I. 3 Modern History of Greece and its Impact on Emigration

Anyone attempting to understand something of the complexities of Greek/Turkish relations must come to grips with the deep sense of loss felt for centuries by many Greeks over the fall of Constantinople, (“The City”- now Istanbul) to the Turks in 1453. Greece has faced many wars and invasions, and over the centuries the population has mixed with Albanians, Slavs, Turks, and western Europeans. From 1453 onwards a series of foreign rulers, most often Turks, dominated Greece for over four hundred years. It was the War of Independence, begun in 1821 against the Ottoman Turks, which engendered a sense of Greek identity as a united, free people. Independence Day on March 25th is still an important annual celebration in many Greek Canadian communities. In Halifax, for example, on March 25th the Greek community always arranges to have the national flag of Greece hoisted at the Grand Parade.

Even after Greek independence was formally recognized in 1830, various parts of Greece remained in alien hands. Into the 1920s Greeks were still constantly fighting to regain territory once held by their ancestors. In part the fighting existed because substantial Greek and Turkish minorities were present in one another’s countries. As a result of helping the British and French in World War I, Greece had received a temporary mandate to occupy part of what they had long called Asia Minor (now western Turkey) and eastern Thrace, where Greek people had been living since before 1000 B.C. However, Greece had to abandon these territories in 1921, after she was repulsed by the Turkish nationalists under Mustafa Kemal, founder of modern Turkey. The Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 tried to end friction by arranging for an exchange of populations. Under this treaty some 400,000 Turks left Greece and over one million Greeks were forced to leave Turkey. Bitterness caused by that forced expulsion lingers on today, both in Greece and in the hearts of Greek emigrant families, some of whom had come originally from Asia Minor. Quarrels between Greece and Turkey over oil rights in the eastern and northern Aegean and over the status of Cyprus have increased tensions again in the last few years.

From an interview conducted about ten years ago in Halifax, here is one family’s story about those terrible years of Greek and Turkish fighting in Asia Minor. The following piece is the poignant testimony of an elderly, widowed Greek woman who is now deceased:

“My husband was working at Pontos near Constantinople as an apprentice to a blacksmith. When the Turks started killing the Greeks in Asia Minor, he and his brother decided to leave – the rest of their family had already been burned to death after being locked in a church. Of course it was not easy to escape or to travel. My husband (he wasn’t my husband then) told his boss who was a Turk that they needed some horseshoes for the shop. Not suspecting anything, his boss gave him the money to go and buy some in the city. This was their opportunity, so they took the money and left. When they arrived in Constantinople, they worked there for a time until it was possible for them to leave the city by ship. Actually they had the chance to go to America, but his brother preferred mainland Greece, so they came to the Peloponnese. We had a lot of refugees in our village and we tried to help them. Their only means of livelihood was carrying wood from the mountains and selling it for food and clothes. Gradually the Greek government helped them buy some land and establish themselves. Because he had a hard life, my husband was always kindhearted to all. Now he is gone.”

Also crucial to an understanding of today’s Greek people, whether they be in Greece or in Canada, is some brief account of the horrors which the Greek population experienced during World War II and in the years of the Civil War from 1946-49. In both World Wars Greece fought on the side of the western allies. In October 1940 the Italian Fascists under Mussolini attacked Greece through Albania. In Greek and Greek Canadian hearts October 28^th is remembered as the day when Greece said Ohi (“No”) to Italian demands to surrender sections of their country. However, in spite of that brave resistance, the German Nazis finally overran Greece in April 1941 and remained there until October 1944. Through those years Greece suffered from poverty, disease, and cruelty to its people. Many endured punishment and even death trying to hide members of the allied forces who had slipped into the country to lead the Greek resistance. Farmlands lay devastated and lines of communication all over the country were in ruins. Civil war followed the allied liberation. Greece had suffered so much during the war that to some people, Communism seemed an attractive alternative to poverty. With the backing of the Soviet regime in Moscow the Greek Communists quietly urged various guerilla factions to joins Communist cells. Thousands of patriotic Greeks joined army units whose Communist leadership was not at first apparent. Other Greeks actively opposed the Communists, and soon Greeks were killing Greeks.

Here again are the words of the same Greek widow, this time speaking about her own experiences in Greece during the time of the Nazi occupation and the ensuing Civil War:

“It was during the German occupation in 1943 that I was walking barefooted from my village to the city hospital where my boy was being treated for polio. I was passing a German contingent when I heard shots. Some German soldier was shooting at the icon of Panayia [Mary]. I made the sign of the cross and called Panayia’s name. All of a sudden the soldier dropped dead on the ground. Whether he accidentally shot himself or someone else shot him, I don’t know. Also in the following Civil War, when neighbour turned against neighbour, the father of my daughter-in-law was shot. He was a good man and he had something wrong with one of his arms. Everybody who heard it was shocked that a physically handicapped man was shot and they all cursed the killer. Not long afterward the killer was cleaning his gun, when it went off and shot his arm, making him the same as his victim. We went through a lot of suffering during the Civil War. My husband, who was never interested in politics, was taken once and was beaten black and blue. When they brought him home, I was told that it was one of my next-door neighbours who had done it. What could I do, a poor woman, to save the father of my children? I went next door and instead of abusing him, I begged him to come and have dinner with us. When he came, I offered the best food that I had and he felt ashamed. That, however, saved my husband’s life. You could not contradict them, you had to coax them. This is the only thing I don’t like about the Greeks- when they turn against each other.”

