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Greece (Greek: Ελλάδα [e̞ˈlaða] or Ελλάς [e̞ˈlas]), officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία [e̞ˌliniˈci ðimo̞kraˈtiˌa]), is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula. It is bordered by Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania to the north and by Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east and south of mainland Greece, while the Ionian Sea lies to the west. Both, parts of the eastern Mediterranean basin, feature a vast number of islands. Greece lies at the juncture of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is heir to the heritages of classical Greece, the Byzantine Empire,[1] and nearly four centuries of Ottoman rule.[2] Regarded as the cradle of western civilization and the birthplace of democracy,[3] Western philosophy,[4] the Olympic Games, western literature, political science, major scientific principles and drama[5] (including both tragedy and comedy), Greece has a particularly long and eventful history and a cultural heritage which has been considerably influential in Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. Today, Greece is a developed country, a member of the European Union since 1981 and a member of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union since 2001. Athens is the capital; Thessaloniki, Piraeus and Patra are some of the country's other major cities.
HistoryImage:Acropolis of Athens 01361.JPG The western side of the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. Image:Hermes by Praxiteles.jpg The famous statue of Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus, attributed to the greatest of the ancient attic sculptors, Praxiteles. Image:BattleofIssus333BC-mosaic-detail1.jpg Alexander the Great. Detail of the mosaic Battle of Issus, 333 BC.
Although the establishment of Roman rule did not break the continuity of Hellenistic society and culture, which remained essentially unchanged until the advent of Christianity, it did mark the end of Greek political independence. The Greek peninsula became a province of Rome, while Greek culture continued to dominate the eastern Mediterranean. When the Roman Empire finally split in two, the Eastern Roman Empire, known as the Empire of the Greeks and later Byzantine Empire and centered around Constantinople (known in ancient times as Byzantium), remained Greek in nature, encompassing Greece itself. During the Byzantine imperial period Greece experienced fluctuating fortunes, but succeeded in Hellenizing and institutionalizing most of its new invaders, and by the late eighth century Greeks from Sicily and Asia Minor were brought in as settlers. The eleventh and twelfth centuries are said to have been the Golden Age of Byzantine art in Greece, while the crusading epochs between 1204 and 1458 saw Greece hit by a series of non-Orthodox armies in the name of religion. The Byzantine era persisted, nevertheless, until the Fall of Constantinople on May 29, 1453, to the Ottoman Empire. Image:The sortie of Messologhi by Theodore Vryzakis.jpg The sortie of Messolonghi by Theodore Vryzakis, inspired by the Greek War of Independence. While the Ottomans were completing the main conquest of Greek Mainland Ottoman Greece, two Greek migrations occurred. The first saw the Greek intelligentsia migrate to Western Europe — especially to Italy — and was a significant factor in the advent of the Western European Renaissance. The second migration of Greeks left the plains of the Greek peninsula and resettled in the mountains, the islands and other Greek regions where the Ottomans were unable to create a permanent military and administrative presence. As a result some Greek mountain clans across the peninsula, as well as some islands, were able to maintain a status of independence. The millet system contributed to the ethnic cohesion of Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the Ottoman Empire based on religion. Eventually, religion played an integral part in the formation of the Modern Greek and other post-Ottoman national identities. On March 25, 1821 the Greeks rebelled thus declaring their strong will for independence (Greek War of Independence). Their struggle ended in 1829, when the newly formed Greek state was finally created and recognized (History of modern Greece). In 1830, the Russian ex-minister of foreign affairs, Ioannis Kapodistrias, a noble Greek from the Ionian Islands, was chosen as the President of the new Republic. However, the Great Powers soon dissolved that republic and installed a monarchy. The first king, Otto, was of the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach. The War of Independence also set in motion the establishment of major new cities and centres of trade such as Hermoupolis, Athens and Pireaus. In 1843 King Otto was forced, as a result of an uprising, to grant his subjects a constitution and a representative assembly. He was deposed in 1863 only to be replaced by a Danish Prince who took the name George I of Greece and brought with him the Ionian Islands as a coronation gift from Britain. Greece was growing economically, whilst becoming politically more liberal. In 1877, Prime Minister Charilaos Trikoupis curbed the power of the monarchy to interfere in the Assembly. Image:Oil painting of the Greek Parliament, at the end of the 19th century, by N. Orlof.jpg The Hellenic Parliament, covening as prime minister Charilaos Trikoupis gives a speech, during the late nineteenth century.
