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Autocephalous Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate

Werldwayd/Articles-Test2 Language Turkish Headquarters Istanbul Territory Turkey Possessions n/a Founder Papa Eftim I Independence 1924 Recognition Unrecognized by other orthodox churches Official website n/a

The Autocephalous Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate (Turkish: Bağımsız Türk Ortodoks Patrikhanesi), also referred to as the Turkish Orthodox Church ([Türk Ortodoks Kilisesi] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)), is an unrecognised Orthodox Christian denomination, with strong influences from Turkish nationalist ideology.

General Congregation of the Anatolian Turkish Orthodox

Main article: General Congregation of the Anatolian Turkish Orthodox

The start of the Patriarchate can be traced to the Greco-Turkish War. In 1922 a pro-Turkish Orthodox group, the General Congregation of the Anatolian Turkish Orthodox was set up with the support from the Orthodox Bishop of Havza, as well as a number of other congregations representing a genuine movement among those among the Turkish speaking, Orthodox Christian Karamanlides population of Anatolia who wished to remain both Orthodox and Turkish. There were calls to establish a new Patriarchate with Turkish as the language of worship.

Foundation

On 15 September 1922 the Autocephalous Orthodox Patriarchate of Anatolia was founded in Kayseri by Pavlos Karahisarithis a supporter of the General Congregation of the Anatolian Turkish Orthodox. He was supported by 72 other Orthodox clerics.

In 1923 supporters of Karahisarithis, with his later assent, assaulted the Patriarch. In 1924 there was another occupation by Karahisarithis' supporters although this time they were evicted by the Turkish police.

The patriarchate was moved from Kayseri to Istanbul in 1924.

In 1924, Karahisarithis started to conduct the liturgy in Turkish, and quickly won support from the new Turkish Republic formed after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. He claimed that the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was ethnically-centered and favored the Greek population. Being excommunicated for claiming to be a bishop while still having a wife (married bishops are not allowed in Orthodoxy) Karahisarithis, who later changed his name into Zeki Erenerol, called a Turkish ecclesial congress, which elected him Patriarch in 1924.

Karahisarithis and his family members were exempted from the population exchange as per a decision of the Turkish government, although there was not the exemption for either Karahisarithis' followers or the wider Karamanlides communities of Turkish speaking Christian that was hoped for. Most of the Turkish speaking Orthodox population remained affiliated with the Greek Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Support for ultra nationalism

Alpaslan Turkes, who would later lead the Grey Wolves and was involved in the post 1960 coup government took an interest in the Patriarchate, although this was stymied when he fell out of favour with the government and was exiled.

Karahisarithis' son, Selçuk Erenerol, who took the title Papa Eftim III, renounced office protest over growing links between the Turkish state and the Greek Patriarch of Istanbul and Turkish attempts to join the EU.

In 2008, Sevgi Erenerol, who is the daughter of Papa Eftim III and the sister of the current primate Papa Eftim IV, and who is also the spokeswoman for the Patriarchate, was arrested for alleged links with a Turkish nationalist underground organisation named Ergenekon. It was also alleged that the Patriarchate served as headquarters for the organisation. Sevgi Erenerol is known for her nationalist activities. During the time of Alparslan Türkeş, she ran as a parliamentary candidate for the MHP, the political arm of the Grey Wolves .

References

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http://www.myetymology.com/encyclopedia/Turkish_Orthodox_church.html

Turkish Orthodox Church ( Türk Ortodoks Turkish Kilisesi in ) or Orthodox Patriarcado Turkish Autocéfalo ( Bağımsız Türk Ortodoks Patrikhanesi ) is one noncanonical orthodox church, recognized solely by the Turkish state. The head of the church is Patriarch and resides in Istambul .

After its foundation, in 1922, the Patriarch took the title from Pope ( Dribble in Turk), adopting calendar and the orthodox rite but using like liturgical language the Turk. From its beginnings, and throughout all the Century XX, this church maintained a constant confrontation with Ecumenical Patriarcado of Constantinople, due to political questions and not for religious reasons.

