(Izmirlian) was deposed and exiled to Jerusalem by Sultan Abdülhamid II for boldly denouncing the 1896 massacre. The constitution governing the Armenians was suspended by the Sultan. Young Turks period, 1908–1922 The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Madteos III (Izmirlian) was permitted to return to Istanbul in 1908 when Sultan Abdulhamid II was deposed by the Young Turks. The new Turkish administration also restored the constitution. In the initial period of the reign of the Young Turks, the Armenians enjoyed a brief period of restoration of civil liberties between 1908 and 1915. However, in 1915 the Armenians suffered great hardship under the Young Turk administration owing to the desire of the Turkish government for its peoples to be religiously homogeneous (i.e., Muslim), motivated perhaps by an imagined threat of Armenians from Russian influences with whom Turkey was at war. The Armenian community of Turkey in 1915 was accordingly decimated by mass deportations and killings. The events surrounding this ethnic cleansing of Armenians from Turkey have become known as the Armenian genocide. The inability of Turkey to acknowledge these events has been a source of significant angst among Armenians worldwide for the past hundred years. Prior to 1915, almost two million Armenians lived in Turkey; today (2015) less than 100,000 reside there. With this backdrop of turmoil for Armenians, the post of the Patriarch remained vacant from 1915 to 1919. It was restored for a brief period from 1919 to 1922 with Patriarch Zaven I Der Yeghiayan residing. To alleviate the fate of the survivors of the Armenian genocide the Patriarchate founded a Committee for Orphan Relief, a Central Committee for Deportees and was also involved in the establishment of the National Relief Mission. Four Armenian Patriarchs served under the rule of the Young Turks. Republic of Turkey 1923–present Despite a huge diminution in the number of its faithful during the Armenian genocide, the patriarchate remains the spiritual head of the largest Christian community presently living in Turkey. Today, the Armenian Patriarchs are recognized as the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Turkey and he is invited to state ceremonies. Five Armenian Patriarchs have served after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. The synod of the Patriarchate has designated, with the votes of 25 of its 26 members, Aram Ateşyan as Patrik Genel Vekili (Turkish for Acting Patriarch) in 2010 because of the illness of the Patriarch Mesrob II Mutafyan.