{"id":69879,"date":"2013-04-23T12:32:57","date_gmt":"2013-04-23T09:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=69879"},"modified":"2014-01-08T11:30:41","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T09:30:41","slug":"john-kerry-wants-more-seminaries-in-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2013\/04\/23\/john-kerry-wants-more-seminaries-in-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"John Kerry Wants More Seminaries . . . in Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tristyn K. Bloom\u00a0|\u00a0@tristyn_bloom<\/div>\n
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US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, on April 21, 2013, in Istanbul (AFP, Ozan Kose)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

AFP:<\/p>\n

US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Turkey on Sunday to re-open Orthodox clergy schools near Istanbul that authorities have kept closed for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our hope that the Halki seminary will open,\u201d Kerry said during a press conference in Istanbul after two days of talks on the Syrian crisis and the Mideast peace process.<\/p>\n

Kerry said he discussed religious freedom in overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey and the possible re-opening of the theological schools in talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.<\/p>\n

The Halki seminary, where Orthodox clergy used to train, is located on an island off Istanbul and was closed in 1971, after Turkey fell out with Greece over Cyprus.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those wishing to learn more about the state of religious freedom in Turkey can do so\u00a0here\u00a0(though I do not endorse HALC on all issues).<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Kerry met with His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. From the\u00a0transcript:<\/p>\n

SECRETARY KERRY:<\/b>\u00a0It\u2019s such a privilege to talk with somebody who has been such a voice for tolerance, a voice for interfaith understanding, who most recently visited with His Holiness Pope Francis and was at his investiture, and who has consistently talked out about protecting rights of minorities, protecting religious rights, and who is struggling for larger understanding in the world. . . .<\/p>\n

PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW:<\/b>\u00a0Thank you, Your Excellency.<\/p>\n

SECRETARY KERRY:<\/b>\u00a0Thank you for my reception. And he gave me a beautiful rosary that the Pope gave him that\u2019s been blessed by the Pope and by him, and I will carry that with great, great privilege. . . .\u00a0Thank you, Patriarch.<\/p>\n

PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW:<\/b>\u00a0Thank you. So have a nice life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tristyn K. Bloom\u00a0|\u00a0@tristyn_bloom AFP: US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Turkey on Sunday to re-open Orthodox clergy schools near Istanbul that authorities have kept closed for more than 40 years. \u201cIt is our hope that the Halki seminary will open,\u201d Kerry said during a press conference in Istanbul after two days of talks on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":69880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[4640,4234,4211,5559],"class_list":["post-69879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","tag-bartholomew","tag-ecumenical-patriarchate","tag-kerry","tag-orthodox-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}