Historical Relations and the Eastern Question

In the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries Ottoman Empire was a declining power due to the corruption and inefficiency of the government and the flow of Nationalism. As the result, the people under Ottoman rule began to struggle for independence (Peacock, 1982: 216).

A result of the Ottoman decline was rising interventions by the Great Powers of Europe to the Turkish affairs. In the nineteenth century this Great Power intervention to the Empire became frequent and the problems arising from the situation in the Balkans was one of the main problems in European politics. These problems between Ottoman Empire and the Great Powers were called the Eastern Question.

The events which began with the 1821 Ypsilanti troubles continued with the 1822 Revolt in Morea. The Battle of Navarino and the Treaty of Edirne created even greater problems in terms of the Eastern Question. Russia, Britain and France tried to keep their spheres of influence but also to keep each other from gaining too much influence on the declining Ottoman Empire.

As a result, these three Great Powers continued their competition over the Balkans and this led to a series of different conventions and treaties such as the Straits Convention of 184, the 1854-56 Crimean War, the 1856 Treaty of Paris and the 1878 Congress of Berlin. The Eastern Question could not be solved by any of these attempts. The only thing the Eastern Question helped was improving nationalist feelings and independence movements in the Balkans as the Balkan peoples became stronger in their independence movements because of the great support they had from the Great Powers (Peacock, 1982: 216-234).

When we look at the Greek nation and the birth of Greek Nationalism, the concept of the "other" becomes very important, and for the Greeks, the "other" are the Turks. Ethnic stereotypes are developed and reproduced in pairs, mutually on both sides of the "Us vs. Others" conceptual divide. The "Us vs. Them" polarity is connected to a particular religious and/or ethnic identity(in this case we see there are Greek-Orthodoxy and Turkish- Islam). Greeks often name as 'Turks' various states and groups such as the Seljuks, the Ottomans, even the Albanians (Turkalvanoi). Tourkokratia refers to the "400 years of bondage" the expressions 'invasion', 'slavery' and 'Turkish yoke' are also used to refer to the same concept (Millas: 50). 

The Development of Relations Between Republic of Turkey and Greece 

Because the relations between the two nations started in an unequal relationship of dominance and because the Greek ideal depended on the establishment of Byzantium the relations between the two countries were never in very friendly terms. At the end of World War I, Greek Armies tried to invade Anatolia and created problems for both sides. After the proclamation of the Turkish Republic, problems were tried to be solved by population exchange. According to the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations", which was signed on the 30th January 1923, the governments of Greece and Turkey exchanged approximately 2 million Greeks and Turks that was based upon religious identity, and involved the Greek Orthodox citizens of Turkey and the Muslim citizens of Greece.  

However the relations remained tense even after the two countries became members of NATO in 1952 and applied for EEC membership. Turkey signed the Association Agreement with the EEC in 1963. However, in 1980, when Turkey was asked to apply for full membership at the same time as Greece, Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel put off the application in order to calm down anti-EEC Islamists and win their support. As a result of this development, Greece joined the EEC the following year, unlike Turkey(Ahmad, 2003: 167). 

1960s and 1970s also forms a tense period between the two states regarding the Cyprus issue. Problems in the Aegean Sea, the future of Cyprus, demilitarization of Aegean Islands, territorial waters and air space became the most important problems between the two sides and remained unsolved until today.

European Union, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus

Another fact was the European perception of Greeks. European intellectuals came to see Greece as the cradle of civilization, democracy, philosophy, drama and naturalistic forms of art. They also saw the Greeks as the precursors of scientific inquiry. Ancient Greece was systematically glorified by Enlightenment philosophers and the civilization of the "polis" became the idol of the emerging romanticism. Not only ancient Greece was considered as the greatest achievement of human history, but Europeans also tended to flatter themselves by discovering their own idealized cultural ancestors in ancient Greece(Tsoukalas: 8). 

As a result, such Europe heavily supported the sovereign Greek nation state, would also support Greece's membership to the EU. Briefly, 6 years rule of military junta weakened with the revolt of the students of Athens Technical University. This also caused the junta to change their leader, Ioannides replaced Papadopulos. In the mean time, Samson coup replacing Makarios in Cyprus and the failing effort to implement ENOSIS (unification of Cyprus with Greece) lead to military intervention from Turkey to the island caused the junta regime in Greece to fail. 

