ABSTRACT
In the history of the Ecumenical Patriarchate the age of the Cold War coincides exactly with the reigns of three patriarchs, Maximos V (1946-48), Athenagoras (1948-72) and Dimitrios (1972-91). Before turning to the history of this critical period a few words are necessary on the condition of the Patriarchate in the inter-war period and during the Second World War in order to place subsequent developments in context. The interwar period in the history of the Ecumenical Patriarchate opens in 1923 with the conclusion of the Treaty of Lausanne, which brought to an end the long period of military confrontation between Greece and Turkey and settled the various outstanding issues in bilateral relations, including the status of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. On 10 January 1923 after concerted pressure by all delegations in the peace conference in Lausanne the Turkish plenipotentiary Ismet I
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agreed to withdraw a persistent Turkish demand for the removal of the Patriarchate from Istanbul.1 This saved the Patriarchate in the historic seat it had occupied for close to two millennia, but it striped it of all the traditional privileges it enjoyed under the Ottoman order and confined it to an exclusively spiritual role as the religious authority of the Greek Orthodox minority that was allowed to remain in Istanbul.2
