TURKISH ORTHODOXY: ONE PATRIARCH, THREE CHURCHES,

C O N F I D E N T I A L ISTANBUL 001698

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/13/2013
TAGS: PHUM PREL TU
SUBJECT: TURKISH ORTHODOXY: ONE PATRIARCH, THREE CHURCHES,
TWENTY PEOPLE

Classified By: Consul General David L. Arnett for reason 1.4 (d).



1. (C) Summary: It's hard to be a patriarch with a tiny
domain. Recently-enthroned Turkish Orthodox Patriarch Pasa
Umit Erenerol is the third Patriarch of a "church" that dates
its founding back to 1922 and the heat of a civil war.
Today, the patriarch's writ goes no further than his extended
family, though the fact of his patriarchal status allows the
family to hold on to three church buildings claimed by the
Ecumenical Patriarchate. Ultra-nationalist elements of the
Turkish establishment continue to see the microscopic church
as a foil to its Ecumenical rival. End Summary.


A Short History of Turkish Orthodoxy
--------------



2. (U) In 1922, Turkey and Greece were in the midst of a
pitched battle for national survival, fighting town-to-town
through western Anatolia amidst an ethnically-mixed
population. In Kayseri, an ethnic Greek, Pavli (later "Papa"
or Pope) Eftim, gathered 72 priests and other Orthodox
followers to the banner of Mustafa Kemal's Turkish
Nationalists and rejected the leadership of the Ecumenical
Patriarch. In 1924, Papa Eftim and some of his followers
occupied the Ecumenical Patriarchate at Fener for a time.
Later that year, Fener was returned to the Ecumenical
Patriarch, reportedly at the request of the Turkish
government. Still, three churches (all in the Beyoglu
district of Istanbul) were awarded to Papa Eftim, and he was
installed as Patriarch of a new Turkish Orthodox Church.


Master of His Domain
--------------



3. (U) Eftim's community, once numbering in the thousands,
gradually dropped away through a combination of old age and
immigration to Europe and elsewhere. He and his American
wife had a son, Selcuk Erenerol, who took over the
Patriarchate after his death. Pasa Umit Erenerol was named
Patriarch after Selcuk Erenerol's death earlier this year.
According to Sevgi Erenerol, his sister, the Patriarch leads
approximately 20 people who attend one of three churches
(Panayia Church, the Patriarchal seat),as the other two are
badly burned and in need of renovation, respectively.
According to Sevgi Erenerol, the 20 people are members of
three families.



4. (U) The current patriarch has no formal religious
training, though he was "raised in church," according to
Sevgi Erenerol. The Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate has no
regular contact with any other national Orthodox Church, by
their own admission. There are no other ordained clergy in
the church. The church has no foundations or property other
than the three church buildings. However, the economic
situation of the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate is good,
"thanks to the support of the state," according to Erenerol.


A Foil to Fener
--------------



5. (C) The Patriarchal offices are covered with evidence of
Turkish nationalist sentiment. Photos, busts, and sayings of
Ataturk are everywhere. A map of Central Asia hangs over the
door, with the faces of Ataturk, Mehmet the Conqueror, and
Genghis Khan superimposed. The nationalist pedigree of the
church is impeccable; at the enthronement ceremony for the
current Patriarch, MHP representatives sat next to the Mufti
for the Muslim minority in Greek Thrace, "TRNC"
representatives, and spouses of people killed by the PKK.
Property issues aside, ultra-nationalist elements of the
establishment continue to see the church as a useful foil to
the ambitions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and more
generally Greece.


Comment
--------------



6. (C) The Turkish Orthodox Church, a microscopic community
within the already-small Orthodox minority in Turkey, gains
mention only by virtue of competing property claims with the
Ecumenical Patriarchate. Selcuk Erenerol was, before his
death, famous for his invective against the Ecumenical
Patriarch and "foreign interests" in Turkey. To date, Pasa
Umit Erenerol has not made any major public statements. It
remains to be seen if ultra-nationalists will continue to
find use for the diminutive church in the future.
ARNETT