Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Greek community in Turkey fears for its survival

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Greek community in Turkey fears for its survival

    Interesting article. I wonder how realistic it would be to see a steady return of Anatolian Greeks back to their original homeland if Turkey ever got admitted into the EU.

    ====

    BBC News - Greek community in Turkey fears for its survival
    By Jonathan Head
    BBC News, Istanbul

    This week members of the Greek Orthodox Church celebrated one of the most important dates in their calendar, the Feast of Epiphany, with young men competing to retrieve crosses thrown by priests into rivers and seas around the world.

    The most important ceremony takes place in Turkey's biggest city, Istanbul, where the spiritual head of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Bartholomew, throws a cross into the Golden Horn.

    The Church here traces its origins back through a continuous line of patriarchs to the 4th Century.

    But most of the Greeks watching the ceremony are overseas visitors. Official tolerance of minorities in Turkey has improved over the past decade, but the local Greek community has dwindled to fewer than 3,000, and there are now real fears for its survival.

    Tucked away in the streets behind Kadikoy harbour in Istanbul is a magnificent 140-year-old building. Its stately windows and grand classical portico stand in contrast to the drab, concrete townhouses that surround it. This is one of 22 schools in the city built to serve the Greek community.

    But today, the Kadikoy Greek Primary School's intake has fallen to just one pupil, 10-year-old Valendi Mihailidis. His are the only footsteps heard after the bell rings for classes, where he gets personal tuition from a Greek and a Turkish teacher.

    "It's a very sad situation," says Yorgo Istefanopulos, a Turkish-Greek professor who has volunteered to manage the school. "When I was a pupil here in the 1960s there were six classes, all full. It was swarming with pupils."

    He took me to the assembly hall where children used to perform. Today dusty chairs are piled in one corner. The dining room downstairs has not been used in years. And when Valendi wants to play football in the playground, he has to ask the school caretaker to join him.

    Valendi says he is happy, but wishes there were other children to play with. When he leaves, the school will probably close.

    Horrific violence

    Greeks have lived in the territory of modern-day Turkey for more than 3,000 years. Up to the last years of the Ottoman Empire, they still numbered nearly two million, dominating much of the commerce.

    But after the violent birth of the Turkish republic in 1923, most of those living along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts were expelled in a matter of days through an agreed population exchange with Greece.

    The sizeable community in Istanbul, though, was exempted, and until the mid-1950s there were still nearly 70,000. But nationalist emotions stirred up by the crisis in Cyprus were directed against the Greeks in one night of horrific violence in September 1955, in which mobs attacked shops and churches, raping Greek women and forcibly circumcising priests. Hostility towards the Turkish Greeks continued for many years, forcing thousands to leave Istanbul.

    Another difficulty for the community has been the official regulations, which have resulted in thousands of buildings once belonging to Greeks or Greek foundations being confiscated by the state.

    This has been a particular challenge for the Church, because the Turkish state does not recognise Patriarch Bartholomew as head of the world's Orthodox Christians.

    Without any legal status, he has been barred from managing the many churches and other properties that once belonged to the Church. Nor has he been able to train new priests - the seminary that once did so remains shut down, and finding recruits in the shrinking Greek community is hard.

    That situation is now beginning to improve, as the Turkish government relaxes its approach towards ethnic and religious minorities in its quest to meet the human rights standards required for European Union membership.

    In one important symbolic case, the Turkish courts have handed back an old orphanage, one of the world's largest wooden buildings, to the Orthodox Patriarchate. Patriarch Bartholomew, a committed environmentalist, hopes to restore the badly decayed building, and turn it into an environmental research centre.

    "This case is a revolution," says the patriarch's lawyer Cem Sofuoglu. "It gives the Church de facto recognition by the government for the first time. I could not imagine this result even five years ago."

    'Land of opportunity'

    These days an increasingly prosperous and cosmopolitan Istanbul is starting to rediscover its rich Greek heritage, unencumbered by the defensive nationalism of the past.

    There are performances of Greek music and exhibitions showcasing the many works of Greek architects still left in the city. The much-improved diplomatic relations with Greece these days also help.

    The official regulation of minority foundations was also eased three years ago, and for the first time a member of a minority group sits on the state body responsible for regulating them. Laki Vingas, an ebullient Greek entrepreneur, hopes to use this position to revive the community.

