[ALBSA-Info] What is Hellenism?

[Kreshnik Bejko]

Kostas,

What is salient about this article is not the condemnation
of the Greek Orthodox Church way of handling things. Rather
it is what most western analyst agree when it comes to Greece:
Greece has an eastern, parochial society which is
typical of the Balkans...yet Greece is, by some trick of fate,
a member of an organization that belongs to a different philosophical 
persuasion(the EC).In any case Albanians need to take a holistic
view of the situation and judge carefully the influence the Greek
Orthodox Church has on the Albanian Orthodox Church and whether
it can use it to further its purposes which could be in direct
opposition to Albanian national interests. For example, could
the Albanian Orthodox Church be used to advance the goals of
Hellenism? I don't see why not.



>From: "Giakoumis" <kgiakoum at acci.gr>
>To: "Kreshnik Bejko" <kbejko at hotmail.com>
>CC: "Balkans" <balkans at egroups.com>
>Subject: Re: "The misery of being Greek"
>Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 15:43:08 +0300
>
>
>Kostas Giakoumis
>37 Aharnon Street. Kifissia
>145-61, Athens, Greece
>Tel.: 003-01-8016787
>Fax: 003-01-6230013
>E-mail: kgiakoum at acci.gr
>
>Dear all,
>
>since Kreshnik Bejko was as kind as to bring into our attention this 
>article, I would be grateful if the following few points, which are 
>expressed spontaneously, without order were also considered:
>
>1) I am not a supporter of the old ID cards. On the other hand I cannot 
>undestand the fury to change them all at once, when in less than two years 
>the new European card will resolve such problems.
>
>2) However, it is very difficult to judge from abroad, no matter how many 
>years someone has been living in this country. There are many aspects of 
>the whole issue that cannot been followed by the briefings that appear in 
>the media. It would be fair to say that in the whole tension of the Church 
>with the government the problem was limited only to ID cards, while in 
>reality it covers a greater range of issues, of which sensible fears are 
>exressed.
>
>3) As is self-evident, nationalism or discrimination is not springing from 
>ID cards.
>
>4) European cards will be issued in a couple of years, therefore there was 
>no need of a sudden change emerged by a Minister in contradiction to 
>another minister of the same government (the Minister of Education) and his 
>assurance that there will be no snapping changes in issues of which the 
>Church is interested. If the present Greek government was as tactful as to 
>discuss this issue with the Church before taking a decision, there wouldn't 
>have been any problems, as Churchmen imply. The same socialist government, 
>which is almost 20 years in power in Greece (I am surprised why the writer 
>of the article thinks that Greece may have had the longest right-wing 
>government of the world) in 1994, when the issue of changing the IDs, in a 
>way that religion is not presented in them, was brought up to the 
>Parliament by the Opposition, was strong supporter of the old ID, which 
>less than 5 years later was found by the same government as causing 
>problems to the minorities.
>
>5) It is true that concerns related to globalization have been expressed 
>not only by Church dignitaries but also by may others, not necessarily 
>'conservative'. Such concerns are also shared with other western Europeans.
>
>6) Characterizing all priests as "ayatollahs" is a dangerous 
>overgeneralization and implies a certain bias of the author of the article 
>against them.
>
>7) The attachment of the Church with the State in Greece predates the 
>establishment of the State, therefore it is simplistic to allege that 
>Church ministers are State-paid for their services in inaugurations, etc.
>
>8) Perhaps the author of the article would be surprised to learn that the 
>Greek Church has repeatedly sided Herself to the European movement, but has 
>been sceptical to the negative aspects of the process of globalization. It 
>is not a secret that the Church receives European money and is involved in 
>many European projects. The Church does not oppose to political burial for 
>those who do not believe. If Church burial was obligatory how the Moslem 
>minorities would bury their dead?. In fact, no Church burial used to be 
>provided even when the deceased had commited suicide. In most of these 
>cases, the relatives of the deceased blamed the Church for not burrying 
>them in the 'proper' way. Furthermore, the Church did not oppose to 
>political marriage as well, however, the Greek society never really 
>accepted it; as a result, many of the couples initially joined with 
>political marriage went afterwards to the Church for a Church wedding!
>
>9) It is true that the involvement of religious minorities was limited in 
>the past years, however, the religious leaders of spiritual minorities in 
>Greece have expressed their satisfaction over the changes in recent years. 
>Greek people start to realise that these changes are inevitable, also due 
>to the Olympic Games of 2004.
