Efthimios Karahisaridis, known as papa-Efthim, was born in 1884 in the area of Ankara. He was ordained a priest in 1941 to avoid conscription into the notorious Labor Orders. Although married and the father of five children, after his ordination he changed his name to Euthymios from Pavlos.
After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and the creation of the Kemalist movement, it began to slide towards it. He even collected money for the Kemalists. As a result of his actions as well as his refusal to submit to the orders of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, they brought about the rupture. Since then, the priest - Euthym stood wholeheartedly in favor of the butcher Kemal.
In 1921, Pope Euthym spearheaded the victories for the establishment of a "Turkish Orthodox Church and Patriarchate". He proclaimed himself "General Commissioner of the Turkish Orthodox Christians" constantly accusing the Ecumenical Patriarchate and defending Kemal to whom he did not attribute any crime against Greeks in particular and Christians in general. He went so far as to force the lighting of prayers in favor of Kemal!
In fact on his suggestion, 68 Greek schools in Cappadocia were closed , while he imposed the use of the Turkish language on the Greeks. Shortly before the Asia Minor Catastrophe, he proceeded with the procedures for the establishment of the "autocephalous Turkish Orthodox Church". After the Greek defeat, he tried to exclude the Turkish-speaking Greeks from the population exchange agreement, but he did not succeed. However, he remained in Turkey in recognition of his services to Kemal.
In 1923 he went to Polis developing catalytic action against the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In December 1923, he attempted to raid the Patriarchate , without success, but managed to capture Greek churches in Galata.
In 1929, in a letter to Mussolini, after congratulating him on Italian support for the Kemalist regime, he asked him to recognize his "church". In 1934, in compliance with the new Kemalist law, he changed his name to Zeki Erenerol.
In 1944 Ismet Inonou granted him real estate in the city in a move of financial support to his "church". In 1953 he organized a demonstration against the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras. His treacherous act ended in 1962 when he suffered a stroke and became bedridden. He left his miserable body in 1968. Excommunicated from the Church, he was buried in a Greek cemetery only after pressure from the Turks.
On his tomb a phrase of Kemal was engraved about him where the chief butcher of the Greeks said that Papa-Ethym was worth as much as a division... He was succeeded on the path of poverty by his son George Karahisaridis (Turgut Erenerol) as "Pope Euthym II". He died in 1991. He was succeeded by his other son Selcuk Erenerol, as "Pope Euthym III", until 2002 when he died.
Today the head of the "Turkish Orthodox Church" is the grandson of Pope Euthym I, Umit Erenerol, known as Pope Euthym IV. It is understood that the "church" of the traitor exists to this day, recognized only by Ankara.
The Pope-Efthym.