Kechriotis|305especially now that the new constitutional regime could guarantee equality for
citizens all over the empire. Moreover, he claimed that the Greek Orthodox were
always faithful to the Ottoman authorities and tried to resist only “terrorists”
who intruded from outside.
During a debate concerning the Greek Orthodox patriarchate’s authority
over non-Greek-speaking Ottoman Orthodox Christians, Carolidis defended
the patriarchate’s practice of conducting all religious services in Greek. He ex-
plained,
It is not surprising that a population can use in its external relations a dif-
ferent language, which prevailed through temporary traditions, and have
another language, in which to be educated culturally and nationally....
History testifies that the Orthodox populations of Macedonia are Greek. But
even if there was no evidence, and it was supposed that they belonged to a race
different from the Greek one, they are still Greek, because they have such a
national consciousness. We should, therefore, differentiate between race and
nationality.In this outburst of nationalist self-confidence in the Ottoman Parliament, Car-
olidis was selective as far as the elements of national identity were concerned.
Eventually, he ended up embracing the old-fashioned millet instead of the
Western notion of a modern nation, arguing that the latter was not appropri-
ate for explaining ethnic relations in the East. At the same time, however, he
opposed the arguments put forth by other Greek deputies who supported the
Figure 21.2 Carolidis in the Ottoman
parliament. (Wikimedia Commons.)