GREECE

Outdoor dining on Mkonos, one of the smaller islands of the eastern Cyclades group of Greek 1/4 The important sites of Greek antiquity that attracted European noblemen to the Greek lands in the 18th century, and which were such a potent influence on architectural styles in the West, continue to attract tourists from all over the world. Newly excavated sites such as the supposed tomb of Philip II of Macedon at Verghina and the Pompei-like remains at Thera are further indications of an astonishingly rich heritage from antiquity that has still not been fully explored. Over the past century there has been a greater awareness of the richness of the architectural and artistic heritage of the medieval empire of Byzantium. The arts Against the background of this extraordinary artistic heritage, Greece enjoys a thriving cultural life. It is in the field of literature that Greece has made its greatest contributions. Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933), who lived most of his life in Alexandria, Egypt, is frequently ranked among the great poets of the early 20th century. His poetry is suffused with an ironic nostalgia for Greece's past glories. Two Greek poets have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, George Seferis in 1963 and Odysseus Elytis in 1979. The novelist best known outside Greece is the Cretan Nkos Kazantzkis, whose Zorba the Greek was made into a popular film. A number of Greek composers have acquired an international reputation, including Nikos Skalkottas, Manos Hadjidakis, Mikis Theodorakis, and Iannis Xenakis, a French composer of Greek descent. Well-known painters in the post-World War II period include Ghika, Yannis Tsarouchis, and Photis Kontoglou, who drew his inspiration from the ascetic traditions of Byzantine art. There is a lively theatrical tradition, in which political satire plays an important part. The traditional shadow puppet theatre, Karaghiozis, is now largely extinct, having been displaced by the ubiquitous television. Sunlight on the whitewashed walls of Thra, chief town of Thera, Greece, the southernmost 1/4 officially Hellenic Republic, Greek Ells, or Ellinik Dhimokrata, the southernmost of the countries of the Balkan Peninsula. It is a land of mountains and of sea. It is difficult to be far out of range of either, a fact that has had an important influence on the country's economic and historical development. Mountains have historically restricted internal communications, but the sea has opened up wider horizons. Greece has an area of 50,949 square miles (131,957 square kilometres), of which one-fifth constitutes the Greek islands. The area of Greece is approximately the same as that of England or the U.S. state of Alabama. The country is bordered to the west by the Ionian Sea, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea, and to the east by the Aegean Sea; only to the north and northeast does it have land borders. These run from west to east with Albania (153 miles [247 kilometres]), Macedonia (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; 159 miles [256 kilometres]), Bulgaria (295 miles [475 kilometres]), and Turkey (126 miles [203 kilometres]), totaling altogether 734 miles (1,181 kilometres). Greece has more than 2,000 islands, of which 170 are inhabited; some of the easternmost Aegean islands lie just a few miles off the Turkish coast. Given this situation, it is no accident that Greece has always had a strong nautical tradition. The country's capital is Athens, which has expanded rapidly in the period since World War II. The area around the capital (Attica) is now home to about one-third of the country's entire population. A Greek legend has it that God distributed all of the available soil through a sieve and used the stones that remained to build Greece. The country's barren landscape has been a powerful factor impelling Greeks to migrate, a process that has continued for centuries until very recent times. The Greeks, like the Jews and Armenians, are a people of the diaspora; there are several million people of Greek descent in various parts of the world. Xeniteia, or sojourning in foreign parts, with its strong overtones of nostalgia for the faraway homeland, has been a central element in the historical experience of the Greek people. Greece lies at the juncture of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is heir to the heritages of classical Greece, the Byzantine Empire, and nearly four centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule. From ancient Greece the modern country inherited a sophisticated culture and a language that has been documented for almost three millennia. The language of Periclean Athens in the 5th century BC and the present-day language of the Greeks are recognizably one and the same; few languages can demonstrate such continuity. From the Byzantine Empire it has inherited Eastern Orthodox Christianity and from Ottoman rule attitudes and values that continue to be of significance, not least in shaping the country's political culture. Greece is a country that is at once European, Balkan, and Mediterranean. It is also a country that is peculiarly burdened by its past: Greece is the only country in the world, Greek the only language, and Greeks the only people regularly prefaced by the epithet "modern." References to Greece and Greek usually