The last ten years have been marked a remarkable shift in the conditions that the Greek-Orthodox in Istanbul have experienced. Starting from 2005 when a major conference was allowed to took place that brought together older members of the community that had fled abroad with those who remained, a series of reforms have given new hope for the regenarion of the delapidated community. The return of the Orphanage to the Patriarchate based on an ECHR desicion, the permission to the same institution to hold ceremonies in various religious sites all over the country, peaking with the service on August 15, for tha last two years at Soumela monastery, the laxity in the monitiring of the few remaining community schools and most importantly, the change in the law on endowments in 2008 and the gradual return of property that had been ceased by the state are the most remarkable developments in this respect. This paper adresses the particular changes as apparent instances of democratisation in a context however of increasing authoritarian implementations in other parts of the society and seeks to the reflect of the political expedience that might explain such a paradox.