LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

chrysanthos notaras the Patriarch of Jerusalem... 393
the Phanariotes played a major, yet indirect role in the apparition and
development of the national awareness of Greek and romanian national
movements, as well in the later revolutionary national eruption of 1821,
when their diplomatic experience proved to be crucial. Phanariot is a
generic term that initially designated a small mixed group of Greek, Vlach
and Albanian families residing together in the phanar (lighthouse) district
of Istanbul after the Muslim conquest. not before long, the name phanariot
was assimilated with the merchant transactional abilities of the residents
of that specific district, who served the sultan and the ottoman policy
throughout history any time when needed, thus becoming their hallmark.
Although the term “transactional” may seem excessive, it describes
perfectly the symbiotic relationship between the ottoman authority and the
phanariotes, who came to hold significant diplomatic and administrative
positions within the empire practically handling the strings of ottoman
policy in oriental europe and the Mediterranean.
Very well-educated in general, certain phanariotes rediscovered the
hellenistic dimension of the Greek culture and tradition and came to
understand the great importance of education for all Greeks. Consequently,
the phanariotes supported the initiatives aimed to increase the awareness
of Greek people about their own language and culture, establishing a
modern and adequate educational system supplied with very well trained
personnel – even though they were too bound to their political symbiosis
with turkish authorities to encourage openly and directly a national
liberation movement. In order to raise the hellenic consciousness, people
of good material and intellectual condition, Greeks and even non-Greeks,
joined and took into consideration the perspective of liberation from the
ottomans. their enlightened european education was certainly the motor
force of their determination, as well as the slow but steady decay of the
ottoman empire that contributed decisively to the rise of the national
awareness marking the 18 th century spirit in Balkan peninsula.
however, because the ecumenical patriarchate was in charge with the
administration of all educational facilities for non-Muslims all over the
ottoman empire (such being the only functional administrative structure
distinct from that of the state authority), the cultural dissemination among
Christians was generally dependent on Church’s own policy and its
ideological orientation. hence, the enlightened ideas of the Greek teachers
and professors trained in the West penetrated the eastern mind through
the educational facilities of the Church and under its supervision. It is
interesting to notice that in the Balkans the national idea coalesced with
Christian faith in such a way that from what was initially a solely Greek