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The International Politics of the Greek Turkish AntagonismThe International Politics of the Greek Turkish Antagonism By Evaggelos Vallianatos Christos C. Evangeliou: Themata Politica: Hellenic and Euro-Atlantic. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008. 265 pages. ISBN 1 - 84718 – 617 – 3. ISBN (13): 9781847186171. $ 52.99. I met the author of Themata Politica, Christos Evangeliou, in the late 1990s. I read something he had written on the Black Athena slander of those who hate the Greeks. I called him up at Towson University in Baltimore, Maryland where he is a professor of Hellenic philosophy. We discussed the obsession of some American academics, why otherwise well-educated people resurrect the Christian hatred against the Greeks? What is the political purpose of such a smear campaign? Perhaps to boost the low self esteem of black Americans? Or to replace Greek culture with Judeo-Christian values in the core of the Western tradition? After all, Israel, not Greece, is at the center of American foreign policy. Evangeliou sent me his 1997 book, The Hellenic Philosophy: Between Europe, Asia and Africa. This is a marvelous history of philosophy, which I read with great profit and pleasure. Here is a book, finally, that captured the wisdom and beauty of Greek philosophy: the struggle of the Greeks to understand themselves, what makes people human, and how reason, not faith, is the guide to studying the universe and nature as well as problem solving and happiness. Evangelious book also fired me to work on my own history on what happened to the ancient Greeks. Why, suddenly, after the fourth century even the name Hellene became rare in Western literature? Why the Roman Empire and the Christian Church smashed Hellenic culture and, in fact, they outsourced the destruction of the Greek temples to barbarians? An army of monks led those barbarians to the sacred sites of the Greeks. I answered these questions in The Passion of the Greeks: Christianity and the Rape of the Hellenes, which was published in the United States in 2006. Evangeliou reviewed my book in the Mediterranean Quarterly and he reprinted that review in his Themata Politica (chapter 9). Evangeliou is a Hellene born in Christian Greece and educated in Greece and the United States. His affection and understanding of Hellas and her philosophy, which he teaches at his university, shine through in his scholarly work and essays he wrote for the readers of two Greek American weeklies, The National Herald and the Hellenic News of America. Thats why his Themata Politica, which includes these lucid essays, is so useful and timely. The book was published in England in 2008. Themata Politica is divided into two parts. The first part covers the essays dealing with the explosive politics governing the relationships between Greece, Turkey and Cyprus. The second part examines the aspirations of Muslim Turkey to join the Christian club of the European Union, a project pushed vigorously by the United States. The entire discussion of this book is also shaped by the tragic Muslim attack against the United States in September 11, 2001. Islam, rightly, plays a significant role in the pregnant analysis of this book. Evangeliou sheds light especially on Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, the European Union and the United States, the hegemonic power that replaced Western Europe as the arbiter of war and peace in the world. Themata Politica ought to be on the reading list of educated persons everywhere, in particular those practicing diplomacy. This book is a series of succinct and well-written essays full of wisdom. It explains the history of the crises dominating Greek-Turkish relations since World War II. Certainly the occupation of Christian Greece by the Moslem Turks from 1453 to 1821 has left a residue of mistrust and hatred that contributes to the ceaseless antagonism between Greeks and Turks. But there are external forces that have been stocking the fires between Greeks and Turks for several decades – especially in the Greek island of Cyprus. Britain holds the first place in this tragedy, sowing the seeds of discord, which America keeps fertilizing. The revolt in the 1950s of the Greek Cypriots against the British colonial rule of their land forced Britain out of Cyprus. Britain took revenge against the Greeks, however. Britain holds to this day Cypriot territory for “sovereign” military bases on the island of Aphrodite. In addition, Britain urged the Turks to keep their eyes on the Greek prize; riot against the Greek community in Istanbul, for example. The Turks did exactly that quite thoroughly in their vicious state pogrom of September 6-7, 1955. Turkish violence ended Greek society in Istanbul, which has been Turkish for 556 years. Before the Turks, Istanbul was Constantinople for 1,300 years. And before the Christian Byzantine era, Constantinople was the Hellenic polis Byzantion for 1,100 years. All in all, this