Thus, it is easy to understand that the years around 1950 were the time when hundreds of Greeks who could get out, left their beloved homeland to seek new lives abroad, particularly in Australia, the United States, and Canada. Ongoing poverty in Greece and a series of repressive governments- particularly the harsh regime of the military dictatorship between 1967 and 1974- caused still more Greeks to emigrate. The years of military dictatorship were some of the worst in modern Greek history. They were marked by suppression of human rights, torture of students and political opponents, administrative corruption, weak morale in the armed forces, and foolish interference in the government of Cyprus. In the summer of 1974 Turkey reacted to that interference in Cyprus and invaded the island. War almost broke out between Greece and Turkey, and the result was (and remains to this time) the division of Cyprus into two parts. The north remains under the military control of the Turks, while the Greek south has the only internationally recognized government on Cyprus. In Greece itself, after turmoil and fear of invasion by the Turks, the military dictatorship or junta finally fell. In July 1974 former President Constantine Karamanlis came back from self imposed exile and formed a coalition government. While there have been numerous changes in government since 1974, Greece is once more a parliamentary democracy with both a prime minister and a separately elected president. The Greek people remain passionate about politics, an area which is monitored by a free and often cynical Greek press.

Slowly Greece’s economy is improving, with growth occurring primarily in the agricultural, manufacturing, tourism, and financial sectors. The years of poverty after World War II are clearly over. Throughout the country new buildings have sprung up, a wide variety of consumer goods is readily available, and children attend school as long as they and their parents want them to be there. Fine universities exist in places like Athens, Patras, Joannina, and Salonika, and there is a new university on the island of Crete. Many North Americans, both Greek and non-Greek, find modern Greece still to be a male dominated society, but that is quickly changing. Women in Greece have had the vote only since 1952. In the past the husband was in effect designated ‘family monarch’ and as such, he possessed the sole and ultimate right to decide on all household matters, including the right to direct the behaviour of all women in the household. A Family Law in 1982 officially changed all of that. According to this progressive law, all major household decisions are to be made jointly and children are to be under the care of both parents. The law officially abolished the dowry. Increasing numbers of women are now working outside the home and are to be found in all the major professions. Women such as internationally renowned singer Nana Mouskouri, the late actress and politician Melina

Merkouri, politician and former minister of culture Dora Bakogianni, and the

actress/theatrical producer Mimi Denissi, are household names in Greece. In the cities young men and women date and go around together as they do in North America.

So many thousands of tourists visit Greece each year, particularly in the summer, that in many areas the beautiful stretches of pristine coastline are fast being taken over by a multitude of hotels, resorts, and restaurants. At the present time, one major economic problem in Greece is the persistence of a large public service deficit caused by an inefficient state sector and abuses in the tax and welfare systems. By 1995 new budgeting systems and grants from the European Union, (of which Greece is now a member), brought inflation under 10 % for the first time. Unemployment in certain areas of the country remains another serious problem, particularly among those with limited education and few job skills. Thousands of Greek migrant workers continue to live and work in Western Europe, most of them in Germany. From time to time these men (and almost all of them are men) return to Greece to try to rebuild their lives, rejoin their families, and seek employment with some of the skills they have acquired working abroad. Unfortunately, recent statistics show that many of them return to unemployment in Greece, or are forced to settle for unskilled or seasonal jobs.

The 1998-99 war in the area of the former Yugoslavia was very painful for Greece; tension about that conflict remains high. Not only is Greece near the combat zones, but, as a member of NATO, she is obliged to support NATO’s stand in favour of the Muslim Kosovars and Ethnic Albanians and against the Orthodox Christian Serbs. Greeks remember that the Serbs fought with them in support of the western allies in World War II, while the Albanians sided with the Germans and Italians. Thus, many Greeks find the policy of hostility against the Serbs and support for their opponents both unnatural and distasteful.

During the late summer of 1999 a terrible earthquake shook Turkey, the worst effects of which were experienced not far from the ancient city of Byzantium-Constantinople-Istanbul. The material damage was enormous, but much more tragic was the fact that thousands of people were killed, and even more thousands sustained terrible injuries. Recovery from that disaster will take years, and the human suffering for those affected will remain for decades. Although Greeks and Turks have often been at odds with each other over the centuries, when word of the disaster became known, the response of the Greek government and its people was immediate and generous. Greece sent money and supplies to the devastated areas, and Greek people worked shoulder to shoulder with the Turks and other international aid workers to try and save those trapped in fallen buildings. When another earthquake hit the Athens area in September 1999, the Turkish people immediately reciprocated by sending help to Greece. The world’s hope is that these two countries who have shared recent natural disasters, and been so generous in coming to one another’s aid, will in time be able to reconcile their long, troubled past.