Turkish citizens of Greek origin caught in tension between the two countries • FRANCE 24 English

The leaders of Greece and Turkey met Monday for talks aimed at underlining their efforts to put aside decades-old disputes, but they also revealed deep divisions over the Israel-Hamas war. Report by Jenna Le Bras, Adrià Rocha Cutiller and Melvyn Ingleby.
#Turkey #Greece #IsraelHamasWar

[johndov]

Congratulations for making known the pogroms that the Greek community has faced in Constantinople throughout the centuries by the Turkish authorities.

[cartesian_doubt]

The Greeks in Istanbul have been in the city before the Turks even entered Anatolia.

[tasojouras]

Kudos to this fine man for keeping the paper going

[FunkPunk]

The French and the British are responsible for what happened in the Greek population of Anatolia in 1922, so this video can be perceived as an irony...

[alexrenn]

I saw a documentary a few years ago made by Turkish people and the main line I remember from it, is this, Quote "the Greeks in Istanbul are both present and absent" End Quote. What they meant by present is the sheer amount of beautiful historical buildings the Greek community commissioned and built in Istanbul, from hundreds of years ago right up to the 1950s and especially the amazing turn of the century buildings in Fener, Beyoglu, along the Bosporus, Kuzguncuk and on the Princes Islands, and this is what largely gives Istanbul its attractive character and is admired by locals and tourists alike today, so their 'presence' is widely evident if you know the history and who's behind the construction of many of Istanbul's beautiful old buildings. Yet of course today they are absent because the community has been decimated. The industrious people, the 'lifeblood' of the City, who created these beautiful buildings were persecuted by pogroms, riotous attacks on them collectively. They were hounded by Turkish nationalists and forced to leave. Small consilation is that, although few people are left from this ancient community, the 'caretaker community' that does remain, with their foundations, has inherited and possess a vast amount of community-owned buildings, which are located in prime areas and sites and they amass to a great amount in real estate value, in the billions apparently.

[wollkann]

As a Turk I deeply hope that this tide would turn. We should all regret what had happened in 1940s and 50s.

[ΙωάννηςΕλ]

As a Greek, I thank you for the video. The truth is that Greece had and still has a brilliant and an extremely painful history, at the same time. Maybe one of the most painful for its citizens, in the world.
At least, we thank god that amongst the "big powers" there is France, who was the best of all them, in the way she treated Greece. Thank you France for that video. France is the only intellectual, philellinic, peaceful big power towards Greece. 🇬🇷💙🇫🇷

[jorgepeters]

But in greece, we have 150.000 greek muslims which they like to refer to themselves as turkish citizens living peacefully in greece, and yet turkey like what you said in your documentary lived over 350.000 greeks and now there are approximately 1500 greeks living in what was once their country, all gone and forced out....why?
You may need to do a story about that YouTube.Why were the original inhabitants chased out of their homeland.

[g]

Those few hundred who escaped extermination from Turks

[marinar]

Due to fear, all family members of my grandmother were gradually forced to leave their houses in Istanbul and Prigipos island, just because they had Greek origins..

[kknoesis]

Εastern Roman Empire..Not Greeks unfortunately wiped out by Turkish policies.. On the contrary Muslim minority in Greece thrives...

[cindy]

What has happened to the Greeks of Constantinople is a million times worse than the fate of Gaza, but such is History.

[Μάικ-νφ]

Let me put in a few words the greco-turkish conflict.

Greeks used to inhabit the Anatolian peninsula. Depending on the era some times were a majority, some not. This has to do with cultural and other issues. However, undisputedly there were Greeks from the coasts of Ionia to Cappadocia for at least three thousand years. Along with Armenians, Assyrians, Persians, Kurds etc. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, yes we shall have to go back then, Greeks were subjects of the Sultan. Citizens of lower class due to their religion, back then religion was a decisive factor for one's identity.

Then let's make a historical leap of 4 centuries, and after several failed revolutions, in 1821. Greeks started gaining back their lands. For a century they were fighting the Turks, more or less, victoriously. Liberating ancestral lands that after centuries of occupation of a multi-ethnic empire there were also other ethnicities residing in them. The goal was always the liberation of the cradle of modern hellenism: Constantinople. Not the creation of a small state around the Peloponnese.

Then in 1914 Turks, aided by German officers, perceived the idea that nobody would be fighting to liberate lands if these lands were deprived of one's ethnicity. If, for example all Greeks of Anatolia were exterminated, or at least a good percentage of them, then the Greeks of the already independent Greece would have no reason to fight in Anatolia. Hence the ethnic cleansing of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians that took place systematically and in a premeditated manner. At that point Greeks attempted to create a safe haven for the Greeks residing in Ottoman/Turkish territories around Smyrni. Greeks failed to this attempt and that led to the population exchange of 1923. When more than one million Greeks were exchanged for less than half a million muslims*. Ever since Turkey has not stopped trying to eradicate every other ethnicity within its borders. Borders that constantly they are trying to expand in their former ottoman glory. Either being Kurds in south eastern Anatolia or Greeks in northern Cyprus.

Ever since we experience the attempt of the Turks to bully Greeks back to the status of the raya (literally meaning sheep in turkish, meaning subject/slave of the Sultan). And the Greeks attempting to utter that they want at least a recognition of the ethnic cleansing that they suffered.


* Why did the treaty of Lausanne (1922) made a differentiation between a national and a religious identity? Because amongst the "muslims" were also converted Greeks (like the Cretan muslims) or other nationals. Greeks were understood as the ones that never changed the criteria of their identity: which is language and religion.

[AfroditiZaimis]

the Muslims of Turkish origin in North Greece are thriving instead. That says alot about the two countries

[electrayakamozi]

My grate grandparents where part of this community, until they were chased down by the then government and flew in Greece

[Subgunman]

It’s the exact opposite in Greece, many of the young people today are leaving the country for other countries where there is an opportunity to make a successful living. Greece was forced to bow down to Germanys austerity programs which first cut education ( they want dumb subservient Greeks ) and then forced Greece to triple the taxes to equal that of Germany while cutting Greek wages in half. This continues to this day resulting in people loosing the homes and properties that have been in families for generations. Most profitable Hotel chains do not pay their workers fair wages nor do they not pay their share into the employees health and retirement funds. If any employee speaks up about this issue they are blacklisted and will not find any work in the hotel industry. There are many jobs that do not pay overtime to their employees which violates EU rules.
So I speak for them.

[papertoyss]

0:59 "Now things have changed" Nothing will ever permanently change in Turkey for the Greeks. The Greeks and their history have always been seen by the Turkish state and the Turkish history as the devil, and by the majority Turkish people, nurtured by their own state, as inferior to them. Now, below this comment there 'll probably be replies claiming these I suggest are untrue, *but history itself will instantly prove these comments wrong, and Im aware of this history.*

[GEOPOLITICALANALYSIS]

The population of Greeks and Christians overall has shrunk dramatically due to pogroms and killings. Yet, the Muslim population flourishes in Greece. We don't wish ill our Muslim citizens, but if the double standards persist. Expect a boiling point. Many cryptoChristians are afraid to publicly be seen as Christians. This sets Turkey centuries back.

[delaramsalmassi]

Once all of Turkey were a part of The Grecopersian Empire/The Median - Achaemenid Empire!

[halilsabancilar]

Is there any mosque in Athens? Do you allow muslims to built their prayer place?