Constantinople

Turkey's Council of State, the country's highest administrative court, has recently approved changing the historic Chora Greek Orthodox Church located in Istanbul, currently a museum, into a mosque. Commentators say that sets the legal precedent for transforming Hagia Sophia, the...

The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I strongly criticized the Russian Patriarchate of Moscow on Tuesday regarding the issue of the independence of the Ukrainian Church. The already-cool relations between the two Christian Orthodox Patriarchates were completely severed a few...

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that still ''there are people who want to see Istanbul as Constantinople,'' on Saturday. Erdogan was participating in the series of public spectacles and events which Turkey organizes every year on the occasion of the...

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated on Friday his intentions to change Hagia Sophia's status from Museum to Mosque. Erdogan has made Hagia Sophia one of the main topics of the political discourse in Turkey ahead of Sunday's local...

Greek media, citing sources from UNESCO on Wednesday morning, reported that the Paris-based organization has tried to halt Erdogan’s plans to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine Christian Cathedral until Constantinople’s fall in 1453, is now...

Turkish President Recep Tayipp Erdogan responded angrily on Friday to the so-called manifesto of the New Zealand killer, which contained hateful anti-Islamic language. The pages-long rant by white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, 28, reveals an obsession with historical figures who fought...

The Autocephaly (independence) of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine will be made official in special ceremonies which will take place in the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on January 6, on the Feast of the Epiphany. The ceremonies will be held in...

Russian President Vladimir Putin made scathing remarks concerning the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople during his annual press conference in Moscow on Thursday. According to the Ukrainian website KyivPost, Putin harshly criticized Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, saying that his attitude toward...

By Evagelos Sotiropoulos * Presided over by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople recently announced a number of decisions related to the granting of autocephaly to the Church of Ukraine. The announcement from...

Kenan Özer, the 31-year-old member of the Ankaragücü football team, caused a widespread outcry in Turkey after calling Istanbul its Greek Byzantine-era name of Constantinople. Özer, according to Turkey’s Hurriyet daily, wrote on his personal Instagram account that "The conquest...