Patriarch blesses Greek diplomat-artist’s Exhibition

ÜMİT ENGİNSOY
ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News
3/7/2011

Istanbul’s Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I said late Wednesday that he is the staunchest supporter of peace and rapprochement between Aegean neighbors Turkey and Greece.

“I pray for friendship between Turkey and Greece. I am the strongest supporter of their peace and rapprochement,” Bartholomew said. His remarks came at the opening of a photography exhibition, dubbed “The Children of Lausanne,” by Greek diplomat Stratos Efthymiou, who has been working as second secretary at the Greek Embassy in Ankara since 2007.

The patriarch’s “remarks reflect his blessing for this exhibition,” said a patriarchate official. Analysts said Bartholomew’s comments aimed to defend Efthimiou and the Greek Embassy in Ankara against potential criticism by some circles in Greece, where the plight of exchanged persons in the wake of World War I is still a sensitive and contentious issue.

Greek Ambassador to Ankara Fothis Xidas said Greece and Turkey wanted the development of their ties at a time of “a positive wind” between the two counties.

Bulent Tanik, the mayor of Ankara’s Çankaya district from the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, who hosted the exhibition, said the “the photos here will enrich the friendly atmosphere” between Turkey and Greece.

“It’s very important to develop brotherly connections between Turkey and Greece,” Tanik said.

Efthymiou said that with his exhibition he particularly wanted to honor two exchanged persons, one Greek Orthodox lady and one Muslim lady, who recently lost their lives after interviewing him for the event.

In the wake of World War I, up to 2 million Greek-Orthodox and Muslim people were forced to leave their homes and settle in Greece and Turkey, respectively, during and after what the Turks call The War of Liberation and what the Greeks call the Asia Minor Catastrophe in the early 1920s. The Lausanne Convention on the exchange of populations in early 1923 formalized this process.

Efthymiou’s four grandparents all were exchanged persons. Three of them originally were from the western Turkish town of Isparta and the fourth was from the southern town of Antalya.

He came up with the idea of a photo exhibition during the process of researching his family roots. He worked on the common plights of the Greek-Orthodox from Turkey and the Muslims from Greece equally diligently.

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