 However, in 2004 Patriarch Bartholomew, with the help of the Turkish government, succeeded, after eighty years, in altering the composition of the twelve-member Standing Synod of Metropolitan Bishops in Constantinople so that it can include six bishops from outside Turkey.He has also been convening biennially in Constantinople convocations of all bishops in his jurisdiction.The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has suffered attacks on occasion from 1993 to 2004, including desecration of patriarchal cemeteries as well as assaults on the ecumenical patriarch.