Turkey Closes Greek Orthdox Seminary, Says They Won’t Open It Until There is a Mosque in Greece

Hurriyet Daily News
December 4, 2013

The Greek Orthodox Halki Seminary in Istanbul will not be re-opened until the Fethiye Mosque in Athens is opened for prayers, a senior figure of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has said.

“Do not have a doubt, Turkey has not taken a step to re-open Halki Seminary and it will not take a step until Greece, who did not hold up the promise it gave in Lausanne, opens Fethiye Mosque in Athens,” Metin Külünk, deputy chair of the party’s Foreign Affairs and Istanbul deputy, said Dec. 1 in Germany’s Witten, where he attended a meeting held by Western Thrace Turks Solidarity Association.

The Greek minority in Turkey has been expecting the re-opening of the Greek Orthodox School in Istanbul’s Heybeliada since it was closed in 1971 by Turkey.

Külünk accused Turkey’s western neighbor Greece of being “a church state,” and said Turkey is not expecting understanding and justice from Greece.

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