Turkish Court of Appeal released a verdict rejecting the ecumenical power of Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchy. The verdict which has been criticized by many people will be evaluated in this text.

First of all we have to remember the latest events which ended up with the verdict of the Court of Appeal.

Argument

The Holy Synod of the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, by using ecumenical power, decided to abolish the spiritual authority of Konstantin Kostoff who was the priest of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church of Saint Stephan in Fener -Istanbul. Even though Kostoff continued his service for a while after this decision, the synod of the Bulgarian Church terminated his contract.

A lawsuit was opened against the members of the Holy synod of the Fener Patriarchate The public Attorney accused the defendants of violating the liberty of faith of Kostoff by preventing him from the ritual service.

The Third Court of First Instance in Fatih acquitted the defendants. But Kostantin Kostoff appealed the verdict of the court. Then the lawsuit went to The Fourth Court Of Appeal. The court of appeal approved the verdict of dismissing defendants due to the fact that the termination of the priest's contract was done by the real administration of the Bulgarian Church which has the authority.

But in the explanation part of the legal ground of the verdict , the Fourth Court of Appeal stated that Fener Patriarchate has no legal power on the Bulgarian Church and qualified the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate as "a church of minority subject to the Turkish juridical system" The court also refused its ecumenical power by saying that it is a special status which gives the privilege to the Patriarchate on contrary to the equality principle of the Turkish constitution . The verdict also states that the "claiming ecumenical power" has no legal ground.

Is the verdict right ?

1. Normally, it can be said that the explanation of the legal ground of the verdict is adequate to the Turkish legal system. The system has been rejecting the ecumenical power of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and the Court of Appeal made its decisions accordingly.

But let's remember another verdict of the court of appeal.

The Court of First Instance in Edirne decided that " The Jewish community is well known in Turkey and it has been represented by the office of Turkish Chief Rabbi. All the Jewish communities are subject to the Turkish Chief Rabbi." And it's decision ratified by the Court of Appeal on 21.06.1999 numbered 99/6508E-6647K.

It one verdict, the court of appeal accepts the Chief Rabbi's authority on the Jewish community, however in another case the same court rejects the authority of the Patriarch on the Greek Orthodox community.

2. The Vatican can appoint or unseat a catholic priest to any catholic church in Turkey as the Vatican is the recognized state and the priests are its emissaries.

3. Directorate of the Religious Affairs (DRA) appoints or unseats the Imam for Moslems. DRA has a lot of authority on the Moslem population. With a budget much larger then many ministries, the DRA uses revenue of taxes to accommodate the Moslem people's religious demands. In its establishment manifest The Democratic Peace Movement Party asked the power of DRA to be handed over to the communities.

The Chief Public Attorney of Court of Appeal sued them in the Constitutional Court demanding the closure of the party (1997) . The Constitutional Court rejected his demand 6 to 5 vote margin. Alewis always demand that the DRA is only for the Sunni sect of Islam.

Ecumenical power

According to the Christian faith , the Greek Patriarchate of Fener is one of the fifteen autocephalous eastern orthodox churches. It's headed by the ecumenical Patriarch who has the status of "first among equals" ( Primus inter pares) It has its roots in the preaching of the Apostle Andrew in 38 AD. The Patriarchate consist of six archdioceses, eight churches, and 18 metropolises.

The Patriarch runs the system with Holy Synod which consists of 12 metropolitans. These metropolitans are the symbolic representatives of the churches. They are historical representatives not the actual ones. For example one of them is the Kallinikos of Lystra, In Lystra there is no Christian today. The Patriarchate has the ecumenical power over millions of souls from North America to Korea.

No one in Turkey can argue the spiritual power of the Patriarch. In fact, as a Moslem it is none of our business.

But the spiritual power requires some administrative power which creates the bottom line of the problem. According to our legal system the Patriarch can not appoint or unseat the priest in the orthodox community of Turkish citizens. With this system it is hard to talk about the Patriarchate's power over the people of foreign countries, whether they recognize him or not.

According to the Turkish System, The Patriarch is just the head of an association who reports directly to the Head Official of the District of Eyub. (Eyüp Kaymakami)

Other problems

There are some other problems of the non-Muslim minorities in Turkey. For example they have community foundations. There are some regulations about how to run the religious communities. For example the statute of the Greek Patriarchate dated 1862, The statute of Chief Rabbi dated 1865.. They are partly valid even today.

There are problems of confiscation of cemeteries, confiscation of the properties of Christian Community Foundations.

Funny Example

According to the Turkish legal system, any donation should be accepted by the people who are there to receive it. If a Christian Turkish citizen donated his house in the name of Jesus Christ, normally this property should belong to the church. But since Jesus Christ can not accept it, the name in the title- deed is left empty . So it is very easy to confiscate it.

Reasons for this Situation.

There are four basic reasons for that complexity :

1. The fear of Moslem foundations. (If you give some privilege to the Christian foundations or institutions such as Patriarchate how would you stop Moslem religious groups from having the same privilege ) This is for example the main reason for not opening the Heybeli Clergy School.

2. The fear of foreign intervention . (The Turks suffered a lot for that in the history)

3. The foreign intrigues. For example the antagonism between the Vatican and the Fener Patriarchate , or the open clash between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Fener Patriarchate of the Greek-Orthodox churches ) (Even in the catholic church there is antagonism between Greeks and Russians. The Greek Catholic Church broke away from Russian Orthodoxy 400 years ago) The Orthodox Church feels increasingly threatened by the aggressive proselytizing undertaken by the Vatican .

The Patriarch told a news agency: "We still believe that the ecclesiastical principle on relations between the churches as between sisters, established by the Second Vatican council, should be followed. However, of late this principle has not been functioning, and we have received an impression that the Roman Catholic Church has given it up. The Vatican has forgotten the agreement that when creating its new structures on the canonic territory of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church should notify heads of the Russian Church."

4. The fear of losing the single law system. This may lead to the fall of the secular regime.

International Regulations:

We don't need to talk about the regulations or criteria of the European Union, but in The Lausanne Treaty article 39 states that: " Non Muslim Turkish subjects are entitled to the same rights of Muslim citizens." It's time for them to realize this.

Last word

The system must be re-evaluated and drawn again. Some fears could be eradicated and some of the reasons may continue.

If there is anything for sure, this system can not live forever.