    "We are too small, that's a reality", he says. "We need to restructure these foundations, which date back to the Ottoman period, when we were far larger.

    "The minorities want to maintain their heritage. They are proud of their culture. But they also want to be productive, to participate in the life of this country. They don't want to be preserved as an antique, as a piece of history."

    But the biggest challenge remains the size of the community. Most of the remaining Greeks are older. There are now only 240 pupils to fill the 22 schools.

    Unlike the much larger Armenian community, which is being reinforced by recent migrants from Armenia, only a small number of Greeks have moved back to Istanbul, and as foreign citizens they are not allowed to send their children to the local Greek schools.

    "Our only hope is that Turkey joins the European Union," says Yorgo Istefanopulos. "Then, with the crisis in Greece and the borders opened, I hope Turkey will be seen as a land of opportunity, not just for Greeks who originated here, but all Greeks."

    That is a pretty forlorn hope. Turkey's EU candidacy has stalled, mostly over Cyprus, and membership - if it ever happens - is certainly many years away.

  • #2
    This issue is a terrible case of hate between nations. The issue extends itself even in cities like NY and London
    sigpic

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by tomkent45 View Post
      This issue is a terrible case of hate between nations. The issue extends itself even in cities like NY and London
      Did you know there is not even one Mosque in Athens despite being alot of ethnic Turks living in Greece. There are many churches in Turkey and Government funded also.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by denizkuvetleri View Post
        Did you know there is not even one Mosque in Athens despite being alot of ethnic Turks living in Greece. There are many churches in Turkey and Government funded also.
        Maybe you should visit Northern Greece, where the Greek Muslim population resides (that's "Greek" for "Ethnic Turks", and let's agree to disagree from the start of how we call them). You will see whether there are mosques or not.

        And, maybe, you should also visit Cyprus, where many churches are desecrated and destroyed in the north, and the Enclaved Greek-Cypriots are not allowed to perform their rites in many churches, while in the south the Republic paid 1.000.000 euros last year alone in the preservation of mosques.

        You know very well that BOTH countries (Greece and Turkey) are not exactly models in religious freedom. So, let's just leave it at that.

        Comment


        • #5
          Greek community in Turkey fears for its survival
          to me, after visiting todays Turkey writing this article only shows how biaised is the author. it/he is clearly targeted for a purpose...

          I wonder how realistic it would be to see a steady return of Anatolian Greeks back to their original homeland if Turkey ever got admitted into the EU.
          come and see by yourself...most of their old villages are still there...and most Anatolian people (especially western part which is the region we are talking of) would welcome them with open arms...

          Horrific violence
          this is offensive.

          But after the violent birth of the Turkish republic in 1923,
          this is biaised.

          Greeks have lived in the territory of modern-day Turkey for more than 3,000 years. Up to the last years of the Ottoman Empire, they still numbered nearly two million, dominating much of the commerce.
          after dominating 400yrs todays Greece, 600yrs todays Anatolia, living with Greeks, accepting them in most highest positions in the Ottoman Empire, letting them commanding armies/lands/men and etc...

          But nationalist emotions stirred up by the crisis in Cyprus were directed against the Greeks in one night of horrific violence in September 1955, in which mobs attacked shops and churches, raping Greek women and forcibly circumcising priests. Hostility towards the Turkish Greeks continued for many years, forcing thousands to leave Istanbul.
          suddenly, right after the collapse of Ottomans, in 1923 (violent? who proposed Ataturk for the Nobel prize?),

          and 1955, Turks (which refers in this article all other millets including Turks except Armenians) wanted to attack Greeks and it lasted 2 days? (6-7 september 1955)

          now i dont deny 6-7 september incident. it is a shame and 2 black days for our history.

          but defining this incident as a "public move" is nothing but naivete at best.

          it was clearly a provocation which found its support from multiple reasons. the engineers of this provocation are not known to me but we know some corrupted army officers&politicians involved.

          i, personally, strongly believe that one day we (Greece & Turkey) will find the best way which is for me to return the Ataturk's era GreekoTurkish relations and that old alliance between our nations.

          after all, if one can focus without prejudices can see that we are very near to be the same people.
          Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.

          Comment

          Working...
          X