Evening star., 1925-02-03

| Turkish nationals Of the Greek Orthodox
religion established in Turkish territory
and Of Greek nationals of the Moslen
| religion established in Greek territory. "
This latter provision, however, re-
| lates only to proselytes of the respective
nationals, and cannot apply to Constan-
tine, the head of the Greek Orthodox
Church.
| Article of the Same part provides:
included in the exchange provided for
i in article l:
(a) The Greek inhabitants Of Con-
stantinople.
(b) The Moslem inhabitants of west
ern Thrace
"All Greeks who were already estab-
lished before the 30th October, 1918
| within the areas under the prefecture of
the City of Constantinople, as defined
by the law Of 1912, shall be considered
as Greek inhabitants Of Constantinople ="
The present Greek construction OF
that exemption Is to the effect that
since Constantine is head Of the
! patriarchate which has existed il
| Constantinople for centuries, he was
not to be considered as a newcomer
! but his status was that of the
atriarchate-centuries old. He was
! elected to the supreme office OF
patriarch last December 19. He was
formerly Archbishop of Broussa (his
birthplace), and later Archbishop OF
Dercos. His election was by the
synod, according to the custom of the
| church.
Turkey declares that her opposf
/ ton is not against the patriarchatt
| but against the man, Constantine, be-
| cause he was an outspoken enemy
| of Turkey in the World War and in
the late Turco-Greeco War Turkey
| intfmates that she would nominate q
patriarch who would not be OBJ.
| Jectionable, but the Orthodox al
| herents contend that while it has
7 been agreed to take from the
patriarch all political authority
| leaving only spiritual power, il
would be highly Objectionable to per-
init a Moslem government which
| boasts of having separated state from
| religion to have any voice IN select
| ing the spiritual head of a Christian
| church.
| Under the Sultan, the Turkish
| government was a theocratic mon
| archy, wherein the Sultan was head
| of the church--in fact, dictator OF
the politics, of all churches within
ruling the present republic boast that
| they have deposed their Caliph and
| completely severed church and state
In the course of his discussion in
| the Lausanne conference, Ismet
Pasha recited the history of Turkey
| relation to the Greek Orthodox
patriarchate, saying: within the
! three days which followed his
! triumphal entry into the capital
| Mahomet invited the fanatical monk
Scholarius to occupy the patriarchal
| throne. The Sultan himself was
| present in state at the investiture of
| the new patriarch, on whom he con.
ferred in his capacity of spiritual
successor of the Greek emperors the
| obsolete title Of Millet Bachi (head
of the nation). At the same time he
| granted to the patriarch and his sue.
| CeSSorS an almost unlimited juriS-
| diction over Greek nationals"
BY that indulgence and dictation
of the Sultan. centuries ago. Ismet
Pasha sought to prove how well the
| Turks had always protected mi
norities within their Jurisdiction
To that argument Lord Curzon, In
reply, pointed to the Armenians
| whom Isrnet had pictured as happy
| and contented under Turkish rule
! and he pointedly asked: IF such
happy relations had always existed be.
tween these two peoples, how was 1,
that the 100000 Armenians formerly ir
! Asia Minor had been reduced to
| 1870, ,000?"
Copyright, 1925. h Pavl V. CoIins.)