The Roman Empire inevitably adopted their ideas and philosophy. After thousands of years we still find pride in the philosophy, law and civilisation we inherited from them.
However, instead of sustaining and developing this advanced civilisation, they occupy or destroy it, and sequestering all the wealth as an ingenuity. But every night has a morning and every civilization a keeper… After three and a half centuries, the Hellenic sun had started to rise again behind the mountains.
When you think about the concept of time in terms of great Greek civilization, a century is just like a second. Certainly by virtue of its descendents who have scattered all around the world, the Hellenic sun will one day rise again in Pontos, which for now is condemned to darkness.
The world — particularly Anatolians- owe so much to the Greek civilization. The tragedy of Turkey is that people there have for decades have been fed with propaganda about their own history and hostility against Greek people. The level of hatred for Greeks in Turkey is not only heartbreaking but also ironic given the fact that most cities across Asia Minor, that are now inhabited by Turkified people, were built by Greeks, an indigenous people of the land.
Vryonis is a great source. It details the methods of Turkification used after the Turkic invasion of the Byzantine Empire in the eleventh century. The Fall of Constantinople, the subsequent Islamization that took place during the Ottoman era and Christian genocide in Ottoman Turkey should also be studied from objective sources.
Unfortunately, children and youth in Turkey are taught a completely distorted version of history that glorifies invasions and bloody conquests that slaughtered the indigenous peoples and then oppressed the survivors throughout the centuries. When Turks hate Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians and other native peoples of the land, they actually hate their own ancestors and then continue attacking and violating those who have been able to preserve their ethnic and religious identity — like Turkey has done in northern Cyprus since the invasion.
Even if some people in Anatolia might have Turkic roots, the truth will help many of them side with justice and civilization, as well.
Maybe this explains why Turkish lawmakers still to this today feel the West is being overprotective of Greece. Athens, meanwhile, regards Turkey as spoilt by the West in the sense that it keeps receiving NATO arms, sits by as Ankara backs the breakaway northern third of Cyprus, and tolerates fervent nationalists in government.
It is commonly claimed that while ordinary Greeks and Turks want to live together peacefully, politicians are the ones who continue stoking tensions.
I am not sure this is entirely accurate. Still, I know that Greeks and Turks have much in common — be that music, cuisine, humor, or even a shared sense of Weltschmerz. It tells the fictional story of Fanis, a Greek man, who is forced out of the Turkish city of Istanbul in the s in the lead up to the Cyprus crisis. In Athens, however, Fanis is rejected by his fellow countrymen, and labeled a Turk. The film shows how international politics can turn the lives of ordinary individuals on their heads — while a silent majority looks on, saddened but without the impetus to speak up.
A Touch of Spice was praised in Greece as a deeply emotional movie that leaves viewers with a sense of both yearning and sadness for the past.
During the s — when Greece was still governed by a military junta — many Greeks would sing a song about two friends, Yannis and Mehmet, who discuss philosophy over wine in Istanbul. In the song, Mehmet says that while he believes in Allah, and Yannis in a Christian god, both feel the same hurt. When Athens backs the military coup in Cyprus, which sees Turkey respond by invading the northern part of the island — Yannis and Mehmet have nothing more to say to each other.
Although both nations have much in common culturally, this has not been reflected in both countries' recent history. Greek-Turkish relations should be governed by rational decision-making, so our mutual admiration can flourish.
Yet another military conflict between both sides would be to of detriment to us all. Read more : EU to consider sanctions on Turkey over Mediterranean gas drilling. And let us be courageous. While this idea has little chance of becoming reality due to Turkish fears of seeing its territory divided, it holds more promise than saber-rattling. Working on peaceful co-existence requires skillful lawmakers, rather than fervent nationalist.
Along with a well-informed Greek and Turkish citizenry willing to speak up. Turkey has been engaged in a row with Greece over natural gas exploration in the Mediterranean Sea's disputed waters. The textbook concentrates on the aftermath of the disaster, portraying the Greeks as victims, not on how the whole incident got started. Better to learn the truth and hate me, the messenger, than ignore the truth and wrongly blame the victims of the story.
The idea was always speaking to their collective Greek consciousness, and they thought it was a great idea. They think we Greeks still covet their largest city, Istanbul. But they are wrong.
As I said, however, back then our ancestors were thinking of the Great Idea. In , there was only a crumbling Ottoman Empire, which, having sided with the losers of WWI, was seeing its territories being divided among the winners. And our ancestors, with the Great Idea always at work in their heads, agreed and sent their troops there, with the pretext that they needed to protect the large populations of Greeks who were inhabiting those lands since antiquity.
History books say the Turkish army had withdrawn inland, unable to confront not just the Greeks, but the fleets of the Great Powers supporting them. The unfortunate events started a little later. During the years from to , the army of our invading ancestors had some successes in consolidating their hold of a relatively large part of western Anatolia, especially the region near Smyrna. There are reports from independent, third-party sources that describe atrocities of the worst kind.