>
>10) The demonstrations against the ID cards were far but as described in 
>the article. Of course, in a mass of 1,000,000 people there would be some 
>fanatics, mostly the self-called 'zealots', but no trouble at all was 
>reported. Accordingly, it is frivolous for those not witnessed the 
>protestations, who just followed the briefing to demonise them. The way by 
>which the protestations were covered in the TV was controversial. Some 
>chanels presented the 'zealots' and selected images supporting the idea 
>that the protestations were of the old Iranian type. Some others selected 
>images that showed the pulse of the event, with young people expressing 
>moderate opinions. The truth is somewhere between these two. However, the 
>latter view expresses better the nature of the protestation, to my own 
>view.
>
>11) It is not fair to allege that Greece suppresses minorities. I admit 
>that this was the case until some years before, things have changed in the 
>last few years. Now, for example the immigrants (Albanians included) have 
>the right to have their own schools (Albanians already have one) and they 
>enjoy full rights. If there are events of suppresion of rights of the 
>minorities I will be the firtst to condemn them, but these cannot be 
>considered in a limited national level. For example I used to feel very 
>embarassed by the way that the police treated Albanian citizens in the 
>Greek bordiers. The situation in the last 1,5 year has bettered. Similar 
>steps must continue not only in this case, but in others. However, these 
>discriminations are but isolated cases, condemned by the majority of the 
>Greek population.
>
>12) National issues? I thought that it was the pseudo-State of the Turkish 
>Republic of Cyprus the country which recently occupied part of the 'green 
>zone' in Cyprus and this was the most recent event. Should Greeks then be 
>pleased with the 'national issues'? I agree there exists a certain number 
>of nationalists, but these are only a minority as in every country.
>
>13) The Greek Church and the majority of Greek people (including me) 
>supports the separation of the Church from the State, however, this must 
>not be decided arbitrarily without previous discussion and agreement of the 
>Greek government with the Greek Church; and at any case not in an 
>atmosphere of rupture and tension.
>
>14) What is wrong about basing the Constitution in the name of the Holy 
>Trinity? My impression is that this is common to many other coutries, among 
>which many of those that the author of the article implies as 'progressed' 
>(i.e. USA).
>
>15) It is evident that in Greece many social changes have been and are 
>being realised. In crucial times, if the progressive thinkers (in the side 
>of whose Helen Smith sides herself) marginilize the ones who are less 
>prepared for the necessary changes, instead of seriously considering their 
>opinions and try to formate new models of change, less fearful to the ones 
>who are afraid of it, unintentionally they make this part of population 
>vulnerable to influences from ill extremes (political, social and 
>religious).
>
>16) There are very serious persons, academics included, other than the ones 
>selectively pointed out by the author of the article, many of which were 
>among the fighters of exteme policies of right-wing governments of the 
>past, that oppose to the government's decision with solid arguments. Are 
>they also "phobic, unskilled and introverted"?
>
>17) My impression is that Helen Smith, the author of this article, in spite 
>of having lived in Greece for 14 years, as she claims, did not manage to 
>include herself in the deepest of the Greek society, in order to distantly 
>judge on the fears of a major part of its. According to my opinion, her 
>lack of objectivity is more explicitly depicted in the false-categorization 
>of the Greek people: "The problem is that there are two Greeces: one that 
>is western, modern, open, reform-minded, civic, competitive, risk-taking 
>and international; and one that is eastern, traditional, parochial, phobic, 
>unskilled and introverted". I personally claim to be traditional and a 
>parishioner of a parochial life and simultaneously western, modern, 
>open-to-reforms, competitive, risk-taking and international and I do not 
>consider myself as an exception of the major part of Greek society; to 
>which of the two categories of Helen Smith do I belong?
>
>
>In conclusion, social problems are not to be treated in an impromptu and 
>superficial way.
>
>I apologise for the possibility of having showed that I was offended by 
>this article.
>
>
>Yours,
>
>Kostas Giakoumis
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Kreshnik Bejko <kbejko at hotmail.com>
>To: <kgiakoum at acci.gr>; <andreas.cyllok at stud.uni-muenchen.de>; 
><balkans at egroups.com>; <south-east-europe-forum at mailbase.ac.uk>; 
><kchryso at eie.gr>; <dritan at Bilkent.EDU.TR>; <thau at hum.ku.dk>; 
><Fabian.Schmidt at snafu.de>; <genciana_a at hotmail.com>; <jq at hum.ku.dk>; 
><kristaqb at hotmail.com>; <larsn at hum.ku.dk>; <lubork at juls.savba.sk>; 
><machiel.kiel at let.uu.nl>; <MJAKUB at Vela.filg.uj.edu.pl>; <miwa at fhw.gr>; 
><mstrubki at chi.forthnet.gr>; <minna at litcul.ou.dk>; 
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><alban at genling.lang.pu.ru>; <xhenis at cafod.tirana.al>
>Sent: Monday, August 21, 2000 5:49 PM
>Subject: "The misery of being Greek"
>
>
> >
> >
> > General by Helena Smith 21st August 2000
> >
> >
> >
> > A row over identity cards is giving the powerful Orthodox priests of
> > Greece a
> > chance to exploit a dangerous nationalism, reports Helena Smith
> >
> > Strange things are going on in Greece. The country is wrestling with
> > an
> > identity crisis and the Eastern Orthodox Church, feeling wronged,
> > appears to
> > have gone mad.
