{"id":74196,"date":"2021-03-02T13:54:52","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T12:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/?post_type=vesti&p=74196"},"modified":"2021-03-02T14:08:42","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T13:08:42","slug":"russia-turkey-pincer-movement-threatens-ecumenical-patriarchate-s-survival","status":"publish","type":"vesti","link":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/reports\/world-news\/russia-turkey-pincer-movement-threatens-ecumenical-patriarchate-s-survival\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia-Turkey Pincer Movement Threatens Ecumenical Patriarchate\u2019s Survival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source: <\/strong>www.balkaninsight.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

It is time the West offered robust support to the Istanbul-based Patriarchate \u2013 now being squeezed by Ankara and Moscow, both of which see it as a threat to their illiberal projects.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

The Ecumenical Patriarch and Archbishop of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, is the spiritual leader of some 300 million Orthodox Christians. He is \u201cfirst among equals<\/a>\u201d among the prelates of all the self-governing Eastern Orthodox churches in the world.<\/p>\n

Yet, thanks to Vladimir Putin\u2019s <\/span>instrumentalization<\/a> <\/span>of the Russian Orthodox Church to advance his geopolitical ambitions, the Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarchate increasingly finds itself in the crosshairs of the Kremlin.<\/p>\n

As the Russian Church has by far the largest Orthodox community in the world, and most Orthodox Christians live in <\/span>former Iron Curtain countries<\/a>, Bartholomew finds himself an unwitting competitor with the Russian government.<\/p>\n

What is more difficult to understand is why Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of NATO-member Turkey, sees it in his interest to join Putin\u2019s pressure on the Ecumenical Patriarchate.<\/p>\n

However, a closer look shows that Putin and Erdogan both see the Ecumenical Patriarchate as an extension of Western influence that threatens their respective political ambitions.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine as catalyst of Moscow\u2019s fury<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Orthodox church in Moscow, Russia, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE\/YURI KOCHETKOV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On January 5, 2019, Bartholomew I <\/span>signed<\/a> <\/span>a <\/span>tomos <\/span><\/em>(decree) granting autocephaly, or ecclesial independence, to the Orthodox Church in Ukraine, which fell under the Moscow Patriarchate\u2019s jurisdiction in 1686.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian Church\u2019s desire for spiritual independence mirrors the Kyiv government\u2019s own attempt to escape from Moscow\u2019s orbit, to which Putin responded by launching an invasion and proxy war that has <\/span>claimed<\/a> <\/span>some 13,000 lives and forced 1.5 million Ukrainians from their homes.<\/p>\n

Still, when the Ecumenical Patriarch <\/span>announced<\/a> <\/span>his intention to recognise the independence of the Ukrainian Church in October 2018, his statement sent shockwaves throughout the Orthodox world; Patriarch Kirill of Moscow <\/span>cut ties<\/a> <\/span>with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Putin even <\/span>said<\/a> <\/span>the decision could \u201clead to bloodshed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Russian state and Church do not agree on everything \u2013 the regime\u2019s valorization of \u201cSoviet achievements<\/a>\u201d under Stalin being one example. But they have forged a sort of ideological marriage of convenience. While Russia\u2019s government <\/span>champions<\/a> <\/span>\u201ctraditional values\u201d \u2013 e.g., opposition to LGBTI groups and feminism \u2013 the Church supports Russia\u2019s geopolitical ambitions. One pillar of this philosophical merger is the 15th<\/sup>-century concept of Moscow as the \u201cThird Rome<\/a>,\u201d meaning that after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, Moscow became its spiritual and indeed political successor.<\/p>\n

The notion of Moscow as a Third Rome complements a more important <\/span>concept<\/a> <\/span>in Russian foreign policy: <\/span>derzhavnost, <\/span><\/em>or \u201cgreat power status;\u201d in other words, recognition that Russia commands respect in world affairs. Russia\u2019s identity as an \u201cOrthodox power\u201d is kept backstage, but it steps into the limelight when geopolitical aspirations and Church interests converge, such as in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Bartholomew I\u2019s grant of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church ensured such a convergence. It reinforced Kyiv\u2019s bid for political independence, while depriving the Russian Orthodox Church of one-third of the Moscow Patriarchate\u2019s parishes, over <\/span>12,000<\/a> <\/span>in total, which are in Ukraine. Both institutions felt they needed to act.<\/p>\n

