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Greece - a country in the Eastern Mediterranean

Andreas L. Katonis

Chair of Greek Studies

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

A relatively small country in Southern Europe with a population of

about 11 million, yet with a very long history and a most important culture.
Officially called the Hellenic Republic, and historically also Hellas, inhabited
in majority by Greeks.

Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilization, the birthplace

of democracy, Western philosophy, Western literature, historiography,
political science, mathematics, the Olympic Games - their modern revival
happened also in Athens, the capital, in the end of the 19th century -, and
Western drama. With the Turkish conquest many Byzantine Greek scholars
fled to the West taking with them a large body of literature and thereby
significanty contributing to the Renaissance.

The roots of the Greeks' presence in their country, according to the

archaeological estimations are put back as far as 2200 BCE, so we can speak
of a historical continuity of roughly four thousand years. The first
attestations of the language called Greek or Hellenic, did not appear much
later: they begin in the 17th century BCE. Historically, this is the Mycenaean
epoch or Mycenaean Greece, which was, unlike the country's subsequent and
greatest historical period, a centralized state existing until about the 12th
century BCE, the time of the mythic Trojan War. It is noteworthy that the
Mycenaean Civilization possessed writing, called Linear B which originated
from one or more previous writing systems. This writing went into oblivion
and the Greek alphabet as we know it today was introduced in the 8th
century BCE or a little earlier. This was the epoch of Homer, and together
with Homer's achievement the beginning of the great epoch of Greek
civilization. This is considered to have lasted until the 2nd century BCE when
the whole of Greece became a Roman protectorate. Following the Fall of the
Western Roman Empire (476 CE), the Eastern part, later called Byzantine State
or Byzantine Empire survived for thousand more years before it fell victim to
the Turkish conquest. It may be remarked that the Byzantine State
considered itself Roman, i.e. officially it was the Eastern Roman Empire.

Modern Greece is a unitary parlamentary republic. The nominal head

of the state is the President of the Republic who is elected by the Parliament
for a five-year term. Head of the State is since 2015 Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

Actual Greece, like its language, has in this way "several pasts", and
this feature led to a complicated picture on the surface, reflecting the many
avatars in its history but also in its language. A unique feature is all the same,
that territorially and linguistically there never was a fractionating leading to
separate countries or languages. The only exception to this is the existence
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of Cyprus, an independent state, due to unfavourable political factors,

divided presently into a Greek and Turkish sector, whereas the Greek
language - even if Modern Greek is noticeably different from the classical
one - , is as much Greek as its great predecessor some 2500 years ago.

Severely harassed by a fatal four-hundred year Ottoman rule (from

1453 to 1832), the modern state, although a member of the European Union,
still tries to find its identity. Greece, whereas it could be an ideal place for
scholarship, its real chance in the opinion of this writer, is not yet the
country where advanced classical or other studies are initiated. Everyday
climate is political, schools, universities, research places are the scene of
political discussions, things often come and go on the surface only. Educated
minds may leave the country - an age-old problem, frequently afflicting also
other social and rural layers. Nevertheless, Modern Greece is a Founding
Member of the United Nations, and participates in a number of international
institutions like the Council of Europe, the OECD, the WTO, the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization. Since 2001 the country is part of the Eurozone.

Greece still offers much for the visitors: despite the fact that artefacts
like statues e.g. began to be transported to the West as early as by the
Romans, and then in Modern Times by European rulers and archaeologists,
yet an undefinable quantity of antique objects are on exibition in museums
throughout the country with ongoing excavations which constantly enrich the
number of findings. Naturally, several antique buildings also exist, like the
Acropolis in Athens being the most important among them.

The climate of Greece is primarily Mediterranean featuring mild, wet

winters and hot, dry summers. This climate is excellent for those who look
for a rest in summer and prefer bathing and swimming. The unique climate,
together with the historical wealth of the country and the healthy
Mediterranean kitchen attracts many tourists the number of which is
increasing. Last year's tourism is said to have surpassed in number twice the
population of the whole country. This would mean about twenty-five million
visitors in that year. Greek olive oil, indispensible for cooking, is recognized
world-wide. The country has thousands of small islands and a few large ones,
with innumerable very good beaches which provide an ideal summer vacation
with unlimited possibilities of bathing in the sea, whether in Northern or in
Southern Greece or on Attica, the peninsula where the capital is seated.
Among the most popular islands are Mykonos, Rhodos, Santorini and the
biggest island, Crete.

Greece is considered to have the largest economy in the Balkans with

a per capita income at $21,910 for nominal GDP. However, by the end of
2009, as a combination of international and local factors, the country's
economy faced its most severe crisis since the restoration of the democracy
in 1974. (Restoring the democracy means the resignation of a military
governent which came to power in 1967). This crisis is going on, and despite
the many promises the present ruling SYRIZA party and its leader actual
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras gave, the debt crisis has not diminished. Wages
and even pensions are being reduced again and again. The only way out
seems to be either a very radical change in economic policies, or, in the long
run, contributions by the "heavy industry" of the country, i.e. by tourism.
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SYRIZA is thought to be a radical leftist party, forming a government

in the beginning with joint forces with the communists, though itself not
accepting all communist objectives. Soon the political map changed. About
30 % of the government was substituted, and a new coalition with a minor
right-wing party called ANEL came into being. Thus, belonging to the NATO,
the European Union and the Eurozone is not questioned by SYRIZA-ANEL-
members. Relations with the United States, too, are, despite frequent
criticism, mostly normal. Whereas this party won the elections in January
2015 with a relatively high percent, its popularity decreased considerably,
and New Democracy, the biggest opposition party gained positions distinctly.
If nothing changes, the country will proceed to new elections in a year.
According to current public-opinion polls the victory on the part of New
Democracy is more probable than that of the government party.