The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle (AEP), have noted with concern the September 5, 2026 article published by the Turkish nationalist newspaper Aydınlık, which attacks His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and the long-overdue reopening of the Halki Theological Seminary. We set the record straight.
On the Darülaceze Chapel
The occasion for this latest attack was the inauguration of a small Orthodox chapel — the Chapel of the Holy Archangels — at Istanbul’s historic Darülaceze charitable foundation, founded in 1895 under Sultan Abdul Hamid II expressly to serve people of all faiths. Darülaceze’s complex has long included places of worship for multiple religious communities, among them a mosque, a church, and a synagogue. That a chapel bearing the name of the Ecumenical Patriarchate stands among them reflects this foundation’s own century-old, non-discriminatory mission — not a political provocation, as Aydınlık suggests. The title “Ecumenical Patriarchate” is not a modern invention or a foreign import; it is a designation recognized for well over a millennium, referring to the historic, universal pastoral role of the Patriarchate of Constantinople within Orthodox Christianity.
On the Baseless “Espionage” Allegations
Aydınlık goes further, reviving unsubstantiated claims that the Patriarchate’s ecumenical character was manufactured with American backing after 1948, alleging cooperation with the CIA, and casting the Patriarchate as a geopolitical actor working against the Russian Orthodox Church. These are conspiratorial claims, unsupported by any evidence, that the newspaper itself does not substantiate. They belong to a familiar pattern in segments of the Turkish nationalist press: recasting the ordinary religious life of a centuries-old Christian institution as foreign intrigue. We reject these allegations as what they are — an attempt to delegitimize a religious minority through insinuation rather than fact.
On Halki
Aydınlık also links this controversy to the Halki Theological Seminary, implying that its long-sought reopening is itself evidence of a geopolitical plot rather than what it plainly is: the correction of a decades-old injustice. Halki has been closed since 1971, denying the Ecumenical Patriarchate the ability to educate its own clergy on Turkish soil. Its reopening has been called for consistently by religious leaders, human rights organizations, and multiple U.S. administrations — not as an act of foreign interference, but as a basic matter of religious freedom recognized under Turkey’s own international commitments.
Our Position
The Archons will continue to stand with His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Mother Church in the face of these renewed attacks. We call on Turkish authorities to reaffirm publicly their commitment to protecting the religious freedoms of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Turkey’s Christian minority, and to proceed without further delay on the reopening of the Halki Theological Seminary. We further call on responsible voices in the Turkish press and public life to reject rhetoric that portrays an ancient religious institution — and the charitable, ecumenical gestures of goodwill it makes — as a threat.
The Ecumenical Patriarchate has endured for centuries. It will not be diminished by conspiracy and innuendo.
Dr. Anthony J. Limberakis
The Archon Grand Aktouarios
National Commander
