site.btaFate of Orthodox Seminary on Istanbul's Heybeliada Island Back on Agenda after Trump-Erdogan Meeting

A long-standing problem seems to have been overlooked in the media coverage of the recent meeting between United States President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House. Although it did not receive much media attention, the topic of reopening the Orthodox Seminary of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on Heybeliada Island (Halki in Greek), near Istanbul, was on the agenda of the meeting between the two leaders on September 25.

The Seminary has been closed since 1971 and has been the subject of international and domestic debate, with the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul calling for its reopening.

According to historical sources, the Orthodox Seminary on Heybeliada, the second-largest island in the Princes' Islands archipelago, was founded by the Greek Patriarchate of Fener (the Ecumenical Patriarchate) on October 1, 1844 as a Higher Theological School to train priests. The first Bulgarian Exarch, Anthim I, studied there, and Hieromonk Neophyte of Rila, as well as other Bulgarians, were teachers there. The seminary is housed within the grounds of the Greek monastery The Holy Trinity, which has been an important site for the Orthodox religion since the 11th century.

During the Ottoman Empire and later in Turkey, the school met the need for priests in the churches and metropolitan diocese to which it was connected. Following the 1971 law regulating private educational institutions in Turkey, however, the school was closed. Prior to its closure, the Seminary offered a four-year programme for secondary education and a three-year programme for theological studies. The school currently belongs to the Holy Trinity Monastery's foundation.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate's efforts to reopen the school have a long history. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, a Turkish citizen and alumnus of the school, has seized every opportunity to raise the issue of reopening the institution with international institutions.

The reopening of the school was discussed at the recent meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Donald Trump at the White House, when Trump called for the school to be reopened, said Fatih Erbakan, leader of the opposition New Welfare Party, on SOZCU Television.

According to several analysts, the reopening of the Seminary is not only of symbolic importance, but also significant in the context of the measures that Turkiye has taken to protect religious minorities in the country. Over the years, representatives of the United States have consistently raised the issue of reopening the Orthodox Seminary on Heybeliada Island at bilateral meetings and forums.

As Medyascope pointed out, Washington considers the reopening of the school to be critically important, not just for defending the rights of minorities, but also for the future of the Greek Patriarchate in Istanbul. The publication states that the US considers this issue to be a symbolic test of their relationship with Turkiye, and, due to contact between Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I and Donald Trump, the topic is at the forefront of diplomatic relations between Washington and Ankara.

According to the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), the 1971 decisions have affected not only the status of the Orthodox Seminary on Heybeliada Island, but also all private higher education institutions in Turkiye. Nevertheless, in the context of minority rights, the closure of the Seminary has become a symbolic turning point. The Foundation points out that the Patriarchate insists the school should be supervised by the Ministry of National Education rather than the Council of Higher Education, which oversees the nation's universities. Furthermore, according to a publication on its website, the Patriarchate wants to admit students from all over the world, not just Turkish citizens. The fate of the school, which has been debated for over half a century, was discussed during Turkiye’s EU accession talks in the 1990s, but no decision was reached.

In May 2025, Bartholomew I expressed optimism that the Heybeliada Seminary would admit new students in September 2026 during a reception in his honour at the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Greek foundation Goulandris. He said Turkish President Erdogan has given the green light, and discussions with the Turkish Ministry are ongoing, according to reports in the Turkish media citing publications in the Greek press.  

In a written statement to the editorial staff of the Turkish-language edition of the BBC, the lawyer of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Kezban Hatemi, stated that due to obvious differences between the statute and the system in which the Seminary functioned until 1971, and the current Turkish educational system, an agreement has not been reached regarding the status of theological studies in negotiations with the Ministry. She added that the main demand of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is for the seminary to be reopened with its previous status as a private school under the Turkish Ministry of National Education. Previously, the school's administration was under the guidance of the Greek Patriarchate and overseen by the Turkish Ministry of National Education.

What do critics say?

A number of circles, including political ones, have spoken out against efforts to reopen the Orthodox Seminary on Heybeliada. They argue that the reopening of the school is being imposed on Turkiye by the European Union and the United States. 

Opening the Seminary would initiate a process of creating a second Vatican in the heart of Istanbul, said Victory Party leader Umit Ozdag in an August 2024 statement, as quoted by Turkish media.

Saygi Ozturk, an analyst from the SOZCU daily, said that the debates in Turkiye are about what the school's status should be if it were to reopen. The Turkish response has been in reaction to the demands of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I that the school should have independent status and an international character modelled after the Vatican. This would mean that Turkiye would not have control over the religious institution, the analyst argued. 

"It would be a mistake to reopen the seminary on Heybeliada while Greece denies our Turkish and Muslim brothers in Western Thrace the same religious freedoms ratified in the Treaty of Lausanne (1923)," said Mehmet Metiner, a former member of the Justice and Development Party. His opinion was published in the Yeni Safak daily.

Turkish analysts have linked the discussion of this issue during the Trump–Erdogan meeting to the visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to the White House on September 15 this year, before the invitation to Erdogan had been finalised. This is why they assume that it was included in the agenda of the conversation between the two presidents at Bartholomew's insistence.

Erdogan told NTV television that Turkiye is going through a different period in its relations with the US and is prepared to do everything necessary regarding the school on Heybeliada. He said he would have the opportunity to discuss this issue with Mr Bartholomew upon his return.

Turkish National Education Minister Yusuf Tekin said in an interview with the Hurriyet daily that the reopening of the Seminary is a political decision which must be taken by the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If tasked with this, the Ministry of National Education will reopen the school, Tekin noted. He said he had visited the school to develop a roadmap; the Ministry has finished with the technical preparations and presented a report. A final meeting will be held soon, Tekin explained.