The Hellenic ObservatoryN e w s l e t t e r 2 0 0 6

E d i t o r i a l

Editorial ...........................1

The Role of Religion in aChanging Europe ...........2

Europe’s Balkan Enlargement: what does itmean for Greece?...........3

Byron TheodoropoulosLecture ............................4

Other Conferences .........4

New Fellowships at theHO:National Bank of Greece Ministry of Economy and Finance ...........................5

HO Research Seminars..6

Studentships at HO ........6

New Research Project on Muslims in Thrace ..........7

HO Internships................7

Latest News ....................8

Advisory Board ...............8

Inside this issue:Welcome to this fourth issue of our newslet-

ter. The Hellenic Observatory has enjoyedmuch growth and success in recent times. Thisenables us to define our agenda and to in-crease our activities. We will continue to do so,as we collaborate and deliver.

As we look back on 2005-6, we recall a num-ber of key landmarks. His All Holiness Ecu-menical Patriarch Vartholomeos gave a mem-orable public lecture at the LSE – the latest inthe annual series of the London Hellenic Soci-ety. The Hellenic Observatory also inauguratedthe “Byron Theodoropoulos Lecture” which wasgiven by Ambassador Theodoropoulos himself.The Observatory teamed up with the LSE Alum-ni Association in Greece to hold a conference inAthens entitled, ‘Europe’s Balkan Enlargement:What Does it Mean for Greece?’. The confer-ence was held at the Bank of Greece and host-ed by the Chairman of the Observatory’s Advi-sory Board, Governor Nicholas Garganas. Wealso collaborated with Professor Stathis Kaly-vas of Yale University to host a conference inAthens on ‘War and Identities’. We joinedELIAMEP (Athens) and Bilgi University to co-sponsor a conference on Greek –Turkish Rela-tions in Istanbul in June 2006.

As we look ahead, we are delighted to haveobtained further funding to support two new re-search fellowships at the Observatory. The Na-tional Bank of Greece has established a newannual fellowship and we are very grateful to itsGovernor, Takis Arapoglou, who is also amember of the Observatory’s Advisory Board.We are also grateful to a distinguished LSEalumnus, Professor George Alogoskoufis,Minister of Economics and Finance in Athens,who has similarly agreed to create a new fellow-ship at the Observatory on Greece and South-East Europe. Both fellowships are a majorboost to the research capacity of the Observa-tory. We look forward to hosting the first fellowsin 2006-7.

In the past year the Observatory has contin-ued to benefit from significant studentships,supporting research of our PhD students. Wewould like to thank the Bodossaki Foundationand Mr Gregory Tzirakian for their continuingsupport in this matter. In addition the Kalofo-lias Group remains a strong supporter of ourefforts; we thank them too.

The Observatory has been set on a strongcourse. It combines specialist research with aprogramme of public events. In this work, weaim to promote the study of contemporaryGreece: its politics, economics and internation-al relations. We are developing our identity bysteering an agenda that is relevant and distinc-tive. We anticipate policy issues and placeGreece in a wider European perspective, seek-ing to enhance policy dialogue and learning.

We will continue to host key public lecturesby prominent figures on Greece (and Cyprus),to host policy conferences on new agendas,and to complement these with our regular re-search seminar series (normally every otherTuesday in term time at 6pm).

We look forward to welcoming our friends oldand new to join us as we develop our pro-gramme.

Kevin Featherstone Spyros EconomidesDirector Deputy Director

Issue 4September 2006

The Hellenic ObservatorNewsletter 2006

Page 2

THE LONDON HELLENIC SOCIETY ANNUAL LECTURE

The Role of Religion in a Changing Europe

His All Holiness Ecumenical PatriarchVartholomeos visited the School for thefirst time to deliver the annual LondonHellenic Society lecture. He spoke onthe theme of ‘The Role of Religion in aChanging Europe’, in a lecture given onThursday 3 November 2005. The lecturewas attended by over 600 guests: 450 inthe Old Theatre, with more watching byvideo link.

George Rodopoulos welcomed thePatriarch on behalf of the London Hel-lenic Society, of which he is the Presi-dent. During a reception, Sir HowardDavies, Director of the LSE, passed tothe Ecumenical Patriarch a presentation-al scroll to commemorate his visit. TheBishop of London, Dr. Richard Chartres,gave an after dinner speech.