At the beginning of 21st century, already in frank decay, the Turkish Orthodox Church stopped offering religious services, because it counted neither on priests nor on feligreses.

History

Origins and foundation

The denominated Turkish orthodox church was created by the priest the Pablos Efthimios Karahisarides in 1922 and supported from its beginnings by the government of Ankara, that finished leaving victorious independence war against Greece .

Efthimios had been born in 1884, was member of the turcoparlante Greek community ( Karamanlı ) of Capadocia and was consecrated orthodox priest in 1915 . Karamanlis was old inhabitants of Anatolia, cristianizados in orthodox Rite, who spoke a Turkish dialect but using for their writing Greek characters.

During the war of independence ( 1919 - 1922 ) Efthimios it fought, along with other clergymen, of the side of the nationalistic Turks training a denominated detachment “ General Congregation of Orthodox Turks Anatolios ” ( Umum Anadolu Türk Ortodokslari Cemaatleri ).

For reasons that are not clear, Efthimios showed an early hostility towards the Greek orthodox church in spite of belonging to her. In 1921 it affirmed: That same year, diplomat Swedish Gustaf Wallenberg wrote up report in that he picked up the content of a telegram dated in March and sent by “the clergy and the congregation of Kayseri ”, who explained that “with the establishment of independent Turkish patriarcado, as we wished, we see the form to end facing the future the atrocious calumnies against our patriotism that the European policy and of the Ecumenical Patriarcado has tried to propagate”. the same document inquired that, at the beginning of April, Great National Assembly - legislative organ of the nationalistic government headed by Mustafa Kemal - “named a committee to work in proposals that regulate estatus legal of the planned Turkish Orthodox Church”.

A year later, 21 of September of 1922, and with the war already decided in favor of the troops of Mustafa Kemal, took place a council in the city of Kayseri (old Cesarean ) in which 72 monks headed by Efthimios founded Independent Patriarcado Turkish Orthodox ( Müstakil Türk Ortodoks Patrikhanesi ), trying in this way to represent orthodox 400 thousands karamanlis which they inhabited in Capadocia . The new community even got to publish the newspaper “ the Voice of the Orthodoxy in Anatolia ” ( Anadolu' gives to Ortodoksluk Sadasi ), of which 16 numbers between July of 1922 and February of 1923 were only published. This situation moved during a time to Ecumenical Patriarcado to consider the possibility of creating an independent ecclesiastical province in which the liturgical language was the Turk.

In January of 1923, and counting on the support of the government of Ankara, the Pablos Efthimios Karahisarides anointed like Patriarch adopting the name of Pope Eftim I ( Eftim Dribble ), although the married priests - as it were its case could not carry out positions superiors in the orthodox churches. Later also by Turkish root would change its christian name adopting the one of Zeki Erenerol.

Beginning of the Republic

Treated about Lausanne ( 24 of July of 1923 ) sanctioned the disappearance of Ottoman Empire and the birth of modern Republic of Turkey . But also established the call Agreement of Interchange of Population between both contenders by who the majority of the Greek population of Turkey would be deportee to Greece, putting aim thus to almost three thousand years of presence of Greek in the Eastern coasts of Aegean and meridionals of the Black Sea, whereas an important part of the Turkish population of western Thrace would undergo identical luck doing the inverse way.

Although at first the new church lodged the hope to secure an exemption to the Treaty for karamanlis, whereas turcoparlantes, the criterion of interchangeability adopted by the authorities was Religion (Christian or Muslim) and not it Language ( Turkish or Greek ), which stripped to Efthimios of feligreses potentials. On the contrary, the own Mustafa Kemal exonerated to the dissident priest and its family to have to as much leave Turkey on the basis of “served by Eftim Pope to this country as to all the army”, in spite of which three of their four brothers preferred to march to Greece.

