The inability to train new clergy

Despite repeated assurances of Turkish authorities that the reopening of the Halki Theological School, the operation of which they suspended in 1971, in violation of the provisions of the Lausanne Treaty on the self-government of minority institutions, is imminent, there has been no substantial development to date. Its reopening is a fundamental request of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in order for it to be able to train new clergy and to ensure its historical continuity. Instead of complying with the obligations they have undertaken towards the non-Muslim citizens of Türkiye by allowing the reopening of the Theological School, they plan to set up an Islamic education complex in Halki.