Ottoman Rums and the Venizelos – Constantine conflict after the Armistice of Mudros

In this article, I will be examining the biography of Meletios Metaxakis, the Rum Patriarch of Istanbul between 1921 and 1923, analyzing the process leading up to his election as patriarch and the debates and division among the Greeks/Rums during this process. The patriarchate delayed the patriarch election after the Armistice of Mudros for more than three years, and was managed by a deputy patriarch. The main reason for the elections being postponed was the royalists-Venizelists division within Greece and the internal conflict that was the result of the reflection of this on the Ottoman Rums. In the elections held at the end of 1921, Meletios Metaxakis was elected as the Rum patriarch in Istanbul. When Venizelos lost the election in 1920, both the Istanbul and Ankara administrations, the new Athens administration and the Ottoman Rums that supported the King opposed Meletios, a supporter of Venizelos. The election was in fact a political move to reveal Venizelos’s influence on the Ottoman Rums and the patriarchate. While Venizelos, who lost the elections in Greece attempted to turn Istanbul into his own headquarters, with these elections he proved that he was a figure who had a major influence over both the patriarchate and the Ottoman Rums

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• Istanbul Bibliography 2022

  Yıllık Editorial Board•Yıllık: Annual of Istanbul studies•2022

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