His All Holiness set the context for hislecture by referring to two themes: multi-culturalism and secularization. Multicul-turalism has been the result of increasedimmigration. Some five million Muslimsnow live in France, for example. There ismuch discussion of increased secular-ism, with falling Church attendances andfewer candidates for the priesthood. Yet,we must not exaggerate the position.Large majorities of Europeans still affirmtheir belief in God. A modern and demo-cratic political and social structure has torespect the religious wishes and senti-ments of its citizens. Religious freedomscannot be curtailed in the name of secu-larism.

With approximately 300 million faithfulin Eastern Europe, the Balkans, the Mid-

dle East but also in the New World, theOrthodox Church is a force of unity, astabilizing factor, and an essential com-ponent in the ongoing process to createa new European reality, bridging theeastern and western Christian culturesand traditions of the continent.

Europe, it has often been said, is notsimply a geographical area, but an idea.What, then, the Ecumenical Patriarchasked, is the fundamental ‘idea’ thatgives unity to Europe, that constitutesthe ‘soul’ of Europe, and that the Euro-pean Union is seeking, however imper-fectly, to embody? It is the notion of per-sonal freedom – of the free dignity andintegrity of every single human being –that lies at the heart of what we mean bythe European idea, and it is the primaryguiding principle of the EU.

It is precisely in this perspective thatwe can begin to appreciate the role ofreligion in Europe; for, personal free-dom, is fundamental likewise to theChristian doctrine of human person-hood. ‘The truth will make you free,’ « ‘H ¿Ï‹ıÂÈ· ¤Ï¢ıÂÚÒÛË ‡Ì¿˜» statesChrist (John 8:32); ‘Am I not free?’ as-serts Saint Paul (writing to the 1 Corinthi-ans 9:1). Emphasizing the element offreedom in God’s relationship with theworld, the 2nd–century Epistle to Dio-gnetus affirms, ‘God persuades, he does

not compel; for violence is foreign tohim’ «fl˜ ›ıˆÓ, Ô‡ ‚È·˙fiÌÂÓÔ˜. µ›· Á¿Ú

Ô‡ ÚfiÛÂÛÙÈ Ùt £Ât». This is indeed agolden saying: would that Christiansover the centuries had paid more atten-tion to it! For the Christian tradition, free-dom – the ability to make decisions con-sciously and with a full sense of respon-sibility – is the most tremendous thinggranted by God to human persons.

The Ecumenical Patriarch has spokenwidely of the relevance of Christianteaching to contemporary issues: mostnotably, perhaps, the environment. Thishas earned him the title of the ‘Green’Patriarch.

His All Holiness PatriarchBartholomew is the spiritual leader ofsome 300 million Orthodox Christians.He occupies the First Throne of the Or-thodox Christian Church and has thehistorical and theological responsibilityto initiate and coordinate actions amongthe Churches of Alexandria, Antioch,Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Romania,Bulgaria, Georgia, Cyprus, Greece,Poland, Albania, The Czech Land andSlovakia, Finland, Estonia, and numer-ous archdioceses in the old and newworlds. The text of the lecture can be found at:

http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/hellenicObservatory/events/Patriarch_LHS_031105.htm

Left to right: Mr George Rodopoulos, HE Ambassador Skopelitis, His Eminence ArchibishopGrigorios of Thyateira, His Grace Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, His All Holiness Ecu-menical Patriarch Vartholomeos, Sir Howard Davies, Prof. Kevin Featherstone, His EminenceMetropolitan John of Pergamon.

The major challenges facing Greektrade and investment in the Balkanswere the focus of the Second HellenicObservatory Conference in Athens(Bank of Greece, Tuesday 6 June2006), which was organised in collabo-ration with the Greek LSE Alumni Asso-ciation and was chaired by ProfessorKevin Featherstone, Director of theHellenic Observatory and Dr VassilisMonastiriotis, Lecturer of PoliticalEconomy at the Hellenic Observatory.

