Bartholomew I was born in the village of Zeytinli ( ) in the island of Imbros ( ) , son of Christos and Merope Archontónis . His secular birth name is '' Dimitrios Arhondonis '' ( Δημήτριος Αρχοντώνης , Dimítrios Archontónis ) . He is a Turkish citizen , but he belongs ( ethnically ) to the historically indigenous Rum – descendants of Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantine Empire Greek community in Turkey , which today is diminished and reduced due to the Greek genocide , the subsequent population exchange of 1923 between Greece and Turkey and ultimately through the exodus of Greeks post the 1960s Cyprus conflicts
Greek genocide
Greek genocide
Bartholomew I of Constantinople