Reports in the Turkish press refer to statements made by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew during his recent visit to Thessaloniki, in which he expressed optimism for the reopening of the Halki School of Theology in the foreseeable future.

The reports refer to the Patriarchate’s expanded delegation going to Ankara next week for talks on the technical issues of the reopening of the school.

The reports cite relevant reports in Greek media about the Ecumenical Patriarch‘s statements on September 25, and note his statement that the order to Turkey’s Education Ministry came from above, from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“The Turkish Minister of Education visited our school, talked with the holy abbot, who with his colleagues went to Ankara twice and continued their contacts and dialogue. And next week an enlarged delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is to go to the capital to continue the dialogue, as far as the technical details are concerned” the Ecumenical Patriarch had said, while inaugurating the new headquarters of “Byzantine Thessaloniki” and the exhibition “Holy Theological School of Halki – 180 years of contribution to Letters and Man”, and concluded by expressing his certainty that we are on the verge of reopening our school, always with the grace of the Holy God.”

The reports also noted the pressure at times from both the US and the EU, which have made calls for the reopening of the school, as well as the statements made by the Minister of Education, Yusuf Tekin in a recent interview with CNN Turk that “the issue of reopening the School was a political decision, a series of meetings were held to create a roadmap on how the School could be opened if there is a mandate to reopen it. We have completed our technical preparation and submitted it. We will have a final meeting soon.”

Sources in the Phanar estimate that if the order to reopen Halki is granted, the school will start accepting students in two years, according to the optimistic scenario. In addition to the completion of the restoration and strengthening of the historic building, which is already underway, the School will have to be staffed and technical issues will have to be resolved beforehand, such as the method of admission, whether there will be other university departments and which ones besides Theology, the method of appointment of the rectorial authorities and the teaching-educational staff, and so on.

The widely circulated pro-government newspaper Hurriyet hosts the issue on its front page with the pithy headline “Preparations for Halki” and in the italicized headline poses the question “Will the School of Theology be opened?” Similar reports can be found in Dunya, Msn, Yeni Cag, among others.