Religious freedom in Turkey

Near the end of Ian "Crow's Ear" Fisher's piece, "A Coming Papal Visit Focuses Anger Among the Turks," in today's New York Times is this:

The status of Christians in Turkey has long been difficult. Greek Christians in Turkey have dwindled to fewer than 5,000, from an estimated 180,000 in 1923.

Much of the difficulty revolves around the Orthodox patriarchate, which is forbidden by law to train new priests or to elect a new leader who is not a Turkish citizen.

Good grief.  To describe the situation of Christians in Turkey as merely "difficult," and to use 1923 (after the Armenian genocide) as the baseline for describing the disappearance of Christianity in one of its oldest historical homes, is -- to be charitable -- obtuse.  (To be fair to Mr. Fisher, though, the State Department is not much better.)