Senate Resolution No. 7 Summary

• Urges the Turkish government to cease discrimination against the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Orthodox Christian Church and grant it appropriate international recognition and ecclesiastical succession rights.

• Calls on Turkey to allow the Ecumenical Patriarchate to train clergy of all nationalities and respect its property rights and human rights.

• Notes that Turkey has confiscated nearly 94 percent of the Ecumenical Patriarchate's properties, closed the Theological School on Halki Island in 1971, and limited eligibility for Patriarch to Turkish nationals only.

• States that Turkey's treatment of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is inconsistent with European Union membership criteria regarding protection of minorities and human rights.

• Directs the Indiana Senate to send copies of the resolution to the President of the United States, the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, and Turkey's Ambassador to the United States.