Celebrating 200 Years Of Greek Independence

Two hundred years ago, on 25 March 1821, the people of the south Balkan peninsula, a small corner of the Ottoman Empire barely the size of New Zealand’s North Island, rose up against their Ottoman oppressors with a cry of “eleftheria i thanatos” (freedom or death). And so began a decade-long struggle during which many died, but which ultimately led to freedom and the formation of the modern democratic state of Greece.

The uprising was even more remarkable given the many generations of Greeks that had lived under the Turkish yoke. Following the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman Empire spread throughout Eastern Europe, and the area we now know as Greece had been occupied by the Ottomans for nearly 400 years.

Despite the long occupation, the Hellenic spirit survived and Greeks did not lose their identity during those 400 long years. The Greek Orthodox clergy played a significant part, preserving the Greek traditions, religion and language by operating secret night-time schools in caves and basements, at great personal risk, so that each new generation would grow up knowing that they were Ellines and not Turki.

The achievements of Greece and the Greek people in the intervening years have contributed positively to the world, not only in peace, but also in war. Last October we commemorated the 80th anniversary of Ohi day when the Greeks met Mussolini’s ultimatum with a resounding “NO”. Their resistance contributed significantly to the eventual defeat of fascism, moving then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to say: “Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks.”

Today, Hellenes throughout the world will be celebrating and commemorating the deeds of our forebears, who gave their lives so that we can live in a free and democratic society. But we do not take our freedom for granted and it is incumbent on us today to remember all people who remain oppressed and lack the freedom we enjoy.

We owe it to the heroes of the 1821 revolution to remain vigilant and alert against aggression and oppression directed at Greece, and indeed any other country in the world.

One such example is the bellicosity of Greece’s eastern geographical neighbour, with its brazen questioning of Greece’s territorial integrity and its belligerent expansionist policies. Their fighter planes have been intruding into Greek air space, sometimes several times a day, and they make baseless claims to uninhabited rocky isles belonging to Greece. Turkish ships continue to explore for hydrocarbons in Greece’s Exclusive Economic Zone, a zone that has been rightfully determined under international law. And for decades now, Turkey has threatened Greece with the casus belli – a cause for war – should Greece dare claim the full 12 nautical mile territorial waters it is entitled to under international law.

We must guard against attempts to rewrite history and expunge from memory atrocities committed in the past. Despite Turkey’s persistent denial, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s ethnic cleansing of Asia Minor was a brutal campaign against all the Christians of Asia Minor – Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians – and amounted to a genocide which was witnessed by Anzac soldiers, and which historians point to as the inspiration for Hitler’s holocaust.

We must learn from and be inspired by the achievements of our forebears 200 years ago who fought so bravely so that we might live in freedom. We owe it to their memory to advocate for our patrida (homeland), to lobby all free regimes, including New Zealand, to call out all destabilising, militaristic acts, including the illegal military occupation of northern Cyprus, now in its 47th year.

As proud Greeks, we live by our duty to call out and oppose all oppressive and anti-democratic acts, regardless of where they originate from, and against whom they are directed.

Dr Demetrius Christoforou

Dr Demetrius Christoforou, a retired industrial chemist, is a Greek New Zealander passionate about both Greek and New Zealand affairs. Born, raised and educated in New Zealand, he lived in Greece for ten years and was a volunteer at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games

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