In the lead-up to Bartholomew I\u2019s decision, Russian hackers dubbed \u201cFancy Bear\u201d began <\/span>targeting<\/a> <\/span>Bartholomew and his top aides. The group had already attacked the Democratic Party in the United States as well as US intelligence personnel. In October 2018, US prosecutors <\/span>charged<\/a> <\/span>Russian military intelligence officials with using \u201cFancy Bear\u201d as a front for their own criminal activities.<\/p>\n

As part of a disinformation campaign, Moscow also propagated conspiracies surrounding Bartholomew I\u2019s motives. Russian-language journalists alleged that the Ecumenical Patriarch was a <\/span>proxy<\/a> <\/span>for American and NATO interests. This year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov added fuel to the fire, <\/span>telling<\/a> <\/span>the media that Bartholomew I\u2019s mission, \u201capparently prepared by the Americans \u2026 is to bury the influence of Orthodoxy in the modern world\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Erdogan is joining Russia\u2019s campaign<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, Turkey, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE\/TURKISH PRESIDENT PRESS OFFICE\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While Ukraine\u2019s geopolitical importance in Moscow\u2019s eyes is clear, it is puzzling to see pro-government media in NATO-member Turkey echoing the Russian government\u2019s disinformation campaign to undermine the Ecumenical Patriarch.<\/p>\n

Ankara has much to gain in terms of \u201csoft power\u201d from the Ecumenical Patriarchate\u2019s presence on Turkish soil and from Bartholomew I\u2019s rising global standing. However, just as Putin professes spiritual pretensions of Moscow as an Orthodox power, Erdogan sees Turkey as a Sunni Muslim power \u2013 and both view Bartholomew I as an extension of Western influence and thus a threat to their respective illiberal projects. As a result, Moscow\u2019s and Ankara\u2019s attempts to subvert the Ecumenical Patriarchate include disinformation, conspiracies and hacking.<\/p>\n

The Russian and Turkish disinformation campaigns amplify one another. One month after Turkey\u2019s July 2016 failed coup attempt, Erdogan\u2019s mouthpiece, the daily <\/span>Aksam <\/span><\/em>published<\/a> <\/span>a piece accusing the CIA, <\/span>Fethullah Gulen<\/a>, the US-based Turkish cleric who Ankara accuses of masterminding the coup, and Bartholomew I, of plotting to oust Erdogan. They claimed the reason for this was Turkey\u2019s recent rapprochement with Russia.<\/p>\n

Aksam<\/em>\u2019s evidence was an <\/span>article<\/a> <\/span>published in the Moscow-based, pro-Kremlin <\/span>Oriental Review<\/em>, which in turn cited a former US ambassador\u2019s fake letter as proof. To an outsider, the allegations are ridiculous; why would the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christianity work with the CIA and Islamists to overthrow Erdogan?<\/p>\n

Such conspiracies, however, have traction in Turkey, as evidenced by a <\/span>piece<\/a> <\/span>last year in <\/span>Gercek Hayat<\/em>, a magazine published by an Erdogan crony, which portrayed Bartholomew as a member of a clandestine terrorist network involving Gulen, the CIA, Britain\u2019s MI6, Israel\u2019s Mossad, and freemasons.<\/p>\n

To many Turks, such articles are convincing, as the \u201cthreats\u201d from Bartholomew I and foreign intelligence agencies slip logically into deep, historic currents of discourse that flow just below the surface of religious and minority politics in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long fixation with fifth columns<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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City of Ankara, Turkey, 2020. Phto: EPA-EFE\/STR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conspiracies surrounding Christian minorities acting as a \u201cfifth column\u201d unite Turks across the political spectrum, including many who are secular. It is a widely-held <\/span>belief<\/a> <\/span>that Christian missionaries \u00ad\u2013 many of whom were American at the turn of the century \u2013 instigated the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey\u2019s religious minorities became targets of <\/span>similar accusations<\/a> <\/span>in the aftermath of the 2016 coup attempt. A North Carolina pastor, Andrew Brunson, became the public face of such conspiratorial thinking and spent two years in a Turkish prison on <\/span>false charges<\/a> <\/span>of coup plotting, military espionage, and terrorism.<\/p>\n

The presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul is also an uncomfortable relic of Turkey\u2019s multi-religious past, and therefore, a subject for repression. A state-orchestrated <\/span>pogrom<\/a> <\/span>targeting Istanbul\u2019s Greek Orthodox minority in 1955 continues to embarrass Turkey, which has yet to face its problematic past. Nine years later, amid escalating tensions in Cyprus, Turkey <\/span>deported<\/a> <\/span>tens of thousands of Istanbul\u2019s remaining Greek nationals, further decimating the community. In 1971, the Turkish government <\/span>closed<\/a> <\/span>the Halki Seminary, where the next generation of Orthodox clergy were trained. <\/span>Death threats<\/a> <\/span>against Bartholomew are common.<\/p>\n

