ABSTRACT
The Introduction explores the emergence and evolution of two competing communal clerical/lay “parties”: The “Helleno-Ottoman,” composed of the supporters of the state reform policy of Ottomanism, and the “Party of Hellenism,” which represented the views of the adherents of Greek nationalism. In this context, the chapter focuses on the efforts of the Constantinopolitan Greek ethnocentric elite – the so-called “ethnikoi” (nationals) – to respond to the nationalizing policies of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) after the Young Turk Revolution of 1908. Emphasis is placed on the establishment of the Society of Constantinople, which managed to mobilize support from members of the middle class and gain control over the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the communal administrative bodies. This is followed by a presentation of the activities of the “antethnikoi” (anti-nationals), the clerical/lay faction which took over as the leadership of the community after the Balkan Wars. The chapter argues that the violence applied by the CUP throughout World War I, combined with the policy of compliance followed by the conservative communal leadership, caused the indignation of the Orthodox Greeks and prepared the ground for the popular support of Greek irredentism during the closing stages of the collapse of the defeated Ottoman Empire.
