Abstract
Greek nationalism was clearly inimical to religion in its early phases. Neo-Hellenic enlightenment was perceived as a double struggle against Ottoman despotism and Orthodox institutions. The promotion of the term “Hellas” symbolized efforts to restore the ancient Greek classical civilization against the Ottoman and Byzantine legacy. Nevertheless, millet affiliations remained the primary identity marker for Orthodox populations. Following the establishment of the Greek nation-state, an early attempt to marginalize the role of Orthodoxy was replaced by a synthetic approach arguing in favor of the complementarity of Hellenism and Orthodoxy. Irredentist policies and the decline of the Ottoman Empire added to the expedience of this thesis. Religion remained the indisputable criterion of national identity until the very end of Greek-Turkish nationalist competition, as the case of the Karamanlıs and the failure of the “Turkish Orthodox Church” project manifest.
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Notes
Victor Roudometof, “From Rum Millet to Greek Nation: Enlightenment, Secularization, and National Identity in Ottoman Balkan Society, 1453–1821,” Journal of Modern Greek Studies, Vol. 16, no. 1 (1998a), pp. 21–24.
For more on Korais and his program, see Paschalis M. Kitromilides, Enlightenment, Nationalism, Orthodoxy: Studies in the Culture and Political Thought of South-Eastern Europe (Aldershot: Variorum, 1994).
Adamantios Korais, Προλεγόμενα Εις τα Προς Τιμόθεον Δύω και Προς Τίτο ν Μίαν Επιστολάς του Απόστολου Παύλου[Prolegomena to Timothy II and Titus I Epistles of Apostle Paul] (Athens: Lakonia [Λακωνία], 1879), p. 13.
Such views prevailed even in the early years of the Greek independence. See Victor Roudometof, “Invented Traditions, Symbolic Boundaries, and National Identity in South-Eastern Europe: Greece and Serbia in Comparative-Historical Perspective 1830–1880,” East European Quarterly, Vol. 32, no. 4 (1998b), pp. 430–31.
Adamantios Korais, Υπόμνημα Περί της Παρούσης Καταστάσεως Εν Ελλάδι[Memorandum About the Current Situation in Greece] (Athens: C.N. Philadelpheus [Χ.Ν. Φιλαδελφεύς], 1853), p. 35.
It has been inconclusively claimed that the true author of this piece might have been Athanassios Parios, a major intellectual opponent of the Neo-Hellenic Enlightenment, or Ecumenical Patriarch Grigorios V himself. See Paschalis M. Kitromilides, “Imagined Communities and the Origins of the National Question in the Balkans,” European History Quarterly, Vol. 19, no. 2 (1989), pp. 179–80.
On this, see Richard Clogg, “The ‘Dhidhaskalia Patriki’ (1798): An Orthodox Reaction to French Revolutionary Propaganda,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 5, no. 2 (1969), and Kitromilides, “Imagined Communities and the Origins of the National Question in the Balkans.”
For a monograph on the Greek War of Independence in English, see David Brewer, The Greek War of Independence: The Struggle for Freedom from Ottoman Oppression and the Birth of the Modern Greek Nation (Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 2001).
According to Mazower, Thessaloniki’s Jews were able to take a leading role in the economic and social life of the city only after the pogrom decimated the city’s Greek population, following the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence and the suppression of revolutionary activities in Macedonia. See Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430–1950 (London, New York, Toronto & Sydney: Harper Perennial, 2001).
On this, see Michael Llewellyn Smith, Ionian Vision: Greece in Asia Minor, 1919–1922 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998) and
Elli Skopetea, Το “Πρότυπο Βασίλειο” και η Μεγάλη Ιδέα, “Όψεις του Εθνικού Προβλήματος στην Ελλάδα” (1830–1880)[The “Model Kingdom” and “Megali Idea”: Facets of the National Question in Greece (1830–1880)] (Athens: Polytypo [Πολύτυπο], 1998).
Richard Clogg, A Concise History of Greece (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 47–48.
The literature on “Megali Idea” has frequently quoted the following excerpt from Kolettis’ speech. In this he appeared to become more specific regarding the definition of Greece and Greeks: The Greek kingdom is not the whole of Greece, but only a part, the smallest and poorest part. A native of Greece is not only someone who lives within this kingdom, but also one who lives in Ioannina, in Thessaly, in Serres, in Adrianople, in Constantinople, in Trebizond, in Crete, in Samos and in any land associated with Greek history or the Greek race… See Richard Clogg, “The Greek Millet in the Ottoman Empire” in Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis, eds., Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire: The Functioning of a Plural Society (New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers, 1982), p. 48. While this excerpt does not appear in the official minutes of the Greek Parliament and is most likely to have been a fabrication of the late nineteenth century, it has been popularized and widely cited in the academic literature, as it has accurately presented in a nutshell what definition of Greece and Greeks “Megali Idea” advocated. Hence, it maintains its usefulness even short of historical attribution to Kolettis.
