As the government plans to re-open the Halki seminary in early 2010, Ankara has been shaken by remarks from Patriarch Bartholomew, who says he feels ‘crucified’ and ’second class’ living in Turkey. One Greek-Turk says it is ‘a misunderstanding due to a lack of translation’ while the foreign minister says ‘the crucifixion simile is extremely unfortunate’. The patriarch, who is based in Istanbul’s Fener neighborhood, complained about "discrimination" in Turkey in an interview he gave to U.S. television network CBS in May. “I would like to see this as an undesired slip of the tongue. We cannot accept comparisons that we do not deserve," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said in a press conference Saturday. State Minister Hayati Yazıcı also reacted, saying: “It is quite unjust to comment like that. I don’t deny the difficulties we’re trying to solve, but it is not a way out to aggravate what actually happens.” According to an excerpt, Patriarch Bartholomew said, "We are treated as secondclass citizens. We don’t feel that we enjoy our full rights as Turkish citizens." Manolis Kostidis, a Greek-Turkish citizen from Istanbul now living in Athens and working as a journalist for the daily Elefteros Tipos, agreed with Patriarch Bartholomew’s evaluation. “The government is aware that the Greek community has suffered from a violation of their rights. The patriarch has devoted his life to gaining these rights, such as reopening the Halki seminary,” Kostidis told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in a phone interview Sunday. “I doubt whether the seminary will really be opened in 2010. Many politicians earlier promised [Patriarch Bartholomew] to open the seminary, but no progress has been made since the 1990s. I assume he meant to say how he was frustrated by unkept promises,” Kostidis said. CBS quotes Patriarch Bartholomew as saying the government "would be happy to see the patriarchate extinguished or move abroad. We prefer to stay here, even [if] we are crucified sometimes." The biggest handicap is translation and the reports have twisted what Patriarch Bartholomew actually meant. Denying that the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, discriminates among its citizens on religious grounds, Davutoğlu said, “If Patriarch Bartholomew I has complaints on this issue, he can convey them to the relevant authorities who will do whatever is necessary." Kezban Hatemi, Patriarch Bartholomew’s lawyer, said there may have been ulterior motives to misreport what the spiritual head said. “It is interesting that an interview made by a U.S. network was reported to Turkish audiences before it was even aired in the United States. Pay attention to the timing.” Motivated by the EU bid, the government has repeatedly promised to increase the rights of minorities in the country. The Istanbul Patriarchate dates from the Greek Orthodox Byzantine Empire, which collapsed in 1453 when the city fell to the Ottoman Turks.
Turkey says it wants the European Union to drop visa restrictions on its citizens seeking to travel to the bloc after restrictions for three other non-EU countries were lifted Saturday. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says the country deserves to have visa restrictions against it dropped by the EU after Serbian, Montenegrin and Macedonian citizens were granted visa-free travel rights to the Schengen area. Davutoglu said the visa waiver should be granted despite little progress being made with Brussels on Ankara's EU membership aspirations. "It's unacceptable that certain Balkan countries that are in the initial stages of the membership process and have not begun negotiations have been given the Schengen privilege, while Turkey, considering the level that Turkish-EU relations have reached, has not," Davutoglu said at a news conference. "We will follow this closely from now on," he said, according to the state-run Anatolian news agency. Citizens of the 25 signatory countries to the Schengen Agreement are allowed to cross into other Schengen countries without a visa. The exceptions are Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania, Liechtenstein, Ireland and the UK, which have not - or only partly - implemented the agreement yet. Davutoglu had previously criticized the EU plans to lift visa restrictions for Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, while keeping them for Muslim majority Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania. "The way it's being done by the EU is giving the wrong signals," a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said. Predominantly Muslim Turkey, a country of 71 million, has hit several roadblocks in its EU accession bid. The EU has frozen several aspects of talks Ankara over its failure to open its port and airports with EU member Cyprus, with which Turkey has a strained history and continued military presence in the independent north of the divided island.
A group of 50 Serbian citizens, participants in a project dubbed "Europe for All", arrived in Rome a little after midnight. They are on their seven-day tour of EU capitals, accompanied by Deputy PM Božidar Đelić. After Brussels, where the guests from Serbia were welcomed by a number of EU officials, including Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, "the chosen group of holiday makers", as Tanjug news agency put it, will meet with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. The group set out on their journey as the EU lifted its visa requirements imposed on the Serbian citizens.
Rival Cypriot leaders are to meet on Monday to agree a series of dates for intensified talks in January as the United Nations raises hopes of a reunification deal in 2010. President Demetris Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat are seeking ways to step up the pace after 15 months of sluggish UN-brokered negotiations. In their last meeting of the year on Monday, the two leaders are expected to agree on how to intensify the process as the international community urges the momentum to be stepped up. UN envoy Alexander Downer is confident that the two leaders on the divided island can reach a deal next year and said the intensified period in January is key to reaching the end game. "I certainly think it can be done during the course of the next year," the Australian diplomat told reporters on Saturday. "We looked at 2010, all of us in the United Nations, as a year with a lot of challenges in a lot of parts of the world. But it's our view that Cyprus is one of the problems that can be solved in 2010." Slow-moving peace talks were launched amid much optimism in September 2008, but the two sides remain divided on the core issues of security and property rights. After nearly 60 meetings, the leaders have little tangible proof of any progress made so far but the January sessions are expected to change all that. Talat is also in a hurry to have the outline of a deal before April as he could lose out to hardliners during elections in the north that could derail the process altogether. And a UN-backed bicommunal survey released on Friday showed that a third of Turkish Cypriots (34 percent) preferred nothing to come out of the peace effort, while 69 percent of Greek Cypriots wanted the process to succeed. Cyprus has been split since Turkish troops seized and occupied its northern third in 1974.
Greek authorities say a major restoration program has been successfully completed on the 2,500-year-old monumental gateway of the Acropolis. The culture ministry says the 7-year project has lengthened the roof on the ancient marble building, known as the Propylaea. The ministry also said Monday 255 blocks of marble were taken down from the monument so experts could remove rusting metal clamps used by previous restorers, which had caused extensive cracking. The Propylaea is the only Acropolis monument to retain large sections of its ancient roofing. The hilltop temples are undergoing extensive restoration, expected to continue beyond 2020.
Russia's Foreign Ministry has condemned Georgia for its demolition of a WWII memorial in Georgia, in which two people died, calling it a provocation to the international community. An eight-year-old girl and her mother were killed during Saturday's demolition of the Glory Memorial in Kutaisi, when explosives used to topple the structure sent large chunks of concrete hurtling into a residential area. "A memorial to World War soldiers was barbarously demolished in Kutaisi. The Georgian authorities committed an act of public vandalism, humiliating the feelings of any civilized person," the Russian ministry said on its website. Georgian authorities say the memorial was removed to make way for a new parliamentary building. The ministry described the botched demolition as "yet another shameful act" on the part of Tbilisi. The statement accused the regime of President Mikhail Saakashvili of "manic ambitions to erase the historical memory of its own nation." The Georgian government has said that the relocation of the Georgian parliament from Tbilisi to Kutaisi will boost the development of western Georgia. However, the move has sparked protests among Kutaisi residents and the Georgian opposition. Sculptor Merab Berdzenishvili, the creator of the war memorial, said the demolition is an insult to the memory of thousands of Georgian soldiers who gave their lives in World War II, and opposition activists staged protests. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tbilisi had thrown down a challenge to the entire international community, defying the latest resolution by the UN General Assembly condemning the destruction of WWII memorials.
Before Archbishop Job rose to national prominence for hastening reform in the Orthodox Church in America, the mild-mannered Chicago native earned acclaim for the twinkle in his eye and an ability to engage and entertain youth. Fellow clergy and parishioners were astounded in 1996 when the Archbishop of Chicago and the Midwest accompanied a church youth group in Ohio on what was then the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster. That lighthearted act of courage illustrated how the soft-spoken bishop didn't balk when it came to serving the church. Born Richard John Osacky in 1946 to an Orthodox Christian mother and a Roman Catholic father, Archbishop Job grew up on the Southwest Side. Although baptized Catholic, he became enamored during childhood with Eastern Orthodoxy, which became separate from the Catholic Church in the 11th century. He often worshiped with his mother at Sts. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, located at the time on the South Side. His father disowned him when, after graduating from St. Rita Catholic High School in 1964, the young Osacky declared that he wanted to become an Orthodox priest. After completing studies at Northern Illinois University and St. Tikhon Orthodox Seminary in South Canaan, Pa., he was ordained in 1973. Decades later, he and his father reconciled. A celibate priest, Archbishop Job became a monk, which qualified him to become a bishop in the Orthodox tradition. He was elevated to Bishop of Hartford and the Diocese of New England in 1983. Ten years later, he was enthroned as bishop in Chicago. As the ruling hierarch of a diocese stretching from North Dakota to the western border of Pennsylvania, Archbishop Job oversaw tremendous growth with the development of a number of new mission parishes. Earlier this year, the newly elected Metropolitan Jonah commended Archbishop Job for steering the church in the right direction. Linda Keller, a parishioner at Christ the Savior Orthodox Church, the chapel adjacent to the archbishop's Chicago residence, recalled how Archbishop Job broke down on Easter while reading of Christ's suffering in the Gospels. "He wasn't just reading the book, he was living it," she said, adding that as a pastor he focused on the nourishment of each individual's soul. The archbishop planned to retire in the next year for "the salvation of his own soul." Archbishop Job, 63, a renowned iconographer, composer and hierarch of the Diocese of Chicago and the Midwest, died in Maumee, Ohio, on Friday. He was found behind the wheel of his car en route to Chicago where he had a doctor's appointment for a nagging cough and shortness of breath. Archbishop Job is survived by several cousins. A viewing will be held from 6 to 11 p.m. Monday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday at Holy Trinity Cathedral, 1121 N. Leavitt St. Funeral is at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the cathedral.