ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 covers the last and most dynamic phase of the Greek nationalist movement in Constantinople, which, in terms of political goals, was characterized by a shift from the unification with Greater Greece to the creation of a separate “Ionian State” for the “Unredeemed Greeks” (Alytrotoi Ellines) in the Near East as a reaction to the policy of monarchist Athens. Initially, the chapter offers a detailed account of the efforts of the Venizelist Committee of National Defense to gain the approval and support of Eleftherios Venizelos, Lloyd George, General Anastasios Papoulas and Greek High Commissioner Aristeidis Stergiadis in order to carry out their separatist plan in Smyrna. After this, it examines the fierce struggle between the two national centers – Constantinople and Athens – regarding the election of Meletios Metaxakis, a renowned Venizelist, as Patriarch, arguing that the antagonism between Venizelists and Royalists nullified any possibility of cooperation and condemned the separatist plan to failure.
