“I personally would like to see the Halki School of Theology open both from the point of view that it will reflect the democratic background that Turkey has, and from the point of view of our position regarding the exercise of secularism”
The possibility of reopening the historic Theological School of Halki is open leaves Ankara through the Turkish Minister of Education Yusuf Tekin.
As reported by SKAI’s correspondent in Istanbul, Manolis Kostidis, speaking to the Turkish television station NTV, Tekin was clearly in favor of reopening the School, declaring that there is no constitutional obstacle, and that essentially the matter is exclusively in his hands Tayyip Erdogan.
The statements of the Turkish Minister of Education come a few hours after the front page of KARAR newspaper, and of his visit the previous week to the School.
In the publication of KARAR, among other things, it is noted: “On May 13, the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who met with President Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, also had the School of Theology on his agenda. It is reported that Mitsotakis asked Erdoğan to take measures for the re-opening of the Theological School.
“I personally would like to see the Halki School of Theology open both from the point of view that it will reflect the democratic background that Turkey has, and from the point of view of our position regarding the exercise of secularism” he said characteristically.
“First of all, let’s say the following, that there are two dimensions of the event. One of them concerns the political dimension, which dimension was determined jointly by Mr. President and the Minister of the ministry that manages our foreign policy. The decisions that will be made in this part of the foreign policy will be the decisions that they will make and we will implement them.”
“Now we are talking about an institution that trained priests for the minorities of certain religions living in the Ottoman geography after 1844. Undoubtedly, the issue has different political dimensions in the Christian world, especially after the Perestroika process, Gladnost! There is an operating procedure in Turkey, we have before us article 40 of Lausanne and according to our Constitution, international conventions are above legal regulations”.
“When we look at all this, there is a decision made by the constitutional court after the March 12 coup. And in the decision of the Constitutional Court, there is no text directly related to the closure of the Theological School of Halki, there are only some interpretations that refer to Institutions of Higher Education that existed at that time, therefore that part was closed based on an interpretation, or based on the political situation of the time” explained the Minister of Education.
“We, by order of the President, went to analyze what can be done on a legal basis, and we had a very productive meeting with the authorities there.
At the moment, anyway, there is an open lyceum, i.e. a secondary education institution, legally operating there. There are no students, yet it is open. As we said, we are doing our work on its ability to function as a School, but ultimately the decision will be made by those who manage our foreign policy and Mr. President. We have determined the steps to be taken depending on the decision to be made there. Now we will act according to the decision that will be made” noted Yusuf Tekin.
Source: Skai
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