was a city founded and inhabited by Greeks for some 2.5 millennia. The prosecution, cleansing and final destruction of the Greeks in Istanbul in 1955 added another layer of hatred between Greeks and Turks. Britain and possibly America instigated the war policy of Turkey in Cyprus, ending with the Turkish capture of about 40 percent of Cyprus in 1974. The result of British and American support for Turkey, a Moslem country with a legacy of centuries of violence and genocide against the Greeks, Armenians and several other people in Europe and Asia, is a resurgent Turkish colonialism in Cyprus and perpetual threats against Greece, especially in the eastern Aegean and Thrace. This danger is also a paradox because imperial America has both Turkey and Greece in her military camp, NATO. But these “allies,” Greece and Turkey, are in a state of low-level warfare that, apparently, suits American interests fueling profitable arms sales to Turkey and Greece. As for the European Union that includes Greece, and NATO members other than Britain and the US, remain silent or apathetic about the tragic position of Greece in their midst. Could it be that the powerful states of Europe also benefit from the dangerous strategy of Turkey against Greece and Cyprus? The other possibility is to explain the paralysis of the European Union as the outcome of successful American foreign policy. After all, if the European Union were ever to become a real union, it will be a real antagonist of imperial America. And should a reawakened European Union invite Russia to join in its ranks, the result would be a superpower much larger and stronger than the United States. This is the likely reason why America is demanding that the European Union embrace Turkey in its ranks. Turkey would be a potential missile directed against the flimsy union of the Europeans. Evangeliou explains the foreign imperialism behind the Greek-Turkish volcano. His vision, however, is not for more war but for cooperation and peace between Greeks and Turks. For example, in chapter 18, he says the Greeks and the Turks are the “heirs of Byzantium.” The Turkish Empire was “worthy heir of Byzantine Empire … the Greeks are too closely connected to the Turks culturally.” If Greece were not a member of the European Union, Evangeliou speculates that such condition might have been “a blessing in disguise,” forcing “these two closely related countries,” Greece and Turkey, “to find ways to work together to solve their problems peacefully and to undertake common cultural projects.” Furthermore, according to Evangeliou, Greece and Turkey “could rediscover the common roots of their identities in the Ottoman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Roman Empire, the Hellenistic Empires, and ultimately in the Classical Hellenic civilization. More importantly, they could conceivably become the nucleus for the creation of a new model of Federation of States (including Cyprus and the Balkan States) that share in this common cultural heritage.” All this is well meaning by a thoughtful philosopher. Modern Greeks can reasonably say they are the heirs of Byzantium and, to some degree, of ancient Greece. Though Christians, they live where the ancient Greeks lived and speak Greek. But how could Moslem Turks “rediscover” any connections with the Greeks Byzantine, much less classical heritage? The Turks, tracing their origins in Mongolia, are relatively newcomers to Anatolia and Europe. They had their first major victory against the Byzantine Greeks in 1071. However, Evangeliou is right that there are plenty of Greeks hiding under the skin of the Turks. After all, the Turks, like the Christians before them, used violence to convert those they conquered. The alternative to conversion to Islam was slavery or death. Second, a federation of Turkey and states in southeastern Europe might be an option to avoiding war. But as long as the Turks remain Moslem and double their population every 20 years or so, the chances for peaceful relations with Greece are slim for the additional reason that a federation with Turkey would turn into another Ottoman Empire. In fact, the rumor among those studying Americas strategic interests is that America is about to “promote” Turkey to a “regional” power, which would have some oversight over Greece. Theres another rumor that says that NATO, the US, and Greece have agreed to eventually expand Turkeys control in the eastern Aegean and Thrace. In the spring of 2009, President Barak Obama went to Turkey and made a fool of himself. According to the remarks he made to the Turkish parliament published by the Associated Press on April 6, Obama compared George Washington to Mustafa Kemal. This was the Turkish general who supervised the genocide of the Greeks, Armenians and several other nations in Anatolia and Europe in early twentieth century. Obama also spoke about “Turkeys greatness,” the “beauty” and “richness” of Turkish history and culture. He also did not miss the opportunity to urge the