ICC Note:
“The Turkish government is not opposed to opening of a seminary to raise Christian clerics provided it is subsumed under the authority of the Higher Education Board (YÖK),” PanArmenian.net reports.
2/27/2012 Turkey (PanArmenian.net) – The Turkish government is not opposed to opening of a seminary to raise Christian clerics provided it is subsumed under the authority of the Higher Education Board (YÖK), Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ said.
“The theology faculties in Turkey are opened as a part of the universities and operate according to the rules of YÖK,” Bozdağ told Anatolia news agency. “There are no laws in Turkey against opening a seminary to raise Christian clerics, the state will also support such a move.”
Turkey’s Greek Orthodox have long demanded the re-opening of Halki Seminary on Istanbul’s Heybeliada island. In a recent meeting with Parliament’s Constitutional Conciliation Commission, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew demanded a “constitutional guarantee for the domestic education of the clergy.”
The patriarchate seeks vocational school status for the seminary under the supervision of the Education Ministry.
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