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![Santorin Island [Greece] 1848](http://images.nationmaster.com/images/motw/historical/santorin_island_1848.jpg)
| COMMENTARY |
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    2nd December 2004 |
The term Caucasian race has in time acquired somewhat different meanings in different contexts. It is popularly used in North America to describe whites of northern, eastern and western European descent, usually excluding southern Europeans (often called "Mediterraneans") and peoples of Asian, Native American, African, or Middle Eastern origin. In North America, Caucasian is also used in the broader meaning of "white" especially in government and census forms; see Caucasian type. Others, especially in Eastern Europe, use the term to refer to various ethnic groups living in the Caucasus region; see Peoples of the Caucasus. MFO Freedom of Information Act page Privacy Policy © 1997-2004 www.mediterraneanfoundation.org/grecolatin.htm |
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    5th December 2004 |
Greek hero, Alexander the Great was the founding father of Mediterranean culture whom spread Greek culture around the regions of the world of which he conqured eventually creating Hellenistic culture as the effect of the blend of cultures especially the Persians. Hellenistic culture built the foundation of Mediterranean culture and eventually blended with Roman influences to create modern Greco-Roman culture which connects the cultural traditions of Italy and Greece. MFO Freedom of Information Act page Privacy Policy © 1997-2004 www.mediterraneanfoundation.org/grecolatin.htm |
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    11th December 2004 |
The term Caucasian race has in time acquired somewhat different meanings in different contexts. It is popularly used in North America to describe whites of northern, eastern and western European descent, usually excluding southern Europeans (often called "Latins") and peoples of Asian, African, or Mediterranean origin. In North America, Caucasian is also used in the broader meaning of "white" especially in government and census forms; see Caucasian type. Others, especially in Eastern Europe, use the term to refer to various ethnic groups living in the Caucasus region; see Peoples of the Caucasus MFO Freedom of Information Act page Privacy Policy © 1997-2004 www.mediterraneanfoundation.org/grecolatin.htm |
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    18th March 2005 |
The term Caucasian race has in time acquired somewhat different meanings in different contexts.It is popularly used in North America to describe whites of northern, eastern and western European descent, usually excluding Italians, Greeks, Albanians, and Maltese (Mediterraneans)along with North Africans and Middle Easterners. |
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lydian 2nd June 2005 |
Why don't you write anything about main minority group in Greece? They are Turks in the Northern Greece and the Islands, especially in Rhodes. Muslim and Christian Turks called Karamanlis are the main minority group in Greece. Therefore in language section, you must add Turkish. |
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Kostas 21st July 2005 |
In case of Turkey you can right that 40% of the population used to speak Greek before they have been wiped out by the official Turkish policy. |
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Nikos 7th October 2005 |
According to Lausane treaty signed in 1923 between Turkey and Greece, there is no Turkish minority in Greece but Muslim minority located only in the area of Thrace (not generally in Northern Greece). The "Turkish speaking Turks" belong to the only officialy recognized minority and many of them are not even of Turkik origin. Concerning the relocated christians from Anatolia, among them there were many Armenians as well, there are also Kurdish refuges in Greece fleeing from their region after the recent uprising and many other refuges from various nations coming to Greece on the seek of a better future. You definately have to add some fifty languages to the language section.... |
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Anaximandros 17th April 2006 |
Some thoughts on minorities. Regarding the Turkish speaking minority in Thrace and some Aegean islands. They number about 120,000 and enjoy full political and educational rights. They elect two representatives in the house of parliament. Since the abolishment of a law in 1997 that had in the past been used to strip them of Greek citizenship there are few outstanding humanitarian issues. There are also quotas reserved (2%) for Greek Muslim students on all universities as part of an affirmative action program. The Lausanne Treaty stipulated the presence of 100,000 Turks in Greece (Thrace) and 150,000 Greeks in Turkey (Istanbul and two islands). While the former are still there, alive and thriving the later have been ethnically cleansed, with the worst persecution being the infamous 1955 Istanbul Pogrom which claimed the lives of hundreds of Greeks and destroyed thousands of their homes, businesses and churches. The survivors left in thousands and today the Greek speaking population in the city that Greeks founded as Byzantium over three thousand years ago is barely two thousand old men and women. In fact it is to those Greeks whom it has so casually cleansed that Turkey and Islam owe their symbol, the Crescent Moon, since this was a device painted on Constantinopolitan house doors to commemorate the salvation of their city from the besieging army of Phillip II, which they attributed to Artemis, one of whose symbol’s was the Crescent Moon. |
