Orthodox patriarch blesses Turkish EU entry

Despite ongoing disputes over Christian and other religious minorities in Turkey, the world's leading Orthodox prelate, the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, has endorsed Turkey's bid to join the European Union and appealed to Brussels not to make religious or cultural differences an obstacle to membership.

"We must not exclude from the European family somebody who simply has a different belief from us," the Istanbul-based cleric told MEP's in the European parliament...