The spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians said EU candidate Turkey was still failing to fully guarantee religious freedoms, but he expressed guarded optimism that a Greek Orthodox seminary may soon reopen.
Turkey's poor record in protecting its non-Muslim religious minorities is a key concern for the European Union, which is to decide in December whether to start entry talks with Ankara.
Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I said his Church faced legal and administrative obstacles that contravened Turkey's commitments on religious freedom.
'One can see that the concept of religious freedom is very limited and shallow in Turkey'
"We have the freedom to perform all our religious services but we have no right to administer our ecclesiastical foundations N churches, monasteries, cemeteries, schools etc," the Patriarch said in a written reply to questions from Reuters.
"As a result, many of them come under the administration of the state and the state gets to financially exploit them."
"One can see that the concept of religious freedom is very limited and shallow in Turkey," he added.
Turkey has kept a tight rein on all religious activity, including Muslim and Christian, ever since the modern republic was founded as a secular state by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923 after the collapse of the Ottoman empire.
For centuries the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul N the former Constantinople and capital of the Christian Byzantine empire until 1453 - was the most important figure in Orthodoxy.
But since the 1920s, the Orthodox population in mainly Muslim Turkey has shrivelled to a few thousand. The Patriarchate now has a largely symbolic role compared to the powerful Orthodox churches of Greece, Russia and the United States.
Bartholomew said he believed EU pressure should help secure the reopening of the Halki theological seminary on Istanbul's Heybeliada island, closed in 1971 under a law limiting activities at post-secondary religious schools in Turkey.
"Our government realises that reasons used in the past to justify the closing of the school were not right and not in accordance with the European perception of religious freedom," he said.
"Furthermore, our government realises the process for entry into the EU will accelerate if accusations of the violation of personal and religious freedom are dropped."
Turkey, which has for decades taken tough measures to guard against Islamic extremism, fears allowing the Orthodox seminary to reopen could lead radical Islamist groups to demand the right to train their own clergy.
Officials are trying to find a formula that would satisfy the Church and EU standards without stoking extremism.
The reopening of the Halki seminary is a major concern for Bartholomew because it provides the priests who will serve the Church in Turkey in the future. At present the priests have to receive their training abroad and generally do not return.
Among other grievances aired by the Patriarch was a 1974 Turkish court ruling that deprived non-Muslim communities of assets acquired since the 1930s, cutting a source of revenue.
"(We lack) the financial and administrative independence and self-government which are considered as a self-evident denotation of religious freedom for European countries and for European justice," Bartholomew said.
But he signalled support for Turkey's drive to join the EU.
"We hope that the European perspective and the association of Muslims with Europeans will convince both parties that the peaceful co-existence and co-operation are both feasible and beneficial," he said.