US embassy cable - 03ISTANBUL1698

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, Istanbul 
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