Surrounding circumstances, Karamanlis who used to live in France came back to Greece and created the New Democracy Party and came to power alone. Karamanlis left NATO's military wing due to its passivity to the Turkish intervention to Cyprus. In 1973, Karamanlis proclaimed that a full membership of the EU is the country's new "Great Idea"(Megali Idea) and started Greece's membership negotiations to the EU again in 1975. In order to achieve it, he had to deal with the nation's economy first. As a result of a series of economic measures, the overall performance of the economy in the year 1976 showed steady progress. Following the completion of preparations, Greece submitted her application for full membership of the European Economic Community, the European Coal and Steel Community, and EURATOM on June 12, 1975. Following her application, the council stated that the negotiations to be completed within two to three years. In fact it took longer because of the Commission's opinion that The economy of Greece was insufficiently developed. The negotiation process resulted in 1979, and The Treaty of Accession was signed in 1979. Greece became the tenth member of the community on January 1, 1981(Koliopoulos and Thanos, 2010: 158-160). 

After the end of the Cold War, in November 1993, Greek Cypriots formed a Joint Defense Doctrine with Greece following the election of President Klerides. Turkish Cypriots responded by entering into a joint defense and foreign policy program with Turkey. In May 2004, the Greek two-thirds of the island became a member of the European Union as the Republic of Cyprus. 

Turkey, given its apparent military superiority in the Cyprus region, has insisted on perpetuating the post-1974 partition, being the only country to have recognized the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (which unilaterally declared its independence in the Fall of 1983). Since then, the Turkish-Cypriot population has been prevented from reintegrating itself into the mainstream of a single and prosperous Cypriot economy(Couloumbis, 1999: 247-260). 

Turkey had become an associated member of the European Community in 1964. Although the agreement foresaw a preparatory step, after which Turkey would be in a position to apply for full membership, the membership process continued longer than foreseen(Zurcher, 1997: 276). Turkey officially applied for full membership of the EC in April 1987. The EC did not reject the application totally. However, a customs' union between Turkey and the EU was offered instead of full membership. The customs' union were ratified in 1995. On the other hand, it did not satisfy the Turkish authorities. However, the EU stated that negotiations for full membership would start only when the political conditions had been met. At the Helsinki summit of December 1999, the EU reaffirmed its commitment to Turkey's future membership. At a summit in Copenhagen in 2002, EU promised to open talks, if Turkey provided sufficient progress on democracy, human rights and legal reforms, named as Copenhagen criteria.  In the following years, Turkey concentrated on meeting the Copenhagen criteria and began to change its legislation and even its constitution to get it. The EC published a progress report in 2004, which gave Turkey the thumbs up in December 2004, Then the negotiation process begin on 3 October 2005. Problematic and tense relations with Greece and the Cyprus issue have always been obstacles in Turkey's EU membership process. Today there still is no final solution to Cyprus issue.

Latest Condition of Greek Economy 

Due to 2009 parameters, eleven million populated Greece's GDP is seen between 330 to 350 billion dollars in different sources. Turkey's GDP on the other hand is between 600 to 800 billion dollars but Turkey's population is six times more than Greece's. So GDP per capita is higher in Greece than Turkey[1]. 

When we look at the distribution of the Greek economy we see that 75 percent of the economy is covered by service sector. Agriculture's proportion is 12 percent in total labor however its proportion in GDP is only 3 percent[2]. The biggest source of Greek economy's income is tourism. This shows that Greek economy is directly affected by the economic distresses through the world. Greece was able to welcome eighteen million tourists in 2008 however by the effect of global economic crisis this declined as 40 percent in 2009. These developments caused the rate of public borrowings to rise from 3 percent to 12,7 percent and unemployment rise to 9 percent from 7[3]. 

Another important source of Greek economy is maritime business. Greece has the biggest commercial marine fleet. Other important sources of Greek economy are banking business, textile and tobacco. Regarding Greece's important amount of agricultural population, Greece is one of the countries that benefits the most from EU funds. 

Greece is highly dependent on oil and natural gas to the other states. Greece's biggest partners in foreign trade are Italy and Germany. Also a significant amount of foreign trade is held with Holland, France, China, Russia and some Balkan states. USA and UK also plays a good role in Greece's foreign trade. 

Regarding these factors, highly EU dependent and tourism leaded Greek economy was fragile and its response to global developments is very sensitive. Greece failed to use the EU funds to improve its economy and could not integrate this liquidity into production cycle and social expenditure. Greece is one of the states who has excess consumption while its productive capacity is insufficient. This factor inevitably lead the Greek economy to crisis. Currently, the salaries of the civil servants are frozen and acquaintances of farmers and workers cannot be made. Also the Greek tourism industry, which was hoped to contribute to the country's recovery, is announced to be in crisis. 