Charles W. Tuckerman, The Greeks of Today (New York: Putnam, 1872), p. 120 cited in
Robert Shannan Peckham, “Map Mania: Nationalism and the Politics of Place in Greece: 1870–1922,” Political Geography, Vol. 19, no. 1 (2000), p. 85.
Fallmerayer had developed the opposite argument: Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer, Das Albanesische Element in Griechenland. Abt. 1: Über Ursprung und Alterthum der Albanese.[Pts. 1: The Albanian Element in Greece: About the Origins and the Antiquity of Albanians] (Abhandlungen der Historischen Klasse der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschafen. Bd. 8, Abt. 3) (München: Verlag der k. Akademie, 1857) and
Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer, Das Albanesische Element in Griechenland. Abt. 2 und 3: Was Man über die Taten und Schicksale des Albanesischen Volkes von Seinem Ersten Auftreten in der Geschichte bis zu Seiner Unterjochung Durch die Türken nach dem Tode Skander-Bergs mit Sicherheit Wissen Kann. [Pts. 2 and 3: What Can Be Known with Certainty About the Deeds and Fate of the Albanian People from Their First Appearance in History until Their Subjugation by the Turks after the Death of Skanderberg] (Abhandlungen der Historischen Klasse der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschafen. Bd. 8, Abt. 3, Pp. 657–736 and Bd. 9, Abt. 1, Pp. 3–110) (München: Verlag der k. Akademie, 1860).
Umut Özkırımlı and Spyros A. Sofos, Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey (London: Hurst and Co., 2008), pp. 47–51.
This is not to say that domestic opposition to the Maurer-Farmakidis project of severing the links with the Ecumenical Patriarchate did not exist. Konstantinos Oekonomos o ex Oekonomon represented a completely different view of state-church and church-patriarchate relations and argued in favor of the unity of the Church of Greece with the Patriarchate. Popular uprisings against the regime that also included a religious hue and opposition to the “Westernizing” reform of the church included those of Kosmas Flamiatos and Christoforos Panagiotopoulos (aka Papoulakos). For more on these, see John Anthony Petropulos, Politics and Statecraft in the Kingdom of Greece, 1833–1843 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968) and
Christos Yannaras, Orthodoxy and the West in Modern Greece[Ορθοδοξία και Δύση στην Νεώτερη Ελλάδα] (Athens: Domos [Δόμος], 1992).
John S. Koliopoulos and Thanos Veremis, Greece, the Modern Sequel: From 1821 to the Present (London: Hurst & Co., 2002), p. 145.
Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, “Redefning the Nation: Shifting Boundaries of the ‘Other’ in Greece and Turkey,” Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 47, no. 1 (2011), pp. 169–70.
On this, also see Konstantinos Svolopoulos, The Birth of the History of New Hellenism[Η Γένεση της Ιστορίας του Νέου Ελληνισμού] (Athens: Vivliopolio tis Estias [Βιβλιοπωλείο της Εστίας], 2006).
On the role of folklore in the establishment of Greek national ideology, see Michael Herzfeld, Ours Once More: Folklore, Ideology, and the Making of Modern Greece (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982).
Spyridon Zambelios, Άσματα Δημοτικά της Ελλάδος: Εκδοθέντα μετά Μελέτης Ιστορικής Περί Μεσαιωνικού Ελληνισμού[Folk Songs of Greece: Published with a Historical Study of Medieval Hellenism] (Κέρκυρα: Hermes [Ερμής], 1852), p. 20.
Spyridon Zambelios, Βυζαντιναί Μελέται: Περί Πηγών Νεοελληνικής Εθνότητος από H’ Άχρι Ι’ Εκατονταετηρίδος Μ.Χ.[Byzantine Studies: On the Origins of the Neohellenic Nation from the Eighth to the Tenth Century A.D.] (Athens: Nikolaidis Philadelpheus [Νικολαΐδης Φιλαδελφεύ ς], 1857), pp. 32–33.
Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos, Περί της Εποικήσεως Σλαβικώ ν Τινών Φυλών Εις την Πελοπόννησον[on the Settlement of Some Slavic Tribes in the Peloponnese] (Athens: Antoniadis [Αντωνιάδης], 1843).
Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos, Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους[History of the Hellenic Nation], 28th ed. (Athens: Hermes [Ερμής], 1970a).
Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos, Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους[History of the Hellenic Nation], Vol. III, 28th ed. (Athens: Hermes [Ερμής], 1970b), p. 7
Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos, Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους[History of the Hellenic Nation], Vol. IV, 28th ed. (Athens: Hermes [Ερμής], 1970c), p. 23.
Thanos Veremis, Greeks and Turks in War and Peace (Athens: Athens News, 2007), pp. 69–73.
On this, see Thanos Veremis, “The Hellenic Kingdom and the Ottoman Greeks: The Experiment of the ‘Society of Constantinople’ ” in Dimitri Gondicas and Charles Issawi, eds., Ottoman Greeks in the Age on Nationalism: Politics, Economy and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton NJ: Darwin Press, 1999).
On this, see Kitromilides, “Imagined Communities and the Origins of the National Question in the Balkans,” pp. 170–77 and Selim Deringil, The Well-Protected Domains: Ideology and the Legitimation of Power in the Ottoman Empire 1876–1909 (London, New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 1999), pp. 106–07
On the transformation process of the Rum millet into the modern Greek nation, see Clogg, “The Greek Millet in the Ottoman Empire” and Foti Benlisoy and Stefo Benlisoy, “Millet-i Rum’dan Helen Ulusuna” in Mehmet Ö. Alkan, ed., Cumhuriyet’e Devreden Düşünce Mirası: Tanzimat ve Meşrutiyet’in Birikimi (İstanbul: İletişım, 2001).
Eric Hobsbawm, “Introduction: Inventing Traditions” in Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 9.
On this, also see Vassilis N. Kremmydas, Η Μεγάλη Ιδέα: Μεταμορφώσεις Ενός Εθνικού Ιδεολογήματος[“Megali Idea”: Transformations of a National Ideology] (Athens: Typothito [Τυπωθήτω], 2012).
Similarly the resurrection of Jesus Christ was often applied as a metaphor for the resurrection of the Greek nation and its independence. On this, see Marios Hatzopoulos, “From Resurrection to Insurrection: ‘Sacred’ Myths, Motifs, and Symbols in the Greek War of Independence” in Roderick Beaton and David Ricks, eds., The Making of Modern Greece: Nationalism, Romanticism, & the Uses of the Past (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 87–88 and
Iraklis Millas, “Tourkokratia: History and the Image of Turks in Greek Literature,” South European Society and Politics, Vol. 11, no. 1 (2006), pp. 55–56.
For a thorough study of the “clandestine school” myth, see Alkis Angelou, Το “Κρυφό Σχολειό”: Χρονικό Ενός Μύθου[The “Clandestine School”: Chronicle of a Myth] (Athens: Estia [Εστία], 1997) and
Alexis Politis, Το Μυθολογικό Κενό. Δοκίμια και Σχόλια για την Ιστορία, Τη Φιλολογία, την Ανθρωπολογία και Άλλα[The Mythological Void: Essays and Commentaries on History, Literature, Anthropology et al] (Athens: Polis [Πόλις], 2000). Politis identifies a German scholar, Carl Iken, as the “father” of the “clandestine school” myth.
On the intellectual climate of the time and the ideas of Ion Dragoumis and Athanassios Souliotis, see Thanos Veremis, “From the National State to the Stateless Nation: 1821–1910,” Eastern European Quarterly, Vol. 19, no. 2 (1989).
On this, see Stephen P. Ladas, The Exchange of Minorities: Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1932).
On the Karamanlı controversy, see Richard Clogg, “A Millet within a Millet: The Karamanlides” in Dimitri Gondicas and Charles Issawi, eds., Ottoman Greeks in the Age on Nationalism: Politics, Economy and Society in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton NJ: Darwin Press, 1999) and
Evangelia Balta, “‘Gerçi Rum isek de, Rumca Bilmez Türkçe Söyleriz’: The Adventure of an Identity in the Triptych: Vatan, Religion and Language,” Türk Kültürü İncelemeleri Dergisi, Vol. 8 (2003).
David Kushner, The Rise of Turkish Nationalism 1876–1908 (London: Frank Cass, 1977), pp. 52–53.
Alexis Alexandris, The Greek Minority in Istanbul and Greek-Turkish Relations 1918–1974 (Athens: Center for Asia Minor Studies, 1983), pp. 151–52.
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Grigoriadis, I.N. (2013). Religion and Greek Nationalism: From Conflict to Synthesis. In: Instilling Religion in Greek and Turkish Nationalism: A “Sacred Synthesis”. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137301208_2
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