UN General Assembly
1965

107. The Oecumenical Patriarchate, which has existed in Constantinople for seventeen centuries, and its venerable Head have not escaped persecution. The Patriarchate’s printing-house, which is essential for the religious publication of the Supreme See of the Orthodox Church, has been sequestrated. The Patriarchal orphanage has been closed. Two bishops have been deprived of their Turkish nationality and expelled. Recently, a Turkish priest who' was defrocked and excommunicated forty years ago, and his sons whom he had ordained himself, claiming to represent an alleged Turkish Orthodox Church, has had the impious audacity to attempt, with the encouragement of the Turkish authorities, to take over the Oecumenical Patriarchate. Under the tolerant eye of the Turkish police, they have already laid hands on two important churches of the diocese of Istanbul by virtue of unauthorized deeds obtained for them through the compliance of the authorities. At the same time, the headquarters of the Oecumenical Patriarchate has been placed under police guard and all visitors must prove their identity and justify their visit. His Holiness the Patriarch has been warned not to communicate with other churches in the exercise of his oecumenical apostolate. This persecution has been accompanied by a virulent press campaign. Everything Greek or Orthodox is represented as a danger to Turkey.