Moderated by Archon Nick Larigakis
With the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, the Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle, Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the American Hellenic Institute will present a webinar on the legal status of the Ecumenical Patriarchate under the Treaty of Lausanne, to which the government of Turkey today is still obligated to adhere. This informative and important webinar will be held on Friday, June 9 at 1pm ET.
Panelists will include four leading scholars of these issues: Dr. Alexander Kitroeff of Haverford College; Dr. Alexandros Kyrou of Salem State University; Dr. Andrew Novo of National Defense University; and Dr. Elizabeth Prodromou of Boston College.
The Treaty of Lausanne, signed on July 24, 1923 by the governments of Greece, Turkey, and the Entente Powers (the UK, France, the US, Italy, Russia and Japan) from World War I, established the borders of modern Turkey and specified protections for the ethno-religious minority populations in Greece and Turkey.
The Turkish state, however, has consistently violated the rights protections established by the Lausanne treaty, and has particularly targeted the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox community in violent and nonviolent rights violations. These also contravene Turkey’s international treaty obligations to protect universal human rights, including the freedom of conscience, belief, and religion. Each country agreed to provide, among other protections, the following:
- Protection of life and liberty without regard to place of birth, nationality, language, race, or religion;
- Free exercise of religion;
- The right to establish and control charitable, religious, and social institutions and schools;
- Full protection for religious establishments and charitable institutions
This panel will explore the Lausanne framework and principles, and will assess the behaviors of successive Turkish governments, both self-styled secularist and Islamist, as they have affected the sustainability of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Greek Orthodox Christians in Turkey.
