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  • ANKARA: Plotters Planned To Overthrow Government By Using Us, Says B

    PLOTTERS PLANNED TO OVERTHROW GOVERNMENT BY USING US, SAYS BARTHOLOMEW

    Today's Zaman
    Nov 26 2009
    Turkey

    Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew has said dark forces planned
    to use minorities to overthrow the government as revealed in the
    investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine organization accused of
    attempting to create chaos and undermine the stability of the country
    in order to trigger a coup d'état.

    Based in Ä°stanbul, the spiritual leader of the world's approximately
    300 million Orthodox Christians, Bartholomew was referring to the
    latest revelations of a devious plan, called the Cage Operation
    Action Plan, by a group of members of the Naval Forces Command aimed
    at intimidating the country's non-Muslim population by assassinating
    some of their prominent figures and in this way undermine the power
    of the ruling party. Recent incidents in Ä°stanbul's KurtuluÅ~_
    neighborhood and Adalar district suggest that the alleged plan had
    already been put into operation. Speaking on Tuesday, the Orthodox
    religious leader recalled that a meeting of the Association of the
    Zografyon High School Alumni was raided about four years ago.

    Patriarch Bartholomew is hopeful that the revelations related to the
    'Cage Operation Action Plan' aimed at pitting the country's non-Muslim
    population against nationalist forces will lead to solving more
    problems in the country

    "When the Cage Plan was revealed, we thought that the raid could be
    part of that plan," he said. "At the time we thought that they were
    just trying to scare us." The patriarch said nobody was detained
    in relation to that incident. Patriarch Bartholomew is grateful to
    the security forces which uncovered the "dark plans." "It is a very
    satisfactory development that the Turkish police and the prosecutors
    have been revealing those dark plans so the responsible people are
    captured and tried."

    The patriarch is hopeful that the troubles of the Greek minority and
    other minorities in Turkey will soon be resolved. And for that he
    trusts the government's democratic initiative, which aims to grant
    more rights to citizens, even though it was mostly associated with the
    Kurdish initiative since it was one of the first steps. "We are very
    positive about the initiatives of our government. It is imperative
    all over the world that minorities should be treated with goodwill."

    In addition, the patriarch said all the initiatives involving Kurdish
    and Alevi citizens and efforts to establish diplomatic relations
    with Armenia will help Turkey's European Union accession process. "It
    gives us a lot of hope that Turkey is moving toward the West and the
    European Union with the initiatives. Those moves make us fell better
    while we are living in Turkey. God willing, the rest of our problems
    will be solved and we will be treated as equal citizens."

    Bartholomew hopes that the main school of theology of the Eastern
    Orthodox Church, the Halkı seminary, closed in 1971, will be reopened.

    The seminary was closed under a law that put religious training under
    state control. EU officials and the United States have repeatedly
    called on Turkey to open the seminary, which has trained generations
    of Orthodox leaders, including Bartholomew.After its closure, the
    patriarchate tried to train future leaders of the church by sending
    them to schools of theology abroad.

    'Sevgi Erenerol injured us a lot' Patriarch Bartholomew said they
    would like to use legal avenues in order to get three Greek churches
    given to the self-declared "Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate" run by the
    Erenerol family back. As part of the investigation into Ergenekon,
    several people with links to Turkey's "deep state" were arrested
    and among them was Sevgi Erenerol, the "media and public relations
    officer of the independent patriarchate."

    She is the granddaughter of Father Eftim, founder of the so-called
    "Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate." "Sevgi Erenerol hurt us a lot. She
    was talking against us. It has been revealed that they had meetings in
    those churches against us, the state and the [Justice and Development
    Party] AK Party. It's a pity that a place of worship was used for
    such purposes," the patriarch said.

    Father Eftim was a village priest from the Turkish-speaking Karamanlı
    Greek community of Cappadocia in Anatolia who supported the Turks
    during the War of Independence. He then became the leader of the
    "patriarchate" in Kayseri in 1922 under the name of the "Independent
    Patriarchate of the Turkish Orthodox."

    Eftim and his family were exempted from the population exchange
    between Greece and Turkey, but his small congregation moved out of the
    country. Without any congregation, Eftim moved to Ä°stanbul in 1924,
    together with the "patriarchate." Eftim had some followers in Galata,
    an area with a large Greek population. Eftim's son Turgut succeeded
    his father and called himself Patriarch Eftim II. Then came Turgut's
    brother, and then they brought PaÅ~_a [Sevgi Erenerol's brother]
    from the US to assume the role of the "patriarch." They have all been
    excommunicated by the Orthodox Church.

    Eftim and his sons call themselves "patriarchs." Patriarch Bartholomew
    said nobody elected them."Father Eftim was married, so it was not
    possible for him to be a patriarch or bishop. He acted against
    the Patriarchate. He was excommunicated but he declared himself
    'patriarch.' Nobody recognizes the 'Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate.'
    They don't even have followers. But they received state support. Eftim
    and his men came to the Patriarchate and raided it in the 1920s. After
    his demise his son took over. Indeed, patriarchs are elected and
    it is not a position to be passed from father to son. In the end,
    their relations with Ergenekon have been revealed."

    In the pages 971-980 of the Ergenekon indictment, there are
    explanations about the actions of Sevgi Erenerol and "Turkish
    Orthodox Patriarchate." On Oct. 28, 2005, some platforms such as the
    Nationalist Businesspeople Association, the Noel Baba Foundation and
    the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate held a protest in front of the Greek
    Orthodox Patriarchate and shouted, "The patriarchate should go to
    Greece." Ergenekon suspect Kemal Kerincsiz and Noel Baba Foundation
    President Muammer Karabulut delivered speeches at the protest, which
    were attended by also Sevgi Erenerol and Zeki Yurdakul Cagman. They
    left a black wreath at the gates of the Patriarchate.

    'We are citizens of Turkey' Patriarch Bartholomew, whose initiatives
    include advancing religious tolerance among the world's religions
    have been widely noted, although received with suspicion by some
    in Turkey, said the number of the Greek-Turkish citizens living in
    Turkey is decreasing every day.

    "Democratic initiatives will prevent the rest from leaving," the
    patriarch said.

    "It is sad to hear that our foundations have been referred as
    'foreign.' We are Christians but we are born here and we were raised
    here. I was born in Gökceada. I love my country and village. I did
    my military service for two years. I pay my taxes. Our only difference
    is our religion. But we are equal citizens under the Constitution."

    Records of Greek conference were stolen

    On Aug. 12, 2006, all the records belonging to the Greek Conference,
    which was organized by the Association of the Zografyon High School
    Alumni, were stolen from the association's Taksim office. The
    association's president, Laki Vingas, said nothing but the hard-disc
    which contained the records of the conference was stolen.

    "We had three locked rooms in the office. The thieves did not
    even bother to unlock these doors, they just took the hard disc,"
    Vingas said.

    "There was somebody in the conference room who was constantly
    recording. I asked the person what television channel he represented.

    He said he was an official. He recorded the whole conference and
    asked for the participation list. We gave the list to them. Some
    people might have broken into our offices to scare us."

    In the conference which brought together Greek people from Ä°stanbul
    who were dispersed all over the world, the problems of the Greek
    community in Ä°stanbul were discussed. Patriarch Bartholomew had
    opened the conference called "Meeting in Ä°stanbul: Today-Tomorrow."
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