Imbros

Imbros or İmroz, officially changed to Gökçeada since 29 July 1970, (older name in Turkish: İmroz; Greek: Ίμβρος Imvros), is the largest island of Turkey and the seat of Gökçeada District of Çanakkale Province. It is located in the Aegean Sea, at the entrance of Saros Bay and is also the westernmost point of Turkey (Cape İncirburnu). Imbros has an area of 279 km² (108 sq mi) and contains some wooded areas.

According to the 2014 census, the island-district of Gökçeada has a population of 8,644. The main industries of Imbros are fishing and tourism. The population is predominantly Turkish but there are still about 300 Greeks on Imbros, most of them elderly, but including some families with children. The island was primarily inhabited by ethnic Greeks from ancient times through to approximately the 1960s, when many emigrated to Greece, western Europe, the United States and Australia, due to a campaign of state-sponsored discrimination. The Greek Imbriot diaspora is thought to number some 15,000.

Bartholomew I of Constantinople

Bartholomew I (Greek: Πατριάρχης Βαρθολομαῖος Α', Patriarchis Bartholomaios A' , Turkish: Patrik I. Bartholomeos; born 29 February 1940) is the 270th and current Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch, since 2 November 1991. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, he is regarded as the primus inter pares (first among equals), and as the spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians.

Born Dimitrios Arhondonis (Greek: Δημήτριος Αρχοντώνης, Dimítrios Archontónis), in the village of Agios Theodoros on the island of Imbros (later renamed Gökçeada by Turkey), after his graduation he held a position at the Patriarchal Theological Seminary of Halki, where he was ordained a priest. Later, he served as Metropolitan of Philadelphia and Chalcedon and he became a member of the Holy Synod as well as other committees, prior to his enthronement as Ecumenical Patriarch.

Bartholomew's tenure has been characterized by intra-Orthodox cooperation, inter-Christian and inter-religious dialogue, as well as by formal visits to Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim leaders seldom previously visited by an Ecumenical Patriarch. He has exchanged numerous invitations of Church and State dignitaries. His efforts to promote religious freedom and human rights, his initiatives to advance religious tolerance among the world’s religions, as well as his efforts to promote ecology and the protection of the environment, have been widely noted, and these endeavors have earned him the title "The Green Patriarch". Among his many international positions, he currently sits on the Board of World Religious Leaders for the Elijah Interfaith Institute.