“Hundreds of thousands of Russians have fled to Turkey since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Their numbers increased even more after the mobilization in Russia, ”writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, entitled “Orthodox Brothers on a Collision Course.”
The German newspaper notes in response from Constantinople: “For the first time since the establishment of the Turkish Republic a century ago, there is a large Christian community in the country. The shadow of war reaches Turkey and the Russians who seek refuge there.
Because the Orthodox churches there belong to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of about 350 million Orthodox Christians. And the Ecumenical Patriarch has taken a clear position in favor of Ukraine in the war.
“Most Russians fleeing to Turkey reject war,” says former Russian Orthodox priest Vladislav Antchibor, who severed ties with the Russian church because he says it no longer serves the faith but an ideology and policy of President Putin.
On January 5, 2019, the Ecumenical Patriarch proclaimed the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church o Ukraine, provoking the wrath of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. The revenge of the Primate of the Russian Church began in Africa. Shortly after Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria recognized the Autocephaly of the church of Ukraine, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church decided to establish a Patriarchal Exarchate in Africa.
“This is a clear violation of ecclesiastical law,” says an interlocutor at the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Kirill, however, chooses further escalation and threatens to establish a Patriarchal Exarchy in Turkey as well.”
Source: Deutsche Welle
