Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew visits Ankara

Following an official invitation, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, accompanied by the Elder Metropolitan Apostolos of Derkoi, flew to Ankara at noon on Tuesday, 12 March 2024, where he attended the Ramadan (Iftar) dinner at the conference centre of the headquarters of the ruling AK Party.

The dinner, the 15th in a row, was hosted by the party’s Foreign Relations Committee headed by MP Zafer Sırakaya and was attended by 500 guests, including President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, ministers, senior state officials and ambassadors from many countries.

At the end, Mr. Zafer Sırakaya, the Ambassador of Djibouti, on behalf of the heads of foreign diplomatic missions and the President of the Republic spoke in turn, referring to international current events and thanking those who responded to his party’s invitation.

The Patriarch had brief talks with Mr. Erdoğan, among others, to whom he wished well for Ramadan, and returned to Constantinople around midnight.

Photos: Presidency of the Republic of Turkey