Non-Muslim Communities and State Control in the late Ottoman Empire. Administrative Practice and Decision-making within the Greek Orthodox Parishes of Istanbul

International audienceThis study presents a synthesis of a research conducted essentially in the archives of some Greek Orthodox parishes of Istanbul and studies the issue related to the administrative practice and decision making within the Greek orthodox parishes of Istanbul during the second half of the nineteenth century. It is argued that the powers of parish services, particularly on the question of population, can sufficiently be considered as reflecting a very liberal conception of the relations between the Empire and the communities. Concussively and according to the material, it is argued that the community bodies were part of the Ottoman administrative machine, like any other element of the State mechanism. In other words, from a strictly regulatory point of view, this autonomy, so often attributed to the communities in the Period of Reforms, was, in reality, extremely limited