Building on last year’s successful inau-gural event, which addressed the themeof ‘Labour Market Flexibility: Europeanexperience and the case of Greece’(see HO Newsletter Issue 3), the 2006conference focused on ‘Europe’sBalkan Enlargement: what does it meanfor Greece?’ reflecting on the new eco-nomic landscape in southeast Europeand successfully bringing togetherprominent speakers from the academic,policy and business communities, in-cluding the Governors of the CentralBanks of Greece and Romania, DrNicholas Garganas and Dr Mugur Is-arescu, the Greek Deputy Minister ofForeign Affairs Mr Euripides Styliani-dis, Professor Willem Buiter (EuropeanInstitute, LSE), Professor George Pe-trakos (University of Thessaly, Greece),Dr Evgenia Gargana (National Bank ofGreece), Dr Manolis Zervoudakis(Bank of Greece), and CEOs from the

Hellenic Bottling Company, VIOHALCO,Global Finance, Athens Medical Groupand Grecotel.

Over the last decade or so, Greek busi-nesses have been increasingly presentin the region, establishing ever strongerand more complex links with the South-east European economies. More recent-ly, Greece has provided a significantsource of economic aid and politicalsupport for the region (e.g., through itsPlan for Balkan Reconstruction, its in-volvement in the SEE CooperationProcess and its role in important region-al agreements like the Energy Commu-nity Treaty), signalling the importance ofthe development of the region for theGreek economy, particularly in terms ofexports, investments and employment.The prospective accession to the EU ofBulgaria and Romania represents a sig-

nificant change in the SEE landscape ingeneral, but also a significant changefor Greece’s role in particular, asGreece will no longer be the sole EUmember in the Balkan region and thus asignificant notional and real compara-tive advantage will all but evaporate.

The conference focused specifically onthese developments and examined howEU accession of the Balkan countrieswill impact on the ways in which Greecehas been connecting with the region. Ofparticular interest here was the questionas to whether this enlargement endan-gers a weakening of the existing eco-nomic complementarities betweenGreece and its Balkan neighbours, pre-sumably by enhancing the westward

orientation of their economies (i.e.,favouring the development of produc-tion specialisations that are more rele-vant for the economies of the core ofthe EU than for the SEE region at large).If this is a credible prospect, an impor-tant question arises for Greek economicpolicy, namely whether Greek capitalwill find it increasingly difficult to survivein the SEE region and further its eco-nomic penetration – and by implicationhow can Greece help Greek businessesovercome the developing challengesand constraints. In addressing these questions, the poli-cy and academic contributions high-lighted the significant steps that havebeen made in the development and re-gional integration of the southeast Euro-pean economies – and the role thatGreece has played and continues toplay in this respect – while the business

presentations focused moreon the threats and opportuni-ties for Greek businesses ofthe European perspective ofthe Balkans. The overall toneof the presentations and ofthe discussion that followedwas rather optimistic, withemphasis being placed onthe complementarities thatexist between the activities ofthe government and the busi-ness community. But a clearnote of caution also emerged,that Greece has to employ amore strategic approach inorder to consolidate its posi-tion in southeast Europe andassist the further develop-

ment and modernisation of the region.

The conference, consistent with thestated objectives of the Hellenic Obser-vatory, contributed to informing policyon a topical issue of economic and for-eign policy in Greece and received widecoverage in the Greek media. We wouldlike to thank the sponsors of the confer-ence: the Agricultural Bank of Greece,Ernst & Young, Eurobank EFG, Hel-lenic Petroleum, Intracom, LambrakisPress, Mytilinaios Holdings and UBS.Further details about the conferenceand information about forthcoming ac-tivities of the Hellenic Observatory inGreece can be found in the HO website

(http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/hellenicObservatory/).

Issue 4September 2006

Page 3

Europe’s Balkan Enlargemeny: what does it mean for Greece?

Dr Garganas, Governor, Bank of Greece

Mr Paraskevas, President, LSE Greek Alumni Association

The Hellenic ObservatorNewsletter 2006

Page 4

On 2 December 2005, the Hellenic Observatory had thegreat pleasure of inaugurating the ‘Byron TheodoropoulosLecture’. Ambassador Theodoropoulos himself agreed togive this first in the series of annual lectures devoted to is-sues of foreign and security policy entitled, ‘The Foreign Poli-cy of Modern Greece: An Introspective Approach’, whichwas chaired by the HO’s Deputy Director Dr Spyros Econo-mides.

