents. Metropolitan Emmanuel of France was born in 1958 on the island of Crete, Greece. He studied theology in Paris and in the U.S.A. Ordained as a priest in 1995, the Ecumenical Patriarchate appointed him as the Director of the “Liaison Office of the Orthodox Church to the European Union”, located in Brussels. The following year he was elected Bishop and in 2003 he became Metropolitan of the Holy Metropolis of France while continuing to serve as the Director of the Liaison Office to the European Union. Metropolitan Emmanuel is the President of the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of France, co-president of the Council of Christian Churches of France, as well as co-president of the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP). He has been a member of the CEC Central Committee since 2003. In his acceptance speech, Metropolitan Emmanuel mentioned as priorities for CEC the work of the Working Group for the Restructuring of CEC and the need to coordinate the activities of the different CEC Commissions and offices. As CEC’s mission is “to link eastern and western Europe”, it is vital “to reinforce the involvement of the Orthodox Churches and to encourage their constructive presence in the life of CEC.” A special priority, he added, will be to work for the re-integration of the Russian Orthodox Church into the life of CEC. The Russian Orthodox Church suspended its membership of CEC in October, 2008, over the failed admittance of the Estonian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate into CEC. The new CEC President also insisted on the importance of fostering dialogue with the European Institutions using the opportunity of the Lisbon Treaty. He also highlighted the need to develop inter-religious dialogue as well as a better structured cooperation with the Roman Catholic Church in Europe.