Tsipras in Istanbul, meets with Ecumenical Patriarch

Coalition of the Left, Movements and Ecology (SYN) party leader and vice-president of the European Parliament’s European Left party, met on Sunday with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul.

“I met a man with insight and understanding of the problems, which is also proved by his interventions on the burning issues of the times, his interest in the environment, in the huge problems of social exclusion and social marginalisation,” Tsipras said after the meeting at the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

He said they also discussed the issue of the reopening of the Halki School of Theology, “a request that, in our opinion, should have already been satisfied”.

“He (the Ecumenical Patriarch) expressed his hope to me that this year, which marks 40 years since the closure of the Halki Seminary, is perhaps a decisive year for exerting pressure for its reopening,” Tsipras told reporters.

On their discussion on Greek-Turkish relations, Tsipras said that “our conclusions are positive and we hope that he will intensify these efforts, always in the direction of conciliation of the peoples and strengthening of Greece-Turkey relations, so that the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s demands will be met but also that our volatile region will find stability and peace”.