Several days ago, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seemed to hint that the Orthodox Theological Seminary of Halki (Heybeliada in Turkish) may be re-opened in the near future. This issue has received international attention in recent months and might be a positive step forward in EU membership talks. Indeed, the European Union has raised this issue as part of the negotiations, since according to the Copenhagen criteria, “a candidate country to have [...] stable institutions that guarantee democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities”. The importance of this issue for EU accession process is also addressed in the 2008 Progress Report on Turkey: “Non-Muslim communities [...] still face problems due to lack of legal personality. Restrictions on the training of clergy remain. Turkish legislation does not provide for private higher religious education for these communities and there are no such opportunities in the public education system. The Halki (Heybeliada) Greek Orthodox seminary remains closed.”(1) Therefore, it is important to have a closer look on the issue. The Halki Seminary was established in 1844 in Heybeliada, the second largest of the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul. This was the main school of theology of the Eastern Orthodox Church's Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople until it was closed as a result of a 1971 Constitutional Court decision that provided that private universities and higher education institutions in Turkey must be formed directly by the government. The Halki Seminary refused to be under state control and the authorities proceeded to its closure. The European Union, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, and the United States have long pressed Turkey to re-open the seminary as a proof of their respect for religious freedom of the Christian minority. It is not coincidental that in April 2009, in his speech before the Turkish Parliament, United States President Barack Obama urged the need of the re-opening of Halki Seminary: "Freedom of religion and expression lead to a strong and vibrant civil society that only strengthens the state, which is why steps like reopening the Halki Seminary will send such an important signal inside Turkey and beyond." In a meeting with President Obama, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew expressed his gratitude for his support of religious freedom, and human rights and “raising before the Turkish Parliament itself the issue of opening up Halki Seminary as a tangible sign of Turkey's commitment to enter the European Union”. (2) It is also argued that the closure of the Halki Seminary in 1971 violated specific laws, including provisions of the Lausanne Treaty, of the European Convention of Human Rights and of the Turkish Constitution itself. According to Article 40 of the Lausanne Treaty, “Turkish nationals belonging to non-Moslem minorities shall enjoy the same treatment and security in law and in fact as other Turkish nationals. In particular, they shall have an equal right to establish, manage and control at their own expense, any charitable, religious and social institutions, any schools and other establishments for instruction and education, with the right to use their own language and to exercise their own religion freely therein”. (3) Respective provisions are included in the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey (Article 24) , as well as in the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Article 9). Today, Turkish authorities seem to be willing to re-open the Halki Seminary although constitutional amendments would be needed. However, the school remains closed, and there is strong opposition to reopening it from Turkey's nationalist parties (including the main opposition party, the Republican People's Party), who argue that having a seminary in Istanbul would violate the country's secular order and the constitution. The main argument against the re-opening would be that there should be “reciprocity on minority rights” and the Turkish minority in Greece should be also protected. In 2006, then the Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, who has been President since 2007, made a very determined statement: “Turkey Will Not Open Heybeliada Seminary”, arguing that Turkey had no problems with religious liberty and that the re-opening of the seminary would violate the Constitution and the principle of secularism. (4) In a more moderate tone, Egemen Bağış, Turkey's chief negotiator with the EU, has insisted in many speeches and interviews that the reopening of the Seminary should be considered as a domestic political issue concerning human rights and the rights of the Christian minority in Turkey, because Turkey’s Greek Orthodox community is of Turkish citizenry. Although he emphasizes that the re-opening should not be based on the principle of reciprocity, he focused on the principle of simultaneous good will for Greece to make an effort to meet the needs of the Turkish minority in the West Thrace. (5) As a Turkish political scientist, Levent Köker, points out in his article “Stances on the reopening of Heybeliada Seminary”, the re-opening of the Halki Seminary is also of great importance because it provides an example of some of the very basic preconceptions and ideas that exist in Turkey. According to the author, the Seminary on Heybeliada, secured by Article 40 of the Treaty of Lausanne, “was ultimately sacrificed to an atmosphere defined by the 1974 Cypriot tensions and is even today being analyzed through the same narrow-minded nationalist mentality”. This would represent a significant step towards building the Turkish democracy into harmony with modern multicultural standards. (6) It can be argued that the possible re-opening of the Halki Seminary represents a positive step towards the strengthening of minority rights in Turkey. If the Seminary finally re-opens, this will not only be a stimulus to the EU membership talks but also it will be considered as a sign to prove the commitment and willingness of Turkish government to solve the existing problems with other minorities such as Kurds and Armenians.