They left Turkey around 1.6 million inhabitants of Anatolia of orthodox religion. As well, about 400 thousand inhabitants of the European Greece of Muslim religion were expelled from their homes. Thanks to article 2 of the Subcommission of Interchange (of 30 of January of 1923 ) they were excluded the orthodox populations from Istambul (125 thousand people) and from the islands of Gökçeada ( Imbros ) and Bozcaada ( Tenedos ), as well as the Muslims established in western Thrace (110 thousands).

By such reason, and thanks to a governmental authorization, Eftim Pope decided to move from Capadocia to Istambul where he had some followers in the district of Gálata . The Turkish government that way wanted to have an alternative interlocutor to Ecumenical Patriarch, and according to he assured the son Eftim, Selçuk Erenerol, the own Mustafa Kemal asked its father who took possession from the Patriarcado of Fener with the purpose of to debilitate and to assimilate the denominated Greek community.

In fact, during the negotiation of Lausanne, the Turkish delegation presented/displayed before the Subcommission of Interchange of Populations a formal request so that the Ecumenical Patriarcado was transferred outside the borders of Turkey by the hostility indicated during the war. The request unanimously was rejected, although the formula of commitment propose by the French delegation took shelter to maintain the institution in Istambul but depriving it of the political and administrative power that had enjoyed during the extinct Ottoman Empire.

While these conversations took place, the government continued with his plan of harassment leaning for it in just founded Turkish Orthodox Church. From its arrival to Istambul, Efthimios implied in that project carrying out a systematic campaign and does violence to against the Ecumenical Patriarcado. 1 of June of 1923 the followers of the new church struck and tried to kidnap to the Patriarch Melecio IV Metaxakis, that left the country a month later. Taking advantage of the emptiness being able, 2 of October, Efthimios surrounded and occupied soothes ecumenical in the district of Fener naming its own synod and proclaiming Representing General of all the Orthodox Communities ( Bütün Ortodoks Ceemaatleri Vekil Umumisi ).

Although these actions caused great indignation in Greece and the orthodox world, the government of Athens ( 12 of October ) showed the press his desire to establish friendly relations with Turkey and to recognize a new ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople on condition that its election was realized strictly in agreement with the rules and ecclesiastical norms. That same day the Greek church began the managements to secure the abdication of Melecio IV, that was in Tesalónica .

6 of December of 1923, ecumenical Synod chose to Metropolitan of Kadıköy ( Chalcedon ), Gregorio, like new Patriarch by ten votes to one, and after a vehement opposition of Eftim Pope to which it had been allowed to participate him. One week later, during the ceremony of coronation, Efthimios next to several of its followers and occupied for the second time soothes pontifical, assuming its control until a new election took place that, in their opinion, designated a legitimate patriarch. In the letter sent to Gregorio, it said to him: Nevertheless, two days later, the police following orders of Ankara evacuated to Eftim and its followers recovering the legal renters. The Minister of Justice explained before the Parliament that the Patriarcado was only a religious institution and that the election of Gregorio VII counted on the approval of the government. “The Patriarch - the minister affirmed is the head of the priests and the government must right to supervise that in their election the candidate and the voters are Turkish. The government does not know any interference foreign creates nor it possible, if such intervention were shortage the election would have been annulled”. To the few days of his appointment, Gregorio VII communicated to the authorities his disposition and dedication towards the Turkish state, and 25 of December Mustafa Kemal thanked for it by means of a telegram.

Before that situation, and with the purpose of to have a cult place from where continuing with his activity, Eftim Pope seized of the greco-orthodox church of Santa Maria de Kaffa ( Panagia Kaphatiani ) in Galata, which was worth his to him Excommunication dictated by the ecumenical Patriarch of 19 February of 1924 . 6 of June of the same year, carried out in that place the second council of the Turkish Orthodox Church, and during the same Efthimios it declared his intention to transfer the headquarters from his Patriarcado de Kayseri to Istambul and to establish it in the confiscated church.

