The present monograph is a detailed and critical historical analysis of the adoption, dissemination, and evolution of Greek nationalism in Constantinople and the role played by the ethnocentric leadership elite of the Greek Orthodox community in this process during the last phase of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and the early years of the newly established Republic of Turkey.

In this context, the effects of intra-community political competition on the internal administrative processes of the Rum millet are examined, along with the catalytic influence of the Great Idea, Greek irredentism, and the National Schism on the political practices of the clerical-lay leadership of the Roms during the Allied occupation of the Ottoman capital (1918-1922), and finally, the radical changes brought about by the Turkish state's nation-building policy after the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne (July 1923). All of these factors significantly shaped the collective identity of the Greeks of Constantinople and defined their status as a national minority in Turkey to this day.

Kamouzis offers the reader a detailed, close look at the political and administrative stalemate in which the Greeks of Constantinople found themselves between the end of World War I in 1918 and the Ankara Agreement of 1930. […] It is a valuable book, as we rarely have the opportunity to see how the Great Idea, the Greco-Turkish war, and the compulsory population exchange of 1923 appeared from the perspective of the Hellenism of Constantinople. […] Overall, this study is a kind of elegy for a community that was betrayed by so many, both inside and outside, and which now lies in ruins.

Christine Philliou, Professor of History - University of California Berkeley, Journal of Modern Greek Studies

Kamouzis avoids reproducing conventional narratives of the topic and moves beyond them. His emphasis lies on historicization, integration into a conceptual framework, and the surgical analysis of the experience of the Rum minority in Constantinople. […] This cohesive study is unique in its kind, a true gem that deserves to be widely read by scholars on both coasts of the Aegean and beyond.

Nikos Christofis, Turkish Historical Review

The Greeks in Constantinople represent a meticulous political and diplomatic history, largely due to the fact that Kamouzis expands the definition of "diplomacy" to its broadest possible delineation. […] The ease with which the Greeks in Constantinople travel between London, Paris, Athens, Constantinople, and Ankara gives the worn term "transnational" a renewed, dynamic meaning.

Kutay Onayli, Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association

Kamouzis consistently manages to correlate the individual trajectories of the Constantinians and illuminate not only Greek political history but also the history of the Treaty of Lausanne and its consequences.

Loukas Tsiptsios, Diasporas: Circulations, Migrations, History

Dimitris Kamouzis was born in Athens in 1977. He is a historian and researcher at the Center for Asia Minor Studies. He studied at the University of Cyprus and the University of Birmingham and completed his doctorate at the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, King’s College London, where he also worked as a lecturer. He has been a fellow of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, a research fellow of the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and a coordinator of scientific programs at the Research Center for the Humanities (KEAE).

He is the scientific supervisor and co-editor of the collective volume Greek Soldiers and the Asia Minor Campaign. Aspects of a Painful Experience (Estia, 2022). He has published (in print or electronically) 30 plays (including Mengele, Oidinus, Lebensraum, the Leopold trilogy, Football, HIV, The Washer, The Hood, Frankenstein 3.R, etc.) Of these, dozens of performances have emerged in Athens and other cities in Greece, Germany, the USA, and Cyprus, as well as online. His works have been translated into English, French, and German.