This series was created as an acknowledgement of thecontribution of Ambassador Theodoropoulos to Greek diplo-macy and foreign policy. From the initial workings of theUnited Nations, through to relations with Turkey, the Cyprusquestion and ultimately Greek accession to the EuropeanEconomic Community, Ambassador Theodoropoulos partici-pated actively and decisively in the formulation and imple-mentation of Greek foreign policy. Apart from his career inpublic service Ambassador Theodoropoulos is also a prolificauthor. His scholarly outputs, and policy analyses, rangefrom considering the contemporary relevance of Thucydidesto the foreign policy of Modern Greece. In recognition of his

contribution to scholarship, the University of Athens has hon-oured him with a Doctorate in Law and Political Science.

His wealth of experience and his breadth of knowledgewere clearly reflected in his lecture to a packed Hong KongTheatre. Ambassador Theodoropoulos embraced the wholespan of the history of Greek foreign policy since independ-ence, identifying where this policy was erroneous or wentwrong and why. The three keys to his analysis were basedon; an excessive importance attached to ‘words rather thanfacts’, international law, and ‘the opinion of foreigners’. Usingthis foundation, Ambassador Theodoropoulos was able tolook at many key decisions and the words and actions of keyplayers and suggest that a heavy dose of introspection couldonly but benefit not only our interpretation of past events butalso the pursuit of goals in our current and future foreign pol-icy interests.

The full text of the lecture can be found at: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/hellenicObservatory/events/Theodoropoulos_Lecture.htm

The Byron Theodoropoulos Lecture

A conference on ‘War and Identities’ took place at the Gen-nadius Library in Athens between 26 and 27 May 2006. It wasjointly organised by the Hellenic Studies Programme at YaleUniversity and the Hellenic Observatory of the LondonSchool of Economics, and co-sponsored by the KokkalisFoundation, the Network for the Study of Civil Wars andthe Gennadius Library. It brought together both establishedand young scholars and experts from within and outside theboundaries of Greece. It was contextualised within three maincore phases, namely Macedonia (1904-1908), Occupationand Civil War (1941-1949) and Cyprus (1955-1959 & 1963-1974). More specifically, the first day concentrated on examin-ing the above mentioned irregular wars from a plethora of per-spectives, including sociological, anthropological, historicaland political angles. The emphasis of the second day wasplaced upon accounting for the second core theme, namely

the devel-opment ofidentitiesduring thesame phas-es, as wellas on draw-ing compar-ative ap-proachesbetweenthem andother simi-

lar conflicts. The highly praised success of this conferencewas epitomised by the commitment made during the conclud-ing remarks to undertake similar joint initiatives in the future.

In June 2006, Kevin Featherstone and Spyros Economides participated in a one-day conference on Greek-Turkish relationsheld at Istanbul’s Bilgi University. This conference was organised as part of the activities of the MA in International Relations witha concentration of Greek-Turkish Relations at Bilgi University; a unique programme. Professor Featherstone concentrated hispresentation on the meaning of the expression ‘The Europeanisation of Turkey’ and was joined on the panel by Professor P.Ioakimidis of the University of Athens. On a second panel, Professor Thanos Veremis of the University of Athens was joined byDr Spyros Economides who presented on the perceptions of the national interest and the formation of foreign policy in the con-text of Greek-Turkish relations. The conference was chaired by Dr Umut Ozkirmli and Dr Harry Tzimitras, of Bilgi University, whoorganised the conference in conjunction with ELIAMEP in Athens.

War and Identities

Greek - Turkish Relations Conference

Issue 4September 2006

Page 5

The National Bank of Greece(∂ıÓÈ΋ ∆Ú¿Â˙· Ù˘ ∂ÏÏ¿‰Ô˜)has generously agreed to fund anew research fellowship at theObservatory. The fellowship willbe awarded each year to enablejunior or senior academics to un-dertake research at the Observa-tory, on the basis of approvedprojects. The new fellowship ex-tends recent posts of a similarkind funded by the Observatory’sAdvisory Board.

The bank is one of the originaldonors to the Venizelos Chairand its Governor, Takis Ara-poglou, is a prominent memberof the Observatory’s AdvisoryBoard. We would like to take thisopportunity to thank him for hispersonal support of this initiative.

