1971, parts of the Private University Law were ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Turkey, which ruled that all private colleges must be affiliated with a state-run university; subsequently all private institutions of higher education either became part of state universities or closed down. It was stated in Article 130 of the Turkish Constitution of 1961 that: However, Article 132 stated that: The seminary section of the Halki school was closed down and although the high school remains open the Turkish government no longer permits students to attend it. The school is currently only used for conferences, including the International Environmental Symposium. On 2 November 1998, Halki's Board of Trustees were ordered to disband by an agency of the Turkish government. International criticism caused the order to be rescinded on 25 November 1998. Risks to the Seminary In November 2007, the 17th-century Chapel of Our Lord's Transfiguration at the Halki seminary, which had survived the June 1894 earthquake, was almost totally demolished by Forest Guards of the Turkish forestry authority. There was no advance warning given for the demolition work, organised by the Turkish government, and it was only stopped after appeals by the Ecumenical Patriarch. Campaign to reopen the seminary The Halki seminary has received international attention in recent years. In October 1998, both houses of the United States Congress passed resolutions that supported the reopening of Halki. The European Union has also raised the issue as part of its negotiations over Turkish accession to the EU. US President Bill Clinton visited Halki on his visit to Turkey in 1999 and urged Turkish President Süleyman Demirel to allow the reopening of the school. In a speech before the Turkish Parliament on 6 April 2009, US President Barack Obama re-affirmed the need for Turkey to allow the re-opening of the Halki seminary: These sentiments were echoed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a dinner in Washington honoring their guest, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Commentators have noted that while the Turkish government may outwardly seem willing to reopen the seminary, actual moves to do so are not underway because of internal political obstacles. Arrangements for reopening necessitate constitutional amendments, which may be used as a tool by opposition parties to fuel nationalist rhetoric. In 2010, a journalist of the Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman asked officials at the Ecumenical Patriarchate if there were any plans to take the issue