Presentation of the communal organization of the Greek-Orthodox population in Constantinople from the beginning of the reform era (Tanzimât) until the signing of the Lausanne Treaty.

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The period 1839-1923 marks for the Ecumenical Patriarchate a series of radical changes, which derive from the contemporary Tanzimat reforms, the most important of which was the validation of the General Regulations in 1860, an act which established new balances within the Patriarchate, but also from the conflict between Venizelist and monarchist Greeks during the 20th century. The former conflict established, in the place of the ecumenism, which was consolidated as the prevailing ideology of...

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The Greek-orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople experienced after 1923 a series of fundamental mutations since it lost its political character, and was deprived, due to the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, of a great number of dioceses and the majority of its flock. After 1945 the ascension of Athinagoras to the patriarchal throne inaugurated a golden period for the Patriarchate which was terminated though because of the Septemvriana riots and the expulsion of Greek inhabitants...

The term “millet system” is of relatively late origin and was articulated in Western Europe to denote the special mode of social-political organization in the Ottoman Empire. The general agreement about the beginning of the “millet system” is that it started after the conquest of Constantinopolis.

Tanzimat is the term we use to describe a series of edicts and processes aiming at reorganizing the administration and the finances of the Ottoman Empire as well as its relations with its subjects, Muslims and non-Muslims, with the ultimate purpose to safeguard its survival.

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