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Anaximandros 17th April 2006 |
Regarding the Slav Macedonian minority in Northern Greece. In the last election their minority party received 3,000 votes indicating a size of about 10,000-15,000 persons. They are not allowed to broadcast and have education in their language nor create institutions labelled as Macedonian. This is a disgrace for Greece and laws should be amended allowing them native language education and mass media presence. The name issue is more complex. Slav Macedonians were once the dominant element of the area of Macedonia but decades of assimilation efforts by Greeks first, and in the 20th century Bulgarians and Serbs have resulted in the majority of these people adopting either of these aforementioned national identities. The final blow for Slav Macedonians in Greece came after liberation from the Axis, when almost 6,000 of them who had formed gendarmeries used as levies by the Axis occupation forces and engaged in limited ethnic cleansing and score settling operations against their Greek speaking fellow citizens were driven from Greece with their families. This was followed by a similar exodus in 1948 after the end of the Greek Civil War, when the Slav Macedonians had fought with the Greek Communists in exchange for their concision of cessation of parts of Northern Greece to form the core of the new Macedonian state (as per the 1924 Comintern directive, which the Greek communist party, reluctantly and to its eventual detriment, had accepted). The Communist forces were defeated and a new exodus of several thousands Slav guerrillas and their families ensued. Henceforth the Greek state engaged in Hellenising drive on the remaining Slav Macedonian population with schools only teaching Greek and their native language suppressed. As a result the large majority of former Slavic speakers now consider themselves Greeks and only a minority has retained a Macedonian ethnic identity. While I don't condone the practice of burdening an entire nation with the sins of a few tens of thousands, I think that the expulsion of Slav Macedonians from Greece following the end of the Axis occupational and Civil War, was less premeditated ethnic cleansing than overreaction to perceived internal threats, which until the time they were defeated were real enough. At any rate as many Greek communistic have returned from exile after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Greek state should allow as many of the Slav Macedonian exiles who wish to, the right of return. |
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Anaximandros 17th April 2006 |
Regarding the former Albania minority of Chameria, none remain today as they were persecuted after the withdrawal of Axis occupation forces from Greece. They had formed militias and levies (The Balik Compeatar) that supported the occupation forces and settled accounts with their Greek neighbors, while the Italian army that attacked Greece in 1940 was augmented by two Albania division, some recruited form among the Chamerian population. Further an SS Brigade (the SS Skanderberg brigade) was formed and manned by Albanians form throughout the Balkans. Some form of reprisals after the liberation was unfortunately unavoidable. However as 50 years have past already since those times the Greek state should consider granting a right of return to any Chamerians or their descendants who wish to so return. As there are already over 700,000 (mostly illegal) Albanians living in Greece many Chamerians have no doubt returned. On the issue of property restitutions some form of resettlement could even help revitalize the lands in southern Epirus, which have been depopulated by internal migration as well as being a humanitarian and worthy goal in and of itself. Finally we should mention that Albania has treated its Greek minority much better than Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia or of course Turkey. This is not to say there are no problems. Recently Greek minority party offices have been bombed and armed thugs terrorize Greeks into selling and vacating their property with the tacit collusion of the police. However they have not followed Turkey’s policy of pogroms, murder and ethnic cleansing and for this they should be commented. |
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