Εθνικοί ανταγωνισμοί και Κοινοτική ανασυγκρότηση

Abstract

This study discusses the communal conflict of the period 1872-4 in  Thessaloniki which led to the removal of Metropolitan Neofytos from his seat
in the city. The writer assesses the importance of the conflict in the
development of the opposint communal factions that dominated the running of
civil affairs in the next few decades; in the creation of the Educational
Association of Thessaloniki in 1872; and in the drawing up of the first
community regulations in 1874. The reasons for the intracommunal strife are
sought in the failure to consolidate the reforms of the second period of the
Tanzimat (1856-76), particularly with regard to the reorganisation of the
Orthodox millet, and in the emergence of the Bulgarian Question which for the
first time decisively influenced the orientations of the city’s Greek Orthodox
community, chiefly with regard to educational policy. The writer also examines
the effect of the conflict on the positions occupied by the various social groups
(notables, guilds, bourgeoisie) in the new communal structure, and expresses
some opinions about the role of the Orthodox clergy in the new sociopolitical
situation that developed the climate of ethnic rivalry in Macedonia towards the end of the nineteenth century.