As of that moment, the Turkish government stopped supporting open to Eftim Pope because he was made evident more and more that the attempts to divide to the greco-orthodox community were not any successful. One of its followers affirmed in February of 1926 that the Turkish government did not become illusions on the Turkish Orthodox Patriarcado then did not exist such religious congregation. And the same Mustafa Kemal got to describe to Eftim Pope like “a general without soldiers”.

Still more being few, 31 of March of 1926, seized of one second church, the one of Rescuing Christ ( Sotiros Christos ) in the mentioned district of Gálata, that later the Turkish government restituted to the ecumenical Patriarcado in 1948 . Between the years 1926 and 1932, the Turkish Orthodox Church published a newspaper ( Metarithmisis ) written in Turk but with Greek characters to defend its cause and to encourage to the greco-orthodox ones of Istambul (100 thousand people in 1927 ) to that they left its Pontiff and they were united to the new church, although with very little success.

The signing of the treaty of friendship greco-Turk

treated about friendship signed in June and October of 1930 between Greece and Turkey abrieron a new stage in the bilateral relations favoring the reconciliation of both countries, the stability of the Patriarcado de Constantinople and, therefore, the weakening of the positions of Eftim Pope. In May of 1931, Mustafa Kemal tranquilized to Greek prime minister Eleutherios Venizelos assuring that it would be in charge to maintain to Eftim Pope outside the subjects of the Ecumenical Patriarcado.

And still in 1936, one of the main personages of this movement and collaborating Straits of Eftim Patriarch, Istamat Zihni Özdamar, was named deputy for the Turkish Parliament in representation of the orthodox Christian minority.

Although there is no doubt between the bonds of the government of Turkey with the dissident patriarch, it also seems clear that after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, and as soon as the differences with Greece were solved, the project of a Turkish orthodox church fell in the forgetfulness on the part of the Turkish authorities.

Therefore as of that moment, and more after the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1938, the Turkish Orthodox Church lost its prestige before the authorities and also any hope to reunite to a community of faithfuls. Devoid of monks in its congregation, Eftim I ordered like priests its nephews Ermis and Doran, in 1937, and later to its older son Turgut, all of them without no ecclesiastical preparation.

The decay begins

Eftim Pope never hid its bonds with the nationalistic movement, getting to send a congratulation telegram to Mussolini to show its friendship towards Turkey, but it did not prevent him to ask for to Ankara the exemption of its son for the military service in 1946 .

In spite of its difficulties, Eftim I continued offering its services to the Turkish state, and thus in 1953 organized a manifestation against the ecumenical Patriarch Atenágoras I, multiplying declarations in his against.

Without more support than the relative, in 1956 appointed priest to its smaller son Selçuk and 15 of October of 1961 Turgut Erenerol reached the degree of bishop like previous step to a possible designation like successor. That way, when by reasons for health Eftim I one retired of the Turgut position was appointed second patriarch of the Turkish Orthodox Church, 28 of February of 1964, under the name of Eftim II .

After coup d'etat of 1960 one of its impellers, the extreme right-wing colonel and later leader of the paramilitary organization “ Gray Wolves ” ( Bozkurtlar ) Alparslan Türkeş, showed a new interest by the Turkish patriarcado one. But its later expulsion of the Military junta prevented that Eftim I received the engaged aid.

Nevertheless, they continued being tolerated many of its activities and that way they took advantage of the tensions brought about by the crisis Cyprus for, in August of 1965, to appropriate with the governmental assent the churches San Nicholas ( Aghios Nicolaos ) and San Juan Baptist ( Aghios Ioannis Prodromos ), property of the greco-orthodox community of origin jonio been becoming in the estambulí district of Galata. In those years the Turkish Orthodox Church already lacked completely feligreses.

After the death of Eftim I, 14 of March of 1968, and before the refusal of the Ecumenical Patriarcado to allow to its burial in the greco-orthodox cemetery of Şişli when excomulgado being, the ceremony could be carried out only after the intervention of the government, and the same they solely attended senators, deputies and other dignitaries.