denote ancient Greece and ancient Greek. Greeks, however, take great pride in their cultural heritage, and the notion of an unbroken continuity between ancient and modern Greece is an essential element in the Greek self-image. In 1981 Greece joined the European Community (renamed the European Union in 1994). It was the first eastern European country to do so, and its heritage of Ottoman rule and Orthodox Christianity set it apart from the existing member states. The centuries of Ottoman rule have insulated the Greek lands from many of the important historical movements, such as the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution, that shaped the destinies of the countries of western Europe. Membership in the European Union has been a factor in buttressing Greece's somewhat uncertain identity as a European country. Richard Ralph Mowbray Clogg officially Hellenic Republic, Greek Ells, or Ellinik Dhimokrata country occupying the southernmost extension of the Balkan Peninsula. Along its northern border, from west to east, lie Albania, Macedonia (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), and Bulgaria; to the east is Turkey. The Greek mainland is a peninsula bounded by the Ionian Sea to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and the Aegean Sea to the east. Crete (Krti), the country's largest island, stretching about 165 miles (266 km) from east to west, lies in the Mediterranean Sea and is separated from the peninsula by the Sea of Crete. The capital is Athens. Area 50,949 square miles (131,957 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) 10,310,000. Linguistic, ethnic, and religious background Greek Orthodox priests from the monastery of St. John the Theologian celebrating an outdoor Easter 1/4 The inherent instability of the Balkan Peninsula-located as it is at the crossroads of invading Turks, migrating Slavs, and colonizing powers from western or central Europe (Venetians, Austro-Hungarians)-has bequeathed a bewildering amount of cultural confusion to Greece. Even in the south or on the islands, centuries of population migration and forced population exchanges continued well into the 20th century. Despite the long Ottoman administration (perhaps because of its failure to create a nation-state), all but a very small part of the population belong to the Church of Greece (Greek Orthodox church). This body appoints its own ecclesiastical hierarchy and is headed by a synod of 12 metropolitans under the presidency of the archbishop of Athens. The Greek church has links in dogma with the other Orthodox churches. Virtually all Cretans belong to a special branch of the Church of Greece, headed by the archbishop of Crete and directly responsible to the patriarchate of Constantinople. The Muslim minority, which constitutes most of the non-Orthodox group, is mainly Turkish and is concentrated in western Thrace and the Dodecanese. Roman and Greek Catholics, concentrated in Athens and the western islands formerly under Italian sway, account for the rest, except for a few thousand adherents of Protestant churches and of Judaism, the last group having been much reduced in numbers by the Nazi genocide of World War II. In terms of ethnic composition, Greeks again make up all but a small part of the total, the remainder being composed of Macedonians, Turks, Albanians, Bulgarians, Armenians, and Gypsies. Except in Cyprus, southern Albania, and Turkey, there are no major enclaves of Greeks in nearby countries, although Greek expatriate communities play a distinctive role in western Europe, North and South America, and Australia. Demography The Greek population has never displayed high rates of growth, although-despite losses in a succession of wars and constant emigration as a result of poor economic conditions-it has usually shown a regular increase since the first census, in 1828. Most of its growth in the years since Greece gained its independence from the Turks in 1832 resulted from two factors-annexations of surrounding areas (the Ionian Islands; Thessaly and rta; Epirus, Greek Macedonia, and Crete; Thrace; and the Dodecanese) and the influx of some 1,300,000 Greek refugees from Asia Minor in the 1920s. Emigration has continued to be a limiting factor: the years 1911-15 were an active period, and emigration became particularly heavy after World War II. The most common destinations of the emigrants have been the United States, Canada, Australia, and, somewhat later, Germany, Belgium, and Italy. With a total population, according to the 1991 census, of 10,264,156, the two decades since the demographically stagnant 1950s and '60s have seen a remarkable revitalization in Greece. This is, however, almost wholly due to international population movements, not to an increase in natural growth rates, which remain low. Within the country, the contrast between regions losing population (two-thirds of the southern Peloponnese, all the Ionian isles except Corfu, the mountains of central, southwestern, and northeastern mainland Greece, and most of the islands of the eastern Aegean) and those rapidly gaining people (Attik and other districts outside the major cities) holds a range of important social and political implications at all levels. Catherine Delano Smith Government Constitutional framework The current constitution was introduced in 1975 following the collapse