Abstract: The paper questions what made the members of the same church turn against each other and at what point they established their own Church by revolting against the patriarchate that they once belonged to. The paper compares the two examples, formations of the Bulgarian Exarchate and the Turkish Orthodox Church, both of which separated from the Ecumenical Patriarchate. However, while the former formalized into a national church by gaining its community’s support, the latter got stuck between rival political centers and did not transform into a national church. While the former was a successful attempt to build a national church, the latter failed in the process. Again, while the former constituted a movement to establish the first national church within the Orthodox ecumene of the Ottoman Empire in the long 19th century, the latter is a painful process in which nationalism and violence went hand in hand vis-a-vis the last remaining Christian communities in Anatolia. The comparison finally aims to analyze the key elements of intra-church conflict and a final division.

Keywords: Bulgarian Exarchate, Turkish Orthodox Church, National Identity

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