Main opposition to meet with Turkey’s religious minority communities’ heads

ISTANBUL

AA Photo

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu will come together with the leaders of Turkey’s religious minority communities in Istanbul on Jan. 26.

Kılıçdaroğlu will meet with Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Bartholomew, Deputy Armenian Patriarch Archbishop Aram Ateşyan, Syriac Catholic Deputy Patriarch Chorepiscopus Yusuf Sağ, Istanbul Syriac Orthodox Church Metropolitan Yusuf Çetin and Chief Rabbi İshak Haleva in Istanbul’s Sait Halim Paşa mansion near the Bosphorus Strait.

Kılıçdaroğlu and the heads of the religious minority communities will exchange views during the meeting. While the spiritual leaders are expected to put forth their needs and expectations as Turkey’s religious minorities, Kılıçdaroğlu is expected to share the CHP’s perspective and policies on these issues.

CHP vice chairmen Murat Özçelik and Sezgin Tanrıkulu, the newly appointed CHP Istanbul provincial head Murat Karayalçın, Istanbul’s Sarıyer district’s Mayor Şükrü Genç and CHP member Talin Ergüneş will accompany Kılıçdaroğlu during the meeting. 

During his visit to Turkey, Pope Francis had attended a divine liturgy led by Patriarch Bartholomew, as Bartholomew had also attended a mass conducted by Pope Francis in Istanbul’s Saint Esprit Catholic Church, as a signal of the warming ties between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches.