Turkey hopes foreigners will answer Orthodox prayers

TURKEY has offered citizenship to foreign archbishops to help the next election of the ecumenical patriarch, spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Orthodox faithful, officials said.

Prime minister Tayyip Erdogan has quietly led the gesture to the Orthodox, who face a shortage of candidates to succeed Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, 70, and serve on the Holy Synod, which administers patriarchate affairs.

Turkish law requires the patriarch to be a citizen. But the Orthodox community in Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim country, has fallen to some 3,000 from 120,000 a half-century ago, drastically shrinking the pool of potential future patriarchs.

"The specific call Erdogan made to give citizenship to those who will take up an official position at the patriarchate came in response to the problems they have," said Ibrahim Kalin, Mr Erdogan's chief foreign-policy adviser.

Istanbul, the Byzantine capital Constantinople until the 15th-century Ottoman conquest, remains the centre of Orthodox faith.

As Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, a Turkish citizen of Greek heritage who is in good health, is spiritual leader for Christianity's second-largest group of churches. There are 14 Greek Orthodox archbishops, including Bartholomew, who are Turkish citizens.

The EU and United States have urged Turkey to end restrictions on religion for its minority citizens.

Mr Kalin said the government's gesture should demonstrate Turkey's commitment to conform with norms on human rights in its bid to join the European Union.