Image:Eleftherios Venizelos.jpg Eleftherios Venizelos, the Prime Minister who defined his era. Following the withdrawal of Greek forces, the destruction of Smyrna and the displacement of thousands of Greeks from the city, a new government was established in Greece. Soon afterwards, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, fixing the borders to this date. A population exchange was included in the agreement and immediately afterwards around five hundred thousand Muslims, then living in mainland Greece went to Turkey in exchange for more than 1.22 million Greek residents of Asia Minor (excluding Constantinople, Imvros and Tenedos). Between 1924 and 1935 there were 23 changes of government, a dictatorship and 13 coups until in 1935 a referendum was held, resulting in an overwhelming majority in favour of restoring the monarchy in the person of King George II. In 1936, General Ioannis Metaxas established an authoritarian conservative dictatorship in Greece, known as the 4th of August Regime. Image:Metaxasalexandrospapagospaulgeorge.jpg Ioannis Metaxas (left), architect of the famous Greek "No" against the Italian dictator Mussolini, with King George II of Greece, Crown Prince Paul of Greece and General Alexander Papagos at the successful Albanian Campaign against the invasion of fascist Italy during World War II. During the night of October 28, 1940, the Italian dictator Mussolini demanded that Greece surrender all its arms and allow Axis troops to invade the country; the Greek government gave what became known as the simple negative response of “No” (see Okhi Day), thereby siding with the Allies (see Military history of Greece during World War II). Italian troops then moved into the country from southern Albania, but were checked by significantly smaller Greek forces. This gave the Allies their first victory on land against the Axis powers (see Greco-Italian War). A prolonged period of fierce fighting in the Pindus mountains followed, in which Mussolini's forces were successfully pushed back. Hitler and his generals realized that their strategic southern flank needed to be secured more effectively, so German forces, whose ranks included troops from Bulgaria and Italy, invaded. The occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany began on April 6, 1941 (see Battle of Greece). Greek partisan resistance to the occupation was fierce, often with bitter retaliation from the occupiers. Greek Resistance however, such as that waged in Crete (see the Battle of Crete), is believed to have forced a delay in German plans to initiate invasion against the Soviet Union, thereby extending the campaign into the punishing Russian winter, while the extremely heavy losses of German paratroop forces foiled a planned German campaign in the Middle East against British-held Iraq and its oil fields. Germany retained its disastrous grip on the country until October 12, 1944 when its troops finally withdrew after the landing of Allied Forces in Athens. The Jewish community of Thessaloniki suffered the heaviest toll by far and the economy languished. Image:Tank during 17 November 1973.jpg November 17 1973: An AMX 30 tank standing in front of the Athens Polytechnic School, moments before the bloody end to the Athens Polytechnic Uprising. After liberation from Nazi Germany, Greece experienced an equally bitter civil war between the self-proclaimed communist Democratic Army of Greece and the Hellenic Army. The war lasted until 1949, when the communist forces were defeated in the Battle of Grammos-Vitsi. During the 1950s and 1960s, Greece experienced a gradual and consistent economic growth, also aided by significant grants and loans by the United States through the Marshall Plan. After 1965, however, a period of political turbulence and uncertainty led to a coup d’etat against the elected government and King Constantine II at dawn on April 21, 1967. In their place, a US-supported military junta, known as the Regime of the Colonels, was established. In the ensuing years, a number of sympathisers of the left, as well as a number of politicians and communists, were arrested and brutally tortured by the regime. Many politicians evaded capture and found political refuge in other European countries such as France and Sweden, but the then head of state, King Constantine, officially acknowledged the new regime, which was also then duly recognized by the international community and diplomatic relations continued. The King himself, however, attempted a counter coup in December 1967. After it failed, the former head of state went into exile in Rome. In November 1973, the Athens Polytechnic Uprising sent shockwaves across the regime and was not suppressed until July 20, 1974. On that day Turkey invaded Cyprus, allegedly to protect the island's Turkish minority from a Colonels-sponsored coup d'etat. The developing crisis led to the collapse of the Regime of the Colonels on July 23, 1974. Image:Karamanlisarrivesinathens.jpg July 24 1974: Konstantinos Karamanlis arrives in Athens on the French Presidential jet, courtesy of French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, to assume the leadership of government of national unity that would lead to free elections. He is greeted by jubilant crowds of supporters craving for the restoration of democratic rule. Ex-Premier Constantine Karamanlis was immediately invited back from Paris, where he had resided since 1963. Marking the beginning of the Metapolitefsi era of modern Greek history, the plane carrying Constantine Karamanlis landed in Athens in the early hours of July 24, amidst massive