TURKEY: Eradication of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople would be an opportunity for Russia to expand its imperialism
At OSCE, Archon Sisson explains how Turkey’s hostility to religious minorities provides an opportunity for Russia to expand its imperialism and asphyxiation of religious freedom
Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (08.10.2024) – In a written report he presented at the annual Warsaw Human Dimension Conference of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Archon Rocky Sisson, Archon Prepositos, stated that “the eradication of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Greek Orthodox community of Turkey would not only be an egregious violation of human rights, but it would also be a tremendous opportunity for Russia to expand its imperialism and global adventurism.”
Archon Sisson, along with Archon Hon. Steven G. Counelis, Archon Nomophylax, once again attended at the annual Warsaw Human Dimension Conference of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which was held from September 30 to October 11, 2024. Their goal was to raise international awareness regarding the plight of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
“Turkey,” Archon Sisson said, “is providing Russia with a golden opportunity. The Turkish government’s longstanding hostility to ethnic and religious minorities is well documented, going back a century to the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian genocides. Today, that government is pursuing policies that will lead, in the not-too-distant-future, to the complete eradication of the historic Greek Orthodox Christian community, the indigenous people of Turkey.”
After noting the Turkish government’s forcible closure of the Theological School of Halki in 1971, Archon Sisson added: “If the Turkish government forces the end of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s two-thousand-year-long presence in Constantinople, the chief beneficiaries will not be the Turks, but the Russians. Vladimir Putin is waging an unjust and unprovoked war against Ukraine, slaughtering wholesale his fellow Orthodox Christians, with the wholehearted approval of his accomplice, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow.”
Archon Sisson accordingly asked OSCE members to “advocate for legal identity for the Ecumenical Patriarchate; advocate for the reopening of Halki;” and “advocate for Russia’s ambitions in Turkey to be stopped.”
While in Poland, Archon Sisson paid a visit to Auschwitz, the site of an infamous Nazi death camp during World War II, and a lasting monument of what can be the horrific result of the denial of human rights and religious freedom. Archon Hon. Counelis visited the site last year, and Dr. Anthony J. Limberakis, National Commander of the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, requested that a member of the Archon delegation make the visit every year.
Since 2006, when Archon Dr. Spiro Macris represented the Order at the OSCE conference, the Archons have sent a delegation to the OSCE meetings in order to present vital information to the international community on the Turkish Republic’s continuing violations of the human rights and religious freedom of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the nation’s Christian community.
Archon Rocky Sisson visit to Auschwitz.