of the 1967-74 military dictatorship. The considerable powers it vouchsafed to the president were never invoked before they were reduced in the constitutional revision of 1986. Presidential powers are now largely ceremonial. The president is elected by the parliament (Vouli) and may hold office for two five-year terms. The prime minister, who has extensive powers, must be able to command the confidence of the parliament. The latter consists of 300 deputies and is elected for a four-year term by direct, universal, and secret ballot. It has the power to revise the constitution, as happened in 1986. A distinctive feature of the electoral system is the practice of incumbent governments, of whatever political hue, amending the electoral law to suit their own political advantage. Voting is compulsory. The party system Although the political system is in the process of modernization, many elements of traditional politics remain, notably the personalistic nature of the party system, with parties being heavily dependent on the charisma of their (frequently elderly) leaders and the importance of patronage at all levels. There are three main political concentrations: the right, the centre, and the left. In the 1990s these were represented respectively by New Democracy (ND), the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). New Democracy, founded by the veteran conservative politician Constantine Karamanlis, has progressively espoused "neoliberal," antistatist policies meant to limit the power of the state and to encourage private initiatives. PASOK, although it has substantially moderated the Third World liberationist rhetoric of its earlier years, retains a strong commitment to a radical foreign policy and an idiosyncratic form of socialism, which reflects the fact that only some 40 percent of the working population are wage or salary earners (the remaining 60 percent being self-employed). On the far left the KKE advocates a Soviet-style communism even after the demise of the Soviet Union. The broadly "Eurocommunist" Coalition of the Left and Progress has limited electoral appeal. Additional reading General works All aspects of the country are treated in Glenn E. Curtis (ed.), Greece: A Country Study, 4th ed. (1995). John Campbell and Philip Sherrard, Modern Greece (1968), contains, besides useful historical surveys, valuable chapters on the Orthodox church, literature, and the economy, while paying attention to the values underpinning society. Yorgos A. Kourvetaris (George A. Kourvetaris) and Betty A. Dobratz, A Profile of Modern Greece: In Search of Identity (1987), contains material on many aspects on contemporary Greece. A good source for readings on Greece is Mary Jo Clogg and Richard Clogg (compilers), Greece (1980), a bibliography with more than 800 entries on some 30 subjects, with the majority of cited sources in English. Physical and human geography One of the most extensive works on the geography of Greece is Alfred Philippson, Die griechischen Landschaften, 4 vol. (1950-58). H.C. Darby et al., Greece, 3 vol. (1944-45), produced by the Naval Intelligence Division of Great Britain, contains much material of value on physical and economic geography. J.L. Myres, Dodecanese, 2nd ed. (1943), also produced by the Naval Intelligence Division, is a survey of the Dodecanese islands under Italian rule between 1912 and 1947.Greece's geology is treated in a regional context in Clifford Embleton (ed.), Geomorphology of Europe (1984), chapter 16; and Derek V. Ager, The Geology of Europe (1980), chapters 15-16. Pierre Birot and Jean Dresch, La Mditerrane et le Moyen-Orient, vol. 2, La Mditerrane Orientale et le Moyen-Orient (1955), offers details on physical structure and brief treatments of climate and vegetation. Individual aspects of the landscape are dealt with in E.G. Mariolopoulos, An Outline of the Climate of Greece (1961; originally published in Greek, 1953). J.R. McNeill, The Mountains of the Mediterranean World: An Environmental History (1992), includes the Pindus Mountains as one of the case studies.Classic studies of Greece's people and customs include Ernestine Friedl, Vasilika: A Village in Modern Greece (1962); and J.K. Campbell, Honour, Family, and Patronage: A Study of Institutions and Moral Values in a Greek Mountain Community (1964, reissued 1974). Michael Kenny and David I. Kertzer (eds.), Urban Life in Mediterranean Europe (1983), includes several essays on Greece, including a study of rural-urban migration. Timothy Ware (Kallistos Ware), The Orthodox Church, new ed. (1993), is a clear and concise account of the history and theology of the predominant religion in Greece.The economy is covered by A.F. Freris, The Greek Economy in the Twentieth Century (1986); and Persefoni V. Tsaliki, The Greek Economy: Sources of Growth in the Postwar Era (1991). Politics is dealt with in Keith R. Legg, Politics in Modern Greece (1969); and Richard Clogg, Parties and Elections in Greece (1987).The remarkable continuities in the Greek language are discussed in Robert Browning, Medieval and Modern Greek, 2nd ed. (1983). A comprehensive survey, beginning with the emergence in the 11th century AD of literature in a recognizably modern form of the language, is Linos Politis (Linos Polits), A History of Modern Greek Literature (1973). Catherine Delano Smith Richard Ralph Mowbray Clogg