Greece and the West

Relations between the Greeks and the West have been difficult for the last thousand years. In 1054, the Churches of Rome and Constantinople split apart. In 1204, the Crusaders invaded and desecrated Constantinople. During the final decades of Byzantium, Catholic Europe sought to blackmail the Greeks into surrendering the Orthodox faith.

In 1833, an independent Greek Kingdom was created with a Belgian of Roman Catholic faith as its King. The King's official title was "King of Greece." He was not allowed to call himself "King of the Greeks" because that might have implications for the Hellenic nation still under the rule of the Turks. The British intended for the Ottoman Empire to exist as a buffer against Orthodox Russia, which had designs on Constantinople.

In 1853, Britain and France occupied Piraeus, when Greece sought to help Russia following the beginning of the Crimean War. In 1863, following the ouster of Otho, George I of the Danish Glucksberg family was installed on the Greek throne. During the latter part of the nineteenth century, as Serbs, Romanians, and Bulgarians fought off the Ottomans, Greece was not allowed by the British and the French to intervene in the Balkan struggles.

Under the various reigns of Eleutherios Venizelos, Greece adopted a more independent foreign policy. Venizelos formed alliances with neighboring Christian states and liberated Macedonia, Crete, and Epirus in the Balkan Wars. The peak of Greece, solidly allied with the Western powers and free to pursue her interests, occurred during the first World War. The British offered Greece a portion of Asia Minor in exchange for entering the war against Germany.

As Greece proceeded to liberate Asia Minor, the Italians armed Mustafa Kemal's forces. The French followed the Italians, and following the fall of Venizelos, both Great Britain and the United States turned their backs on Greece. The result was the genocide and mass slaughter of Greeks in Asia Minor from Smyrna to the region of Pontus. Greeks were ethnically cleansed from Eastern Thrace as well.

To this day, the Western powers have committed themselves to the promotion of Turkey as a regional power in the Middle East, the Balkans, and Central Asia, despite the fact that Greece has been the more valuable ally. Greece fought in both World Wars on the side of the west and also in the Korean conflict. In contrast, the Turks sided with Germany in WW1 and flirted with the Nazis during the Second World War.

A decade after Greece helped win the war against Nazism, the people of Cyprus rose up for their own self-determination under Archbishop Makarios and EOKA leader George Grivas. The British responded by imposing measures of repression against EOKA fighters and using Turkey to counter Greek Cypriot aims.

At the same time, Western governments took no measures to condemn Ankara, following the government sponsored anti-Greek pogroms that occurred in Constantinople in September 1955.

In 1974, Turkey launched two invasions of Cyprus. Overseeing the Turkish invasions, which occurred in the aftermath of the anti-Makarios coup by the Ioannides Junta in Athens, was Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. In truth, partition had been an American aim in Cyprus since 1964 when the Acheson Plan had been rejected by Cypriot President Makarios. Makarios also insisted on keeping Cyprus nonaligned and was viewed by Washington as the "Castro of the Mediterranean."

Greek grievances have been ignored by the United States in particular. On Macedonia, Washington granted FYROM [Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia] unconditional recognition, and pressure was exerted on Greece to lift the embargo that Athens imposed in response. Wisely, Athens defied Washington and eventually forced FYROM to remove the Star of Vergina from its flag and to renounce claims to Hellenic territory. 

Cyprus remains a victim of the predatory designs of Turkey as well as the hypocrisy of the United States. When Cyprus announced plans to install S300 anti aircraft missiles in 1997, American diplomacy focused on pressuring Cyprus not to install them rather than to focus on pressuring the Turkish invaders to make concessions. The last several years have all seen the United States acquiesce to Turkey: from its failure to support Greece during the Imia incident to the assistance given to Turkey to capture Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, despite the fact that Ocalan and the PKK have never harmed American interests.

Friendly relations between Greece and the United States and Europe are desirable. However, it is clear that the long historical favoritism shown by the Western powers towards Turkey from the old British Empire to the United States and NATO today is still in effect. This leaves Greece and Cyprus at a disadvantage and relations between Athens and the West in an awkward state.

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