The new fellowship will start inSeptember 2006 with two aca-

demics sharing the position. Thefirst recipient, Dr. DionyssisDimitrakopoulos (Birkbeck), willundertake a comparative study ofthe implementation of EU publicpolicy in Greece, France and theUK. The question he will pose is:how do institutions affect the im-plementation of EU policy? Whydo these three centralised sys-tems have different records of im-plementation? Dr. Dimitrakopou-los has published widely on EUpolitics (institutional change, in-stitutional autonomy, transposi-tion) and his current researchtakes up the agenda of his PhD(Hull, 1998).

The second recipient of the newfellowship will be ProfessorNikolaos Zahariadis of the Uni-versity of Alabama at Birming-ham in the USA. Professor Za-hariadis will commence a project

entitled, ‘The Politics of StateSubsidies in Greece’. His re-search will address the followingquestions: why does the Greekgovernment allocate high levelsof manufacturing and agriculturalsubsidies, and why and howdoes it choose among differentsubsidy instruments? The studywill be placed in the context offactor endowment theory and thelogic of the group contributionmodel, building an asset influ-ence model of trade policy.

Professor Zahariadis has pub-lished extensively on matters ofpublic policy, international politi-cal economy and comparativepolitics. His most recent book,Essence of Political Manipula-tion: Emotion, Institutions andGreek Foreign Policy, was pub-lished by Peter Lang (New York)in 2005.

Minister announces new fellowship for the HO

George Alogoskoufis, the GreekMinister of Economics and Finance,gave a press conference at the LSE on3 March 2006 to announce the creationof a new academic position. The post ofResearch Fellow will be available on anannual basis for junior or senior aca-demics visiting the Observatory to un-dertake projects related to Greece’seconomic relations within south eastEurope.

The press conference was chaired bySir Howard Davies, Director of theSchool, and Kevin Featherstone spokeof the relevance of the new fellowship to

the research agenda of the Observatory.

Greek firms and banks are major in-vestors in the rest of the Balkans.Greece today ranks in the top 2 or 3countries investing in Albania, Bulgaria,Romania, FYROM, and Serbia. Howev-er, this contrasts sharply with the levelof trade – exports as well as imports –between Greece and her northernneighbours. The pattern suggests thescope to develop new trading markets,but also the new mobility of capital. It isestimated that the top 20 Greek in-vestors in South East Europe now em-ploy more people outside Greece thanat ‘home’. Greek firms emerge as ‘multi-nationals’, enjoying economies of scaleand repatriating profits.

Such trends are part of the new eco-nomic landscape in the region. Other is-sues here are of continued EU enlarge-ment, cooperation in energy policy, theconsolidation of transport corridors,and agreements on the environmentand trafficking. For Greece at home, thebiggest change is of large scale immi-gration from the region providing a newlabour supply.

The first Research Fellow to be ap-pointed to this new position, Dr Euge-nia Markova, will address this latteragenda of migrant workers and the rela-tive gains for the country of origin andthe host society. She will undertake re-search on the contributions and chal-lenges posed by Balkan migration intoGreece, as well as the impact immigra-tion makes to strengthening the eco-nomic links relevant to an integrated re-gional market. Dr. Markova will bebased at the Observatory for the 2006-7academic year.

Dr. Markova, a Bulgarian national, ob-tained her PhD in economics from theUniversity of Athens (with distinction)and an MSc from Crete. Previously shehas worked at the Sussex Centre for Mi-gration Research.

Professor Alogoskoufis is himself adistinguished alumnus of the LSE. Heobtained his MSc and his PhD (1982) ineconomics from the School and taughthere briefly, before moving on to pursuehis academic career and then politicalcareer. We are grateful to him for his ef-forts in securing this important new fel-lowship.

The NBG Funds New Research Fellowships

The Hellenic ObservatorNewsletter 2006

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In 2005/06 we re-shaped the formatof the Hellenic Observatory ResearchSeminars. The seminar series hosted anumber of high-profile academics andpolicy-makers, who presented theirwork on topical issues on Greek for-eign affairs, political economy, publicand economic policy.

Amongst the speakers were two advi-sors to the Greek Prime Minister(Professors Eleni Louri and AntonisMakrydemetres) and the Director of theNational Education Council in Greece(Professor Thanos Veremis). The topicsranged from urban political geography

(L.Leontidou) to current foreign affairs(A.Theofanous) and fromEuropeanisation (K.Featherstone) tosocial exclusion (E.Kikilias). Copies ofthe seminar presentations, whichattracted large audiences from LSE’sstudent population and the Greek com-munity of London, are available at:http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/hellenicObservatory/events/ResearchSeminars.htm.