celebrations and enormous crowds, extending from the capital's Ellinikon International Airport to Syntagma Square; Karamanlis was immediately appointed as the interim prime minister under President Gizikis and founded the conservative New Democracy party, going on to win the ensuing elections by a large margin. Democratic rule was finally restored in its birthplace and a democratic republican constitution activated in 1975. The monarchy was abolished by a referendum held that same year, denying King Constantine II and his family any access to the country until 2004. Meanwhile, another prominent figure of the past, Andreas Papandreou, had also returned from the United States and had already founded the Panhellenic Socialist Party, or PASOK. Karamanlis won the 1977 parliamentary elections but resigned in 1980 giving way to George Rallis; Papandreou, however, won the elections held on October 18, 1981 by a landslide and formed the first socialist government in Greece's history. Papandreou dominated the Greek political stage for almost 15 years (excepted only by the 1990-1993 period when Constantine Mitsotakis of the New Democracy party won elections), until his death in June 23, 1996. By that time Kostas Simitis, one of many prominent political figures of PASOK, had already succeeded the ailing and hospitalized Papandreou as the new Prime Minister. Following a long period of diplomatic tension and the threat of a military confrontation (see Imia-Kardak crisis), relations with neighbouring Turkey have improved substantially over the last decade, since successive earthquakes hit both nations in the summer of 1999. Rapprochement came about through what became known as Greek-Turkish earthquake diplomacy and today Greece is an active supporter of Turkey's effort to be accepted by the European Union as a full member. Image:Opening Ceremony Athens 2004 Fire rings.jpg August 13, 2004: The widely praised 2004 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony was held in the Athens Olympic Stadium. Prime Minister Simitis remained in office until March 7, 2004 when Kostas Karamanlis of the conservative New Democracy party and a nephew of Constantine Karamanlis, won the parliamentary elections. Greece became the tenth member of the European Union on January 1 1981 and ever since the nation has experienced a remarkable and sustained economic growth. Widespread investments in industrial enterprises and heavy infrastructure, as well as funds from the European Union and growing revenues from tourism, shipping and a fast growing service sector have raised the country's standard of living to unprecedented levels. The country adopted the Euro in 2001 and successfully organised the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. PoliticsImage:Hellenic-Parliament3.JPG The Greek Parliament today. The 1995 Constitution (Σύνταγμα), describes Greece as a "presidential parliamentary republic" (Προεδρευομένη Κοινοβουλευτική Δημοκρατία), grants extensive specific guarantees of civil liberties and vests the powers of the head of state in a President elected by parliament for a five-year term. The Greek governmental structure is similar to that found in many Western democracies, and has been described as a compromise between the French and German models. The Prime Minister (Πρωθυπουργός) and cabinet play the central role in the political process, while the President performs some executive and legislative functions in addition to ceremonial duties. The Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government, and Executive power is exercised by that government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Hellenic Parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature and comprises three Supreme Courts: the Court of Cassation (Άρειος Πάγος), the Council of State (Συμβούλιο της Επικρατείας) and the Court of Auditors (Ελεγκτικό Συνέδριο). The Judiciary system is also comprised of civil courts, which judge civil and penal cases and administrative courts, which judge administrative cases, namely disputes between the citizens and the State. Greece elects a legislature by universal suffrage of all citizens over the age of 18. The Hellenic Parliament (Vouli ton Ellinon) has 300 members, elected for a four-year term. Since the restoration of democracy the party system is dominated by the liberal-conservative New Democracy (Νέα Δημοκρατία, Nea Dimokratia) and the socialist PASOK, or Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, Panellinio Sosialistiko Kinima). Non-negligible parties include the Communist Party of Greece and the Coalition of the Radical Left (see List of political parties in Greece). On March 7, 2004, Kostas Karamanlis, president of the New Democracy party and nephew of the late Constantine Karamanlis was elected as the new Prime Minister of Greece, thus marking his party's first electoral victory in nearly eleven years. Karamanlis took over government from Kostas Simitis of PASOK, who had been in office since January 1996, replacing the ailing charismatic leader Andreas Papandreou who died on June 23, 1996. Administrative divisionsAdministratively, Greece consists of thirteen peripheries subdivided into a total of fifty-four prefectures (nomoi, singular nomos). There is also one autonomous area, Mount Athos (Agio Oros, "Holy Mountain"), in Macedonia. GeographyImage:Olympus Litochoro.JPG View of the mythical Mount Olympus (2917m / 9570ft) from town of Litochoro. Image:Greece Santorini Oia Coast by day.JPG The rugged coastline of the volcanic island of | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
