US Senate resolution calls on Turkey to reopen Greek Orthodox Seminary

27/5/2011 TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL A resolution introduced to the US Senate on Tuesday calls upon the Turkish government to facilitate the reopening of the Greek Orthodox Halki (or Heybeliada) seminary without further delay and to address other long-standing concerns regarding the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. Benjamin Cardin, a US senator from Maryland from the Democratic Party who is also on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the US Helsinki Commission, introduced Senate Resolution 196. The resolution indicated that the Senate welcomed the historic meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Patriarch Bartholomew I in August 2009 and applauds “positive gestures” by the Turkish government, including allowing the liturgical celebration by the patriarch at the historic Sümela Monastery and the return of the former Greek orphanage on the island of Büyükada to the patriarchate