In 2006/07 we hope to continue withthe success of last year’s seminars.The series will host again a number ofhigh-profile speakers, starting withProfessor Theodore Lianos(Department of Economics, AthensUniversity of Economics and Business),who will present on his influentialresearch on Balkan Immigration toGreece (Tuesday 10 October 2006,6pm, J116, Cowdray House). This willbe followed by a presentation by DrCharalambos Tsardanidis, Director ofthe Athens-based Institute ofInternational Economic Relations, on

the Hellenic Plan for Reconstruction inthe Balkans (Tuesday 24 October2006). Other speakers will includeProfessor Platon Tinios (Ageing andSocial Protection in Greece), ProfessorRigas Doganis (Olympic Airways: theGood, the Bad and the Ugly), ProfessorTheodore Couloumbis (tbc), Professor

Christos Hadjiemmanouil (tbc), andothers. Keep an eye on the HO website(see link above) for more up-to-dateinformation on our seminar series andother public events. We look forward toseeing you at forthcoming seminars.

HO Research Seminars 2005-06

The Bodossaki Foundation StudenshipThe Bodossaki Foundation has been a long-standing and generous supporter of students researching various aspects

of contemporary Greece in the social sciences. Since the very early days of the HO, the Foundation has provided schol-arships for PhD students studying in the HO on topics related to public policy, politics and economics, foreign and secu-rity policy of contemporary Greece. The Bodossaki Foundation PhD Studentship at Hellenic Observatory has been madeavailable annually, to one student, and is tenable for up to three years. This studentship is a key ingredient in the HO’sability to attract and retain the emerging generation of scholars working on contemporary Greece and its environs. In2005-6 Kyriakos Moumountzis was granted the studentship to pursue research on the ‘Europeanisation of GreekForeign Policy’. Starting in October 2006, Sofia Vassilopoulou has won the award to conduct her research on ‘PublicSupport for European Integration: Euroscepticism. A Greece – Denmark Comparative Study’. We are grateful to MrDimitris Vlastos and the Board of the Bodosssaki Foundation for their continuing support of the HO and its students.

The Gregory Tzirakian Scholarship The HO is very pleased to announce the creation of a second PhD scholarship available to Greek students at the LSE.

Through a generous endowment made by Mr Grigoris Tzirakian and his family, the LSE will sponsor a PhD student forthe next decade. The scholarship is tenable for a maximum of three years. The holder of the scholarship should be aGreek national who is currently enrolled or have been accepted for enrolment in an LSE PhD programme. Applicantsmust normally have an interest in research areas of relevance to the research activity of the Hellenic Observatory. Thecurrent holder is George Evangelopoulos who is engaged in PhD research on Agency/Structure Debate in the study ofInternational Relations. We are extremely grateful to Mr Tzirakian for his kind support of one of the LSE’s most valuableresources, it’s PhD students.

Studentships

Visiting Fellows and ResearchersThe Hellenic Observatory welcomes enquiries from post-doctoral students and senior academics interested in vis-iting us for a short period of research. Enquiries shouldbe made via: HellenicObservatory@lse.ac.uk

Research students:Please join our server list to maintain a dialogue

between fellow specialists. For more information, visit our web site

(http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/hellenicObservatory/Default.htm)

Issue 4September 2006

Page 7

A major new research project willcommence at the Hellenic Observatoryin September 2006. The project is enti-tled, ‘The Enemy That Never was: theTurkish/Muslim Minority of Thraceduring the Axis occupation and theGreek Civil War, 1941-49’ . The projectis being funded by the Arts and Human-ities Research Council of the UK, thepublic body established to promote re-search in these subject areas, includinghistory. The project is led by ProfessorKevin Featherstone (LSE) and Dr. Dim-itris Papadimitriou (Manchester). TheResearch Investigators will be Dr. Ar-gyris Mamarelis and Dr. GeorgiosNiarchos, both of whom have recentlyobtained their PhDs from the LSE

Project Summary:

The Axis campaign in the Balkans re-sulted in the triple occupation of Greece(1941-1944) by German, Italian and Bul-garian forces. Driven by widespreadpopular discontent against the invadersa number of resistance groups soonsprung up all around Greece. Despitetheir shared objective of fighting the oc-

cupying forces these resistance groupsremained highly fragmented and suspi-cious of one another. In addition, as theoccupation experience radicalized pre-war domestic politics and fuelled socialand ethnic tensions, serious disagree-ments began to emerge between thesegroups over the future direction of post-war Greece.

