Turkey plans to allow the reopening, after more than 50 years, of a historic Greek Orthodox religious seminary in a move partly designed to please US President Donald Trump, a report said Thursday.
Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said the plan for the Halki Theological School, situated on an island off Istanbul, would see students being admitted through Turkey’s national placement system and the Education Ministry supervising curricula.
The report said the move is timed ahead of Trump’s expected visit to Ankara for a NATO summit next month.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, discussed the potential reopening of the seminary during a meeting in Ankara Tuesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Bartholomew and Erdogan’s talks were held in “a cordial atmosphere,” a statement from the Ecumenical Patriarchate said.
