Turkey-US ecumenical crisis grows

“We noted this,” Secretary of State spokesman Richard Boucher told a press conference. “But at the same time we noted that Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul met with the delegation in Ankara.”
Controversy arose earlier this week when invitations to the embassy reception for a visiting Orthodox delegation described the Istanbul-based Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew II as the Ecumenical Patriarch, a title that Turkey does not recognise. The Office of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a letter instructing all Turkish officials not to attend the reception.
However, Bourcher said that the US had long accepted the ecumenical status of the Patriarchy, and saw Bartholomew as a religious figure to many in Turkey and beyond.
Greece has given its support to Patriarch Bartholomew over the issue and government deputy spokesman Evangelos Antonaros said that the Turkish approach to the patriarchy has been a known fact for years. He called on Ankara for respect religion, saying that this was a fundamental criteria in regard to Ankara’s EU bid. Antonaros said that Greek Foreign Minister Petros Moliviatis would raise the issue in his forthcoming visits to Italy, England, Germany and Austria.
Greece Orthodox Archbishop Hristodulos claimed that Turkey’s act towards the patriarchy was provocative.
“Each blow targeting the patriarchy is one to the conscience of the Greek people,” he said Thursday. “The Turkish government incomprehensible approach to the ecumenical patriarchy and the Greek minority and other religious minorities is creating worries, suspicion and anger,” he said.