Heated political passions soon esca-lated into a full-scale civil war, after lib-eration in 1944, between the royalistgovernmental forces on one hand andthe Communist side on the other. Thisconflict eventually resulted in the defeatof the Communist forces in 1949.

During the course of the occupationand the civil war, a number of ethnic

groups inthe northofGreece,(e,g,theSlav-Macedo-nians),raised se-

cessionist demands and aligned them-selves with those, who they thought,would better serve their aspirations forgreater autonomy.

The Muslim/Turkish minority of West-ern Thrace stands in sharp contrast tothis paradigm. The minority was reli-giously and ethnically distinct from theChristian majority in the region and hadsuffered years of discrimination by theGreek government, which had resultedin segregation and low levels of socialand economic development.

Yet, despite its numerical strength(approximately 100,000, the largest mi-nority group in Greece) and its proximi-

ty with the Turkish ‘motherland’, the mi-nority made no organized attempt to se-cede.

The project looks into how and whythe Muslim/Turkish minority opted forthis timid and largely pacifist strategy.The project will also try to place thecase study of the Muslim/Turkish minor-ity in the wider context of World War IIand the early Cold War and their impacton Balkan nationalisms and the Greek-Turkish relations.

The research has also a contempo-rary relevance in helping us to contextu-alize some of the current ethnic ten-sions in South Eastern Europe.

The Hellenic Observatory at the LSEwill serve as an outlet for the communi-cation of the project to the wider public.To this end, we plan to organize a se-ries of research seminars and publicmeetings in order to contribute activelyto the public debate on the position ofminorities in the region and promote abetter understanding of the ethnic mo-saic in South Eastern Europe.

New Research Project on Muslims in Thrace

In the Lent Term of 2005/06 we had the pleasure to wel-come Mr Giorgos Alexiou, a 2nd-year student at the Depart-ment of Political Science of the University of Bielefeld, for athree-month internship at the Hellenic Observatory. Giorgosprovided valuable help, assisting with office work and doingexcellent bibliographical research on a project run by Dr Vas-silis Monastiriotis on Bulgarian Regional Policy during Transi-tion. Being a surprising lively and inquisitive character, Gior-gos was able to attend at the same time a wide range of pub-lic lectures and course seminars at LSE and to work on hisown research for his undergraduate dissertation, benefitingfrom the resources available at the BLPES. We thank Giorgosfor his valuable support and good spirits and we wish him all

the best in his studies at Bielefeld – hoping to see him againin the near future, perhaps as a graduate student at the LSE!

This project is supported bythe Arts & Humanities ResearchCouncil of the UK. Grant:AH/D502616/1.

For fu r ther in fo rmat ion : please contact: hellenicobservatory@lse.ac.uk.

InternshipsThe Hellenic Observatory also welcomes enquiries from

current students interested in working for a short period asan intern, servicing the activities of the Observatory. En-quiries to: hellenicobservatory@lse.ac.uk

HellenicObservatory@lse.ac.uk.

HO Internships

The Hellenic ObservatorNewsletter 2006

Page 8

Latest news

Advisory Board The Hellenic Observatory has an Advisory Board to help promote its activities

Dr. Nicholas Garganas, Bank of Greece (Chairman)

Mr Takis Arapoglou, National Bank of Greece

Dr Spyros Economides, Deputy Director of the HellenicObservatory, LSE,

Professor Kevin Featherstone, Director of the HellenicObservatory, LSE

Dr Spiros Latsis, EFG Eurobank Ergasias

Mr Dimitrios P. Mantzounis, Alpha Bank

Dr Achilleas Mitsos, ISTAME, A.Papandreou

Professor Elias Mossialos, LSE

Professor Nikos Mouzelis, LSE

Professor Lucas Papademos, ECB

Mr Dimitris Paraskevas, President of the LSE AlumniAssociation in Greece

Professor Christopher Pissarides, LSