The head of the Eastern Orthodox Church said Christians are treated like second-class citizens in Turkey, the land where the equivalent of the Orthodox Church’s “Vatican” lies. His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians in the world, said in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview broadcast this week that Turkey’s leaders, including the prime minister, have been unresponsive to concrete concerns he raised about religious inequality in the country. Authorities have seized church properties, closed Orthodox churches, monasteries and schools, causing Orthodox leaders and parishioners to fear that the Turkish government wants to force the oldest church in the world out of the country. CBS correspondent Bob Simon noted that all that is left of the command center of Constantinople, now known as Istanbul and that once ruled the former Christian empire, is a complex of nine buildings “tightly squeezed” on less than an acre of land. “We are treated as citizens of second class,” lamented the patriarch, who noted that the Orthodox Church took root on the land long before the country of Turkey was established and became a nation where the population is 99 percent Muslim. “We don’t feel like we enjoy our full rights as Turkey citizens.” In particular, the patriarch cited the forced closure of the country’s only local Orthodox Patriarchal Seminary, called Halki, without proper reason. Since Turkey only allows Turkey-born citizens to become the patriarch, shutting down of the seminary essentially cuts off the ability of the Orthodox Church to produce future generations of leaders. “It is a pity. It is a shame and a crime to keep such a school closed and unused for no reason,” said the patriarch, who is an alumni of Halki. “This school prepared people who preach peace, who preach unity, who preach love. So not giving to the church the possibility to prepare these people (priests), we offend human dignity.” Bartholomew dismissed the idea of relocating the Ecumenical Patriarchate. He emphasized that the Orthodox Church was established in Constantinople and has continued to exist in the same location for centuries. “We love our country. We are born here,” said Bartholomew, explaining why the Church’s headquarters cannot be moved. “We want to die here. We feel that our mission is here, as it has been for 17 entire centuries.” He added in a sad tone of voice while looking at the ground, “I wonder why the authorities of our country do not respect this history.” In addition to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Turkey is home to some of the oldest Christian sites in the world, including the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia, built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 537 A.D., as well as many of the most famous monuments and churches in Christendom, including those of Cappadocia. The Patriarch, who was not hostile towards the Turkish government in the interview, concluded by saying, “We prefer to stay here, even crucified sometimes, because in the Gospel it is written that it is given to us not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for Christ." Noting that he has never believed that the Orthodox Church could eventually die out in Turkey, he said, “We believe in the resurrection. After the crucifixion the resurrection comes." There were nearly 2 million Orthodox Christians in what is now Turkey at the turn of the 19th century. In 1923, Turkey expelled 1.5 million Christians, and in 1955 about 150,000 Christians fled the country after violent anti-Christian violence. Today, there are only 4,000 Orthodox Christians left.
Turkey is looking to buttress its relations with the Arab world by launching an Arabic-language satellite station. The station will officially be launched by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, underlining what Ankara perceives as a strategic project in the region to improve relations with its neighbors. "Turkey is located in an Arab neighborhood in the Middle East," Ramazan Gozen, a professor of international relations at Cankaya University told The Media Line. "So through this channel Turkey wants a connection with the Arabic speaking people." The state-owned Turkish broadcasting authority, TRT, is slated to start broadcasting the channel at the beginning of 2010. Two Arab satellite giants, ArabSat and NileSat, have agreed to beam the channel internationally, specifically targeting Arab countries. In recent years, Turkey, a predominantly non-Arab country with only half a million Arab speakers, has played a pivotal part in regional developments. "Turkey's positioning in the American invasion of Iraq played a very important role," Gozen said, "because of its refusal to open its territories to American forces in the Iraqi war." "Also, in the Arab Israeli conflict, and especially in Israel's military operation in Gaza, Turkey [displayed] support for the Gaza people and played an important role with the negotiations with Hamas," he added. "In the last few months Turkey has had close relations with Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and even Egypt. These developments have created an image that Turkey is concerned about Middle Eastern politics and is trying to have friendly relations with regional countries." "Giving Turkish information from Turkish sources would be better, safer and more reliable," Gozen estimated.
Cypriot police say law enforcement authorities from the United States, Israel and Greece have offered to help solve the bizarre theft of former president Tassos Papadopoulos' corpse. Spokesman Michalis Katsounotos said the kind of help is still being determined, but that assistance is welcome. Authorities have already sought Interpol's help in the macabre case, which has shocked Cypriots and left police stumped over the thieves' motive. The former Greek Cypriot leader's body was dug up and stolen from a suburban Nicosia graveyard on Dec. 11 _ the eve of the first anniversary of his death. Katsounotos said Wednesday that British-supplied computer software is helping to analyze evidence. Papadopoulos was president from 2003 to 2008.
Serbia is in 18th place in Europe regarding the number of users of the popular social networking website Facebook. The research, conducted by Adritalk.com, found that the United Kingdom, Turkey and France have the greatest number of network users in Europe. With 1,423,680 Facebook users (out of some 114 million users in Europe), Serbia is placed ahead of other regional countries. Croatia, which has 940,740 members, took 22nd place; Bosnia and Herzegovina (566,060) is 26th, followed by Macedonia (491,580). Slovenia (462,240) is 29th. The number of users is rapidly rising in the Balkan region when compared to the August 2009 Adriatalk.com survey. At that time Serbia was at 1,041,840, Croatia - 750,000, BiH - 431,640, Slovenia - 367,760 and Macedonia - 349,760. The network was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, all of whom are Harvard University computer science students. Initially, the network was restricted to Harvard students but was soon expanded to include other colleges and finally to anyone interested. It is now considered the most visited social network, hosting more than 350 million active users worldwide, and whose domain is estimated to be worth 276,174,627 dollars. According to the Adriatalk.com survey, members are mostly young users - up to 35 years (88,237,340), while 25,967,640 of Facebook users cross the age limit. Men slightly outnumber women Facebook users at 57,759,640 to 56,445,340. Comparing the number of Facebook users to the overall number of Internet users in European countries, the network is most popular in Cyprus. Latvians and Estonians utilize Facebook the least.
Serbian Minister for Diaspora Srdjan Sreckovic stated that the constitution of the parliament of the diaspora and Serbs in the region is expected which will be the symbol of unity of the state and the Serbian citizens living abroad in spite of their national and religious affiliation. "The diaspora parliament will be another indicator of our determination to build the closest possible relations with diaspora and Serbs in the region," Sreckovic said in an interview for Tanjug, adding that it is important that the establishing of the institution is defined by law and that the future parliament will in no way include any kind of ideological commitment or specific political program. According to him, the 2009 goal of the Ministry for Diaspora was creation of institutionalized mechanisms for the implementation of the policy in relation to diaspora and the Serbs in the region. "The council for relations with the Serbs in the region should offer unambiguous support to our compatriots in reaching their international standards and guaranteed rights which refer to the political, cultural, economic and religious rights," Sreckovic said. He added that this is a way to encourage the development of good neighborly relations and regional cooperation, bearing in mind Serbia's strategic goal to become the economic and political leader in the West Balkans.
Greek President Karolos Papoulias said on Tuesday that he would not visit Macedonia until the name dispute between the two neighbors has been resolved. "I would like to visit the FYROM after the obstacle of the name issue has been removed," Papoulias said in a letter, in answer to his Macedonian counterpart Gjorge Ivanov's invitation. FYROM stands for the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, under which the small western Balkan country entered the United Nations in 1993 after declaring independence from former Yugoslavia. Greece has been opposed to its northern neighbor being called Macedonia, arguing that the name implies that the country has territorial demands over Greek northern province of the same name. "I must stress that the longer the search for a name solution lasts, the longer the FYROM's accession to the EU and NATO is hindered," says Papoulias in the letter. He said that he hopes to have the opportunity to visit his northern neighbor as soon as this difference in the name dispute between the two countries is in the past. Greece has vetoed Macedonia's NATO aspirations last year over the name dispute and the EU has postponed a decision on opening accession talks with Macedonia due to the dispute. The EU foreign ministers said in a meeting at the beginning of this month that the issue would not be discussed again until the Spanish EU presidency, which runs from January 1 to June 30, 2010.
A Russian Orthodox Church now under construction in Tambon Thepkrasattri is scheduled for completion by the end of next year. The groundbreaking religious ceremony at 4pm yesterday was performed by Archbishop Hilaion of Volokolamsk from Moscow and other clerics representing the Russian Orthodox Church in Thailand. The service was attended by Vice Governor Smith Palawatvichai and Rasada Mayor Surathin Lianudom. About 50 Russian tourists and expats also joined the ceremony. The 50-million-baht church will stand on two rai of rubber tree plantation land off Nanai Rd in Thepkrasattri Village 3, Thalang. It will be dedicated as the 'Holy Life-Giving Trinity on Phuket Island Church' after its completion. The church priest will be 31-year-old Thai National Danai Wanna of Prachinburi province, the first Thai ever to be ordained as a Russian Orthodox priest. His preparation included six years of seminary study in St Petersburg, he said. There are currently two Russian Orthodox churches in Thailand, one in Bangkok and the other in Chonburi. A fourth church is under construction in Ratchaburi.