Europeans to open their Union to the Turks. However, he conveniently forgot to remind the Turks they ought to, at least, come to grips with their murderous past. Unfortunately, narrow imperial interests trump Western civilization. Obama thought it appropriate to visit Ankara and Istanbul but not Athens. America remains on the side of the Turks. Under these geopolitical realities and the genocidal legacy of Turkey, Evangelious dream about Greece and Turkey remains a dream. However, should Turkey and Greece discard their Islam and Christianity, Greeks and Turks could think of peaceful relations. Without the fanaticism and economic interests of those alien monotheistic religions, Greeks and Turks would be free to treat each other with respect. At that moment, which may never materialize, the Greeks under the skin of the Turks would reveal themselves. The ancient Greek heritage would then become a living model for another Renaissance and politics in both Turkey and Greece – an even larger dream than that of Evangeliou. Political dreams are often necessary. Still, Evangeliou is also practical. His Themata Politica, an insightful, path-breaking and well-written book, is best suited for political leaders and students and scholars of Greece, Turkey and America. Every page teases the mind and has something to teach. Evangeliou even warned president Bill Clinton about “a sleeping Cyclops, the Giant of Islam.” He said this is a religion “driven by a fanatical faith,” which after 2 centuries of lethargic existence is ready “to strike again with force, and shake up the Western world fundamentally.” Evangeliou was right. Islam is fully awakened, fighting and shaking up America and the West. Yet, President Obama told the Turks that the United States “is not, and will never be, at war with Islam.” Evangeliou, a student of Platon, is using and spreading the reason and enlightenment of the Hellenic master for an understanding of the world. He is convinced the world needs the wisdom of the Hellenes, especially the paradigm of the Platonic paideia (advanced education and science). “Socratic sanity and humanism,” he says, “can … serve humanity as an antidote to its natural bigotry and fanaticism, especially the fanaticism of exclusively apocalyptic and intolerant religions, like missionary Christianity and militant Islam, which … they seem determined to collide again as forcefully as before with tragic consequences for mankind and the education of younger generations in Hellenic and humane excellence.” Chapter 38 is revealing of the “devious faiths of Abraham,” how credulous billions of humans take seriously the hazardous nonsense of Christianity and Islam. Evangeliou compares the killing utterances of the Bible and Koran, how both religions, especially Islam, teach hatred and war against each other. Evangeliou is right that such “monotheistic mania and religious intolerance” diminish “the light of Hellenic philosophy” and make “the voice of reason inaudible.” Evangeliou also warns the European Union that is entangled in Americas unthinking “war on terror.” Unless the EU wakes up it is preparing its own downfall to militant Islam. The expanding war on terror is pushing Muslims to the shores of prosperous Europe. Add to these migrants the millions of Muslims already living in Italy, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain and Greece and the ground is set for internal conquest. The prospect of EU admitting Turkeys 70 million Muslims will provide the turning point in the dream of Islam in conquering Europe without a war. So Themata Politica is more than Greek-Turkish relations. Its a global political assessment of the West as it is facing an identity crisis and the prospect for another dark age. Islam, “a monistic and fanatical faith,” is, in fact, the giant Cyclops threatening both America and the European Union. In addition, Evangeliou loves Greece. His chief purpose in life and the thesis of his books, including Themata Politica, is to help Greece, his motherland, come close to Hellas. He tells the Greeks they are descendants of people who valued paideia. These ancients Greeks took paideia and fashioned democracy and philosophy. Modern Greeks, Evangeliou says, can, once again, become pioneers in matters of culture and enlightenment throughout the world. And, clearly, they ought to stop being second-class citizens in Europe. Read Themata Politica. It is an original book. It is also appetizing food for Hellenic thought. Moreover, it is good for the soul. After all, Evangeliou is not merely a Hellenic philosopher in the path of Platon but a poet with 3 poetic collections in Greek. He ends his book with a “Hymn to Human Folly,” which makes fun of the tragedy of militant Islam. “As in dark ages old,” he says, “Christian and Muslim foes clash again. Will we ever find the way to soothe the human souls pain?” Evaggelos Vallianatos is the author of This Land is Their Land and The Passion of the Greeks.
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