> >
> > Where you think you spot a priest, you invariably discover an
> > activist - men
> > in black with stovepipe hats denouncing the "dark forces" behind
> > Athens's
> > unusually progressive government. The enlightened call them Orthodox
> > ayatollahs.
> >
> > It's worrying stuff, the sort of thing that might make Pericles
> > really writhe
> > in his grave. The cause of such rancour? The removal of any reference
> > to
> > religion on civilian identity cards. For a country in which 97 per
> > cent of the
> > population is Christian and Eastern Orthodox, it would seem an
> > innocuous enough
> > move. But in Greece - the European Union's only Orthodox state - it
> > has had an
> > unexpectedly explosive effect: all at once, Hellenes have had to ask
> > themselves
> > who, and what, they want to be. And they are doing it in a way that
> > is not
> > showing them in the best of lights.
> >
> > Greece's spiritual leaders - the self-styled protectors of Hellenism
> > through
> > 400 years of Ottoman rule - retain an influence on civil life unknown
> > in any
> > other part of the west: they officiate at the swearing-in of
> > governments, the
> > inauguration of public and private projects and the blessing of
> > private homes.
> > In recognition of those close ties, clerics receive state salaries.
> > In their
> > view, the Greeks are caught up in their toughest fight yet to remain
> > a cut
> > above the rest; to preserve their Christian Byzantine roots from the
> > "meat
> > grinder" that is the EU.
> >
> > Drop religious affiliation from identity cards - originally
> > introduced by a
> > military dictatorship in the late 1930s - and, the clerics argue, you
> > sound
> > the death knell of a single nation state.
> >
> > The Greek prime minister, Costas Simitis, has tried to counter all
> > this by
> > insisting that the reform brings Greece into line with its European
> > partners,
> > and that "the declaration of one's religious affiliation is not only
> > discriminatory, but offensive. It insults the right of every
> > individual to
> > privacy and religious freedom."
> >
> > The Church, however, remains adamant. Greece's bearded clerics regard
> > the "identity crisis" as the sort of thing that could drag the nation
> > into "civil war". In June, more than a million Greeks (one-tenth of
> > the
> > population) flocked to hear Archbishop Christodoulos, the Church
> > Primate,
> > denounce the measure as the first step in a sinister plot to
> > de-Hellenise
> > Greece. "Our faith is the foundation of our identity. If you abolish
> > one, you
> > abolish the other," the archbishop thundered, as the crowd of
> > rumbustious flag-
> > wavers cheered. The scenes were reminiscent of the fundamentalist
> > fervour that
> > once ran riot in Iran.
> >
> > Increasingly, human rights groups have begun to wonder whether Greece
> > is a nice
> > place, after all. Over the past ten years, Athens has been repeatedly
> > condemned
> > by the European Court of Human Rights for violations involving all of
> > its
> > religious minorities. Away from the warm, taverna-terraced beaches,
> > fun-loving
> > Zorbas and tourist-trampled temples, Greeks treat those who dare to
> > be
> > different with red-hot contempt.
> >
> > Try being a Jew, Catholic, Muslim or Protestant, and you will not get
> > far - as
> > the ranks of the Civil Service, diplomatic corps and army so amply
> > prove. Try
> > being an immigrant, and you are viewed as the reason for unemployment
> > and
> > crime. Try mentioning ethnic minorities - officially, they do not
> > exist, bar
> > communities of Muslims and Roma - and you may be labelled "sick in
> > the mind",
> > to quote Theodore Pangalos, the country's feisty former foreign
> > minister. Try
> > taking a different tack in public on the country's so-called
> > "national
> > issues", the ones involving Turkey and other neighbours, and it is
> > likely that
> > you will be branded a traitor.
> >
> > "Modern Greece is an ethno-nationalist state par excellence," writes
> > the
> > commentator Takis Michas in his forthcoming book, Ethnic
> > Totalitarianism. "'Others' are viewed as a source of potential danger
> > to the
> > national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Greece."
> >
> > Twenty-six years after the collapse of the colonels, the fracas over
> > the
> > identity cards smacks of "the Greece of Christian Greeks", the
> > rebarbative
> > slogan that those petty officers used to give their rotten regime an
> > acceptable
> > allure. It also proves that liberty and equality, the values that
> > drive
> > democracy, are still in short supply in this, the birthplace of
> > democracy.
