THE SPEECH OF IOANNIS KOLETTIS AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE GREEK "GREAT IDEA" (original) (raw)
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A conventional view in the historiography of modern Greece tends to connect the origins of Greek nationalism, what is usually described as the Great Idea, with attitudes and aspirations dating from the late Byzantine period, specifically from the period of decline after 1204, which witnessed the rise of millenarian hopes for the recovery of Constantinople by the Orthodox heirs of the Eastern Roman Empire. This view, which has been propounded by Byzantinists, including such distinguished authorities as D. A. Zakythinos, A. A. M. Bryer and Helene Ahrweiler, appears to suggest that the expressions of Greek nationalism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries may be placed in the same historical continuum as the intellectual and psychological reactions to the destruction of Byzantine power in Asia Minor after the battle of Manzikert in 1071, the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, the fall of the empire in 1453 and of Trebizond in 1461. The same historical continu...
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Open Military Studies, 2022
This chapter analyses the geopolitics of the Greek Revolution and provides an in-depth examination of the specific demographic and geographic factors that contributed to the Revolution's outbreak and consequences. The chapter probes the geopolitical framework of interstate relations at the opening of the nineteenth century; the topography and characteristics of the spatial area of the Revolution; the human capital that facilitated the rebels (e.g. klephts, armatoloi, sailors, merchants, and intellectuals); and the strategic plans of the powers involved (great and small). The chapter reflects on the founding principles of the Greek state as a great-power protectorate and demonstrates that independence was achieved in great degree due to the geographic position of the Greek rebels on a vulnerable periphery of the Ottoman Empire, where the European states could project their sea power.
1821 – A New Dawn for Greece. The Greek Struggle for Independence – Contents
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The Greek War of Independence (1821-1829) is a fascinating mélange of the old and new, of traditional identities and modern concepts. Perhaps nothing exemplifies this better than questions of identity, ethnicity, and nationality as they played out and developed over the 9 years of the conflict. This article examines two trajectories on the question of identity and nationality that seamlessly coexisted not only during the Greek War of Independence but also for much of the early history of the Modern Greek State. The first looks at popular understandings of identity and the second the legal constructs that tried to define a national identity and nationality in terms of law that would be compatible with developments elsewhere in Europe. This article explores these questions on the ground but also in terms of legal constructs and their evolution from the period just before the eruption of the revolt to the establishment of the Greek state arguing that these efforts and apparent contradictions can be seen as taking part in a wider European debate on nationality and identity following the experience of the Napoleonic Wars and at the same time continuing long-held identities in the Ottoman state.
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The origins of Megali Idea Greece became the independent state (from the Ottoman Empire) in 1829−1833 with the crucial diplomatic, political, financial and military assistance by the UK and Russia. It was a very fact that the Kingdom of Greece incorporated at that time only around 25% of the Greeks who were living at the Balkans and Asia Minor (the Near East). Such situation created tensions between Greece and the Ottoman Empire as the Greeks wanted their total national unification what was possible only under the conditions of the destruction of the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, from the very beginning of its sovereignty, the chief aim of the Greek foreign policy was to realize the idea of national unification which was some 60 years after the granting of independence officially formulated as an irredentist project of Megali Idea (Great Idea) – a territorial extension for the sake to create united (Greater) Greece 1 based on the claiming historical and ethnic Greek territories existing within the borders of the Byzantine Empire, which is considered by the Greeks as their medieval national state. Therefore, the capital of such Greater Greece would be Constantinople (the Ottoman/Turkish Istanbul). The proponents of Megali Idea, in other words, aspired to unite within the borders of a single national political unity all the areas of Greek settlement in the Near East.
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OTTOMAN PERCEPTIONS OF THE GREEK NATIONALISM
OTTOMAN PERCEPTIONS OF THE GREEK NATIONALISM, BALKAN WORLDS IV, 2019
Slavic and Oriental Studies, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki , November 29th – December 1st, 2018 Keynote Speaker: John Breuilly (LSE), ‘The rise and fall of pan-nationalisms, c.1870-1950’ This paper is an investigation of the Ottoman perceptions and reactions to 1821 and the concept of Greek irredentism. I will try to investigate how the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud B', the central state elite and the intelligentsia, experienced the Greek War of Independence and the "making" of the modern Greek state. The Ottoman reactions have been overlooked or interpreted with simplifications by historians. Therefore, we have to examine the contemporary Ottoman sources and the terminology in order to understand the Ottoman perceptions. My survey is based on the archival material compiled by the Ottoman statesmen and the contemporary history accounts. The Ottomans intercepted and translated correspondence from the Greek leadership, including a very important letter addressed to all the Helenes to rise and liberate the motherland 1. A survey on the Ottoman Archives, revealed that the Ottomans translated the Temporary Constitution of Greece, (1 January 1822) 2. Through the translation of these letters, terms such as republic (cumhuriyet) freedom (serbestiyet), motherland (vatan), compatriot (hemvatan), national assembly (cumhur müşaveresi) entered to Ottoman terminology for the first time. The Ottomans and the Sultan himself neglected all the declarations and the national aspirations of the Greeks and perceived the revolt as a conspiracy (fesad), provocation (fitne), betrayal (ihanet) and sedition (isyan) 3 carried out by the "ungrateful reayas". Why did the Ottomans insisted on interpreting the Greek independence movement as a simple sedition? The ideas of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution had reached the Ottoman world through different channels of transmission, such as the sizeable European community in Istanbul and the Ottoman ambassadors in 1 Ilıcak, Huseyin
The Greek Revolution 200 Years On: New Perspectives and Legacies
Yianni Cartledge and Andrekos Varnava, “The Greek Revolution 200 Years On: New Perspectives and Legacies”, (eds.) Yianni Cartledge and Andrekos Varnava, New Perspectives on the Greek War of Independence: Myths, Realities, Legacies and Reflections, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2022, 3-21., 2022
ing the Greek War of Independence. It was also telling that the 'Great Idea', with the exception of the Dodecanese Islands, which Italy ceded to Greece in 1946, and the enosis policy in Cyprus, ended 101 years after the start of the Greek War of Independence. 3 A year after celebrating the centenary of the start of the 'Greek Revolution', Greece, which had doubled its territory over the last decade, found itself defeated and still divided. About 50 years later, on the 150-year anniversary of the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence, Richard Clogg wrote that 'the period of the Tourkokratia remains the least studied and least understood period of Greek history'. 4 Fifty years later again, the nature of the Tourkokratia still remains among a number of aspects of the 'Greek Revolution' that are overlooked by Greek historians let alone broader European historical scholarship. This includes discussions of transnationalism, localism, international Philhellenism, privateering, mass violence and massacres, emigration, historiography, the arts, foreign reactions, and the broader Greek-speaking world; as well as a range of new perspectives on already established narratives. Following the many celebrations, commemorations, and symposiums held in honour of the Greek War of Independence during 2021, revisiting these minimally discussed aspects seems both appropriate and timely. Just over 200 years ago, between February and March 1821, uprisings in the Ottoman Balkans eventually led to the formation of the modern Greek nation state in 1830. This event became known in the West as the 'Greek War of Independence' (1821-1829), to Greeks as the 'Greek Revolution of 1821', or simply as 'the struggle' during its immediate aftermath, and to Turks as the 'Greek Mutiny'. This volume, New Perspectives on the Greek War of Independence: Myths, Realities, Legacies and Reflections, marks the 200-year anniversary of the uprising. To explore the Greek War of Independence and its impact on the communities and 2