During the following years, the Turkish church simultaneously continued its confrontations against the Patriarcado de Fener trying to create an unfavorable climate against this one and to please to the authorities. In 1972, Eftim II indicated that “the Patriarcado de Fener would have as soon as possible to be retired of Turkey. In Turkey there is a community of orthodox Turkish citizens”. Persecuting in this way the intentions of its predecessor and to secure a community of faithfuls who justified their existence.

In 1966, was created Turkish Orthodox Church in America by the archbishop Civet Kristof (Christopher M. Cragg), who did not want to depend on Greek Archbishopric of the United States, and therefore of the Ecumenical Patriarcado of Constantinople. Three years later, this community assured to count on 14 churches, 6 parishes and near 15 thousand feligreses. But at the beginning of the 80 years Kristof moved to Chicago and red-baptize its congregation like American Orthodox Church, Diocese of Chicago and North America . By then no longer it maintained no relation with the Turkish Orthodox Church, and in 1991 stopped taking cult places.

Eftim II passed away 9 of May of 1991 and, to be able to be buried in the same cemetery that his father, had again to be required the intervention of the authorities. But in that occasion there was no priest to lead the funeral.

Situation at the beginning of the 21st century

29 of September 1997, Eftim III forestalled critic sent by the Ecumenical Patriarcado assuring that he “did not have anything to do in policy”. In spite of to have recognized personally its bonds with National Organization of Intelligence (MIT), the secret services of the Turkish army.

In August of 2000, Eftim III ordered like deacons to its son Paşa Ümit Erenerol and to his nephew Erkin Kontoğlu . Weeks before its death, happened 20 of December of 2002, Eftim III resigned from its position as protest form before the approach that was taking place between the Turkish government and the ecumenical Patriarcado and the preparations for the entrance of Turkey in European Union, something to which it was against abiertamente.

In its text of resignation directed to the government it assured that:

Its burial was celebrated by the orthodox priest Bulgarian Konstantin Kostof, and celebrated in the greco-orthodox cemetery of Şişli where were the previous patriarchs.

Paşa Ümit Erenerol happened to him in the position to the name of Eftim IV . Her sister, Sevgi Erenerol, one are conoticed ultranationalist one that Hrant Dink participated in the judgment against the Turkish journalist of Armenian origin (assassinated in January of 2007 ), also denounced to the foreign evangelical missionaries in Turkey and she is against to the process of integration of Turkey in the European Union. Also " has criticized the pamphlet; Tourism of faith and cultura", published by the Ministry of Culture, to talk about to Anatolia like Christian mother country, affirming that " Anatolia does not belong to the Christians but to musulmanes".

Within the framework of the police operation carried out against the terrorist network “ Ergenekon ”, Sevgi Erenerol was stopped in January of 2008 like member of the same. A month later was stopped by the same reason Patriarch Eftim IV. The ultranationalist organization would have glided and carried out attempted with the purpose of to create favorable conditions for an intervention of the Turkish army directed against the government of Prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan . Justice thinks that in it soothes of the Patriarcado were realized the meetings and the criminal acts of Ergenekon were organized .

The Turkish Orthodox Church does not seem to have more faithfuls than the members of the Erenerol family. He does not have liturgical activity nor priests and the patriarchs did not receive any theological formation. Pope Eftim I had basic knowledge and no own religious book except for the texts in which it translated the orthodox liturgy to the Turk, Eftim II was doctor and Eftim III was dedicated to the commerce. No was chosen in Santo Sínodo, and its decision to marry went supported by the Turkish government against the objections done from the Ecumenical Patriarcado.

Selçuk Erenerol happened to its brother in the patriarchal throne to the name of Eftim III . And it continued the familiar tradition of his hatred towards the Greek, attacking Bartholomew I, refusing to that whatever were compensated lost their possessions to the being expelled from Turkey in the past and continuing the pressure on the meager greco-orthodox community of Istambul.

Following the same line, her daughter Sevgi Erenerol proclaimed Spokesman of press and Public Relations of the Independent Patriarcado in 1991 .