Yet the Greeks are persisting in their oppression, and they have continued to burn villages, kill Turks and rape and kill women and young girls and throttle to death children. Arnold J. Toynbee, the British historian, reported that he and his wife witnessed atrocities perpetrated by Greeks in the Yalova, Gemlik, and Izmit areas.
Marjorie Housepian wrote that 4, Smyrna Muslims were killed by Greek forces. Johannes Kolmodin, a Swedish orientalist in Smyrna, wrote in his letters that the Greek army had burned Turkish villages.
The members of the Commission consider that, in the part of the kazas of Yalova and Gemlik occupied by the Greek army, there is a systematic plan of destruction of Turkish villages and extinction of the Muslim population.
This plan is being carried out by Greek and Armenian bands, which appear to operate under Greek instructions and sometimes even with the assistance of detachments of regular troops. By the Great Powers had changed their plans, and abandoned the Greeks in Anatolia, who now had not a good line of supplies, not even enough ammunition.
They were fighting in a land they never considered theirs, whereas the Turks were fighting for what they considered their own land. They burned villages, killed men, raped and killed women and children as they were heading back to Smyrna:. Cassaba Turgutlu was a town of 40, souls, 3, of whom were non-Muslims. Of these 37, Turks only 6, could be accounted for among the living, while 1, Turks were known to have been shot or burned to death. Of the 2, buildings that constituted the city, only remained standing.
Ample testimony was available to the effect that the city was systematically destroyed by Greek soldiers, assisted by a number of Greek and Armenian civilians. Kerosene and gasoline were freely used to make the destruction more certain, rapid and complete. As we examined the ruins of the city, we discovered a number of skulls and bones, charred and black, with remnants of hair and flesh clinging to them.
Upon our insistence a number of graves having a fresh-made appearance were actually opened for us as we were fully satisfied that these bodies were not more than four weeks old. Without complete figures, which were impossible to obtain, it may safely be surmised that atrocities committed by retiring Greeks numbered well into thousands in the four cities under consideration.
These consisted of all three of the usual type of such atrocities, namely murder, torture and rape. You can find them all in this Wikipedia page , which is a good starting point. And since you are so good in heroic cyber-battles, my brave young Greek cyber-warriors, you may go and dig up more information from the Internet, which is all available at your fingertips.
Learn first, reserve judgment for later. Of course I am aware of atrocities committed by Turks against Greeks the civilians, not the army after the Turks started getting the upper hand in that war.
Start by looking at the same link I gave above. Perhaps the number of Greeks killed by Turks in the aftermath of that ugly war was even larger than the number of Turks killed by Greeks. But my purpose here is not to become a judge and determine which side committed more atrocities who gave me that right? My purpose is to explain to you, dear Greek compatriots, why Turks hate us. Committing an atrocity cannot be forgiven by pointing out that the enemy, too, committed atrocities against you.
Two evil deeds do not cancel each other out making one innocence. Our Greek army, acting as an occupying force and not as a liberating one treated the Turks as enemies not worthy of living. To be human means to regard every human being and even every animal, in my opinion as having the right to live. If you disagree, not only are you not worthy of the heavy heritage of your ancient ancestors of such figures as Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle, who you enjoy bragging about , but you drop your moral stature to the level of the apes.
To understand why Turks hate us, we should try to put ourselves in their shoes. Perhaps the following analogy could help:. But now your power is diminishing. Your house keeps falling apart, piece by piece, and each piece that falls is taken by other people, who live far away and are now in power. Suddenly, you see that your house is in fire.
While you try to save whatever you can from your belongings, you see that the neighbor who lives at the opposite side is crossing the river and, taking advantage of your weakness, is trying to take away some more pieces of your house. In desperation, you collect whatever power has been left in you, counter-attack the invading neighbor, and kick him out of your house, sending him back to where he came from, to the other side of the river.
The house in fire, falling apart piece by piece, was the crumbling Ottoman Empire; the river is the Aegean Sea; and the invading neighbor was us, Greeks, our army. If we were to invade every place where lots of Greeks live, then we should start by invading the U.
Try that first. And, the bottom line is, none of those arguments can ever justify massacres. Invasion is by itself a crime; but when accompanied by atrocities then it becomes a heinous, deeply immoral act. We should first apologize to the Turks for our behavior one century ago, and then wonder why they hate us — if they continue to do so. Personally, I would support the Greek politician who would have the guts to offer an official apology to the Turks.
And that should be a one-sided apology, without expecting the Turks to reciprocate by apologizing for those things that I describe on the right-side column. But, unfortunately, such Greek politicians do not exist. What they worry about is their dear seats, not morality and justice.
And you keep re-electing them. There is a second reason for which Turks hate us Greeks. Greeks have almost forgotten this issue, whereas Turks cannot forget it because it concerns them daily, as they still have to deal with the PKK. But this is a big issue, for which I will write extensively in a later version of this article.
For Turkish readers: Why Greeks hate Turks Dear Turk, reader of this column, not all Greeks will agree with each other on the reasons for which they hate you. Others will lament the demise of Byzantium by the Ottomans.
Others for the eradication of all Greeks who used to live in Asia Minor modern-day Turkey since antiquity, including those of Istanbul, an eradication that started after the pogrom of September 6—7,
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