> >
> > I write this with a heavy heart. I am not a "mishellene", a
> > Greek-hater,
> > although I know I will be cast as one when this comes out. I have
> > happily lived
> > in and reported from Greece for the past 14 years. I think I can say
> > that it is
> > a magical place with some magical people.
> >
> > The problem is that there are two Greeces: one that is western,
> > modern, open,
> > reform-minded, civic, competitive, risk-taking and international; and
> > one that
> > is eastern, traditional, parochial, phobic, unskilled and
> > introverted.
> >
> > The country, mercifully, is now in the hands of the former. But they
> > are a
> > minority - a "group of angels in a sea of devils", as one wry
> > observer
> > recently put it. The political spectrum is replete with members of
> > the "other"
> > Greece, who see civic society, with all its talk of fundamental
> > freedoms, as
> > reeking of anti-nationalism.
> >
> > The present identity crisis has shown how far there is to go if the
> > twain are
> > to meet. Greece's troublesome priests show no sign of backing down
> > soon.
> > Archbishop Christodoulos may say he does not want to turn his flock
> > into "fanatics", but he has seen that demagoguery works. Indeed, his
> > fighting
> > spirit has sent shivers down the spine of the governing Socialists.
> >
> > The "eastern" Greeks, who support the archbishop's stand, can still
> > relate to
> > the notorious declaration of the Byzantine commander Loukas Notaras
> > (uttered
> > days before the sacking of Constantinople in 1453) that it would be
> > better to
> > see the Turkish turban in the city than the Roman cardinal's mitre.
> > For these
> > people, civic society is still a dirty word. They believe that they
> > have
> > nothing to gain from globalisation, least of all the punishing
> > reforms required
> > to take the nation into Euroland's new economic order. Passions are
> > clearly on
> > the rise. In the Church, the easterners see the embodiment of
> > Greece's
> > defensive national identity, the only bulwark left against the
> > creation of a
> > threatening, multi- cultural, open society.
> >
> > "There is a very big underdog coalition from which the Church can
> > draw its
> > strength - Greeks who feel very insecure about the phenomenal pace of
> > change
> > in this country," says Professor Nikiforos Diamantouros, Greece's
> > ombudsman and
> > a political scientist.
> >
> > Many Greeks are now praying that the identity crisis will eventually
> > lead to a
> > full separation of the secular and ecclesiastical spheres. "This, I
> > hope, will
> > be the beginning of the formal separation of church and state," says
> > Nikos
> > Dimou, the author of the bestselling book The Misery of Being Greek.
> > "The
> > Church is the wealthiest institution in this country, and it has far
> > too much
> > control. Greeks vote according to church dioceses, the constitution
> > is in the
> > name of the Holy Trinity and, even if they want to, they cannot die
> > without it
> > because the Church has ensured that civil burials don't exist."
> >
> > There have already been calls by bishops for civil disobedience. As
> > the
> > government prepares to print the new ID cards, the Orthodox Church,
> > clearly
> > girding its loins for battle, says it will encourage people not to
> > take
> > possession of them.
> >
> > Come 1 September, churchmen will begin collecting millions of
> > signatures for
> > an "informal referendum" on the issue.
> >
> > Every European state is afflicted to some degree by the twin evils of
> > populism
> > and racism. As the only country in the EU not to border another
> > member state,
> > Greece differs only in the way that it perceives its own watertight
> > identity.
> > It remains the EU's poorest member, badly in need of crucial economic
> > and
> > social reforms. Within the 15-nation bloc, Greece still has the
> > biggest labour
> > force of civil servants and small-time self-employed.
> >
> > The Greeks have experienced more years of authoritarian, right-wing
> > rule than
> > perhaps any other nation on the Continent. The generation born since
> > the
> > restoration of real liberty in 1974 is the first never to have
> > experienced war,
> > civil strife or major economic convulsions. Understandably, it feels
> > more
> > secure - as the unprecedented enthusiasm for recent rapprochement
> > between
> > Athens and Ankara has shown.
> >
> > Now that the identity crisis is out in the open, and with this new
> > generation
> > in mind, it is hoped that the Greeks will finally be able to accept
> > the idea
> > that their own homogeneity is a myth. Already, taboos have been
> > lifted, not
> > least around the once sacred subject of the role of their Church.
> >
> > There are few who are saying such things aloud. But, one way or
> > another, good
> > may come of the madness.
> >
> > Helena Smith has been awarded a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard
> > University for her
> > coverage of Greece and the Balkans as the Athens-based correspondent
> > for the
> > Guardian and the Observer
> >
> >
> > ________________________________________________________________________
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> >
> >

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