Kerim Kartal works on the center of the Eastern-Roman (Byzantine) church, which is the institution called the Patriarchate of Constantinople, for his Ph.D. dissertation. He investigates the relations between the Patriarchate and contemporary politicians, intellectuals and religious figures, both Orthodox and non-Orthodox. His main goal is to argue against early modern and modern historiography's claim that the Eastern-Roman (Byzantine) church is the reason behind the decline of the state, and its eventual fall to the Ottomans in 1453. He endeavours to disprove that assertion by showing evidence from the patriarchal registers to illustrate how the Patriarchate helped the state survive politically, socially, and culturally, rather than causing its decline and fall.
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