Ankara, meanwhile, retains enormous leverage over the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Turkish law stipulates that only a Turkish citizen can be the Archbishop of Constantinople and the government does not recognise the Patriarch\u2019s ecumenical status. Given Turkey\u2019s dwindling population of Greek Orthodox, now numbering less than 2,000, the Church draws candidates from around the world who then receive citizenship by Ankara\u2019s grace alone. This discretion enables Ankara to influence decisions on the choice of Patriarch.<\/p>\n

The toxic rhetoric targeting the Ecumenical Patriarchate is not only the purvey of the Islamist press; neo-nationalist outlets also amplify \u201cfifth column\u201d conspiracies. A typical <\/span>example<\/a> <\/span>from the daily <\/span>Aydinlik<\/em> <\/span>says the Patriarch is the \u201cagent of both America and the American Greek diaspora. Not only in religious issues, but in East Mediterranean geopolitics \u2026 he doesn\u2019t even need to hide it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bartholomew thus finds himself the unwilling instrument of two ideological projects: one to re-unite the Russian Orthodox Church, split between Moscow and Kyiv, the other to divide and rule within Turkey\u2019s polarized politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West\u2019s failure to take religion seriously<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I at the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul, Turkey, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE\/UMIT BEKTAS \/ POOL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Phanar, is a surprisingly humble <\/span>building<\/a> <\/span>tucked in a corner of Istanbul. And yet, according to some Russians and Turks, this unassuming institution seeks to become the next Vatican.<\/p>\n

When US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Bartholomew I in December 2020, a youth group allied with Erdogan <\/span>accused<\/a> <\/span>Washington of \u201cattempting to create a Vatican and a Pope from the Christian Church in Phanar\u201d. Less than a month later, Patriarch Kirill accused his counterpart in Istanbul of consolidating power on a \u201cpapal\u201d model.<\/p>\n

In a January interview with the Greek newspaper, <\/span>To Vima<\/em>, Bartholomew <\/span>denied<\/a> <\/span>harbouring \u201cpapal pretensions.\u201d He pushed back against Russian accusations, stating that he cannot allow \u201cthe federalization of the Orthodox Church\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ecclesiastical debates witnessed today are nothing new. They reflect 18 centuries of tension between church politics and geopolitical realities in which, over two centuries, the contours of the various Orthodox patriarchates have tended to conform gradually to nation-state borders.<\/p>\n

Western leaders take secularism so for granted that they do not fully appreciate the role churches can play in power politics, which diminishes their ability to counter moves by the likes of Putin and Erdogan.<\/p>\n

This failure to recognise Bartholomew I\u2019s quandary, which goes far beyond ecclesiastical infighting, reflects the transatlantic alliance\u2019s inability to take the role of religious narrative in authoritarian regimes seriously, leaving vulnerable minorities at their mercy.<\/p>\n

Western leaders would better serve the secular agendas of democracy, human rights and personal freedom by offering more robust support to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, caught in Russian and Turkish crosshairs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Aykan Erdemir<\/em> is a former member of the Turkish parliament and is the senior director of the Turkey program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Twitter: <\/em>@aykan_erdemir<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

John Lechner<\/em> is a former financial analyst and is now a graduate student at Georgetown University\u2019s School of Foreign Service. He writes on the politics and languages of the former Soviet Union, Turkey and Africa. Twitter: <\/em>@JohnLechner1<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The opinions expressed are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the views of BIRN.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":74214,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"tags":[1573,1172,1577,2628,2629,2630,1631,1873],"category_vesti":[1133],"tags_vesti":[],"lokacii":[],"class_list":["post-74196","vesti","type-vesti","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ecumenical-patriarchate","tag-patriarch-bartholomew","tag-russian-orthodox-church","tag-turkey","tag-vladmir-putin","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian-orthodox-church-en","category_vesti-world-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vesti\/74196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vesti"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/vesti"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vesti\/74196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74196"},{"taxonomy":"category_vesti","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_vesti?post=74196"},{"taxonomy":"tags_vesti","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags_vesti?post=74196"},{"taxonomy":"lokacii","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigorski.org.mk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lokacii?post=74196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}