In early May, Patriarch Bartholomew, in an
interview to the Georgian TV channel Formula said that the Patriarchate of Constantinople plays an exceptional role in the world Orthodoxy.
According to the Phanar’s head, Constantinople is a “coordinating center” of the whole Orthodox world and any attempts to interfere in the other Churches’ affairs disrupt the canonical system of the Orthodox Church.
The main target of Bartholomew’s criticism was the Russian Orthodox Church – in the Patriarch’s opinion, the ROC, striving to become the “Third Rome”, is actively trying to influence the other Local Churches and, in particular, is intimidating the Georgian Orthodox Church with bestowing autocephaly to the unrecognized church in Abkhazia.