Turkey does not recognize the global aspect of the ecumenical patriarch’s role, preferring to minimize his position as archbishop of Turkey’s 4,000 Greek Orthodox Christians. Bartholomew I has earned an international reputation for his activism on behalf of Orthodoxy in states of the former Soviet Union as well as for his environmental activism.

The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Mesrob II, serves what remains of the country’s Armenian Apostolic community. The patriarch often stresses his identity as an ethnic Armenian, a Christian and a Turkish citizen in an ongoing effort to thwart prejudice that Turkey’s Christians are foreigners and less patriotic than native Muslims.