To speak the question, there are some significant factors that wasted the sources of Greece and led its economy to collapse. The main factor that stands out here is the outgoings on weaponry. Both Greece and Turkey was forced to spend a lot on weapons they did not need. This took its origin from the problematic relations of these two states. EU states also directed Greece to buy armament from them. Considering Greek economy's dependency on EU funds this policy was nothing but cutting EU's own throat. Another factor on military expenditure is the dog fights between Greece and Turkey over Aegean Sea. According to Can Ataklı's (a Turkish journalist) research one F-16's cost of one hour flight is 25 thousand dollars. 

Lastly, corruption is another significant factor that harmed Greek economy. Between EU member states, Greece is the one that has most corruption. In the last Karamanlis administration, not only bureaucrats but also some ministers resigned because they participated in corruption. Also in an article in Der Spiegel dated 5/11/2010 and named "Is it already too late to save Greece" it is said that "On weekends, hospitals admit elderly people who require nursing care or are confused because their children bring them there so that they can take a few days of vacation". This situation boosts the healthcare costs. More examples like this also causes the Greek economy to suffer. 

The Effects of the Crisis to the Turkish-Greek Relations 

However the crisis is a current issue and still in progress there are a few significant developments between the two states relations. 

On May 2010, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made a trip to Greece with a delegation of 10 ministers and about 100 businessmen and  co-chaired the first joint cabinet meeting between the two states. During the visit, Greece and Turkey signed a series of greements on areas including the economy and migration. The aim of visit for Turkey was to put aside differences and focus on areas of mutual benefit, in particular trade. 

Besides, both sides gave statements regarding to huge military spending. Theodore Pangalos, Greek deputy prime minister, said that "I honestly feel national shame each time I am forced to buy weapons we do not need."[4] Also, Egemen Bagis, the state minister handling Turkey's EU negotiations, said that  "Greece doesn't need new tanks or missiles or submarines or fighter planes, neither does Turkey. It's time to cut military expenditure throughout the world, but especially between Turkey and Greece. Neither Greece nor Turkey needs neither German nor French submarines."[5] 

Another development was the Greek move on lifting visa requirements for a week of visit to Aegean islands for Turkish people. The aim of this was to boost the tourism incomes and it is another opportunity for an approach between the two countries. 

Instead of Conclusion-The Future of Turkish-Greek Relations 

It is possible to say that last developments show that Turkey and Greece finally came to an understanding that could lead both to get free of the paranoia and prejudice against each other and finally agree on the subjects that benefits each of them mutually. The crisis showed that the paranoia of a war that would never actually happen would harm no one but them. It is clear that both sides are taking concrete steps to develop the relations, especially in trade. However, anti-Turkish or anti-Greek propaganda was useful for both states domestic politics in history, it is not anymore. 

Greece castigated Israel in the unfortunate event took place in the Turkish aid ship rotated to Gaza in international waters. Even USA -the so called strategic partner of Turkey- did not. This example shows how the Greeks are eager to develop the relations as well as Turkey. From this point it would be wise to keep this trend going and earn a new ally in the region for both sides. 

Bibliography

Couloumbis, Theodore A. (1999), 'Greece in a Post-Cold War Environment' in Theodoros A. Couloumbis, Thanos Veremis and Dimitrios C. Triantaphyllou, The Southeast European Yearbook 1998-99, Athens: Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), 247-260.

Peacock, H. L., A History of Modern Europe 1789-1981, Heinemann, Oxford: 1982.

Millas, Iraklis(2006) 'Tourkokratia: History and the Image of Turks in Greek Literature', South European Society and Politics, 11: 1, 47 - 60.

Tsoukalas, Constantine(1999) 'European modernity and Greek national identity', Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 1: 1, 7 - 14.

Ahmad, F., Turkey: The Quest for Identity, Oneworld Publications, Oxford: 2003.

John S. Koliopoulos and Thanos, M. Veremis; Modern Greece, A History since 1821, Sussex: 2010 Wiley&Blackwell, p. 158-160.

Zurcher, Erik J., Turkey: A Modern History, Tauris & Co Ltd., London: 1997, Revised Edition.

http://www.avsam.org/tr/a1921.html

https://www.abttf.org/html/index.php?link=detay&id=11&arsiv=1&typ=1

http://www.unwto.org/facts/eng/pdf/barometer/UNWTO_Barom09_update_sept_en.pdf

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8682390.stm

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=205942

[1] http://www.avsam.org/tr/a1921.html

[2] https://www.abttf.org/html/index.php?link=detay&id=11&arsiv=1&typ=1

[3]http://www.unwto.org/facts/eng/pdf/barometer/UNWTO_Barom09_update_sept_en.pdf                                                                                                                                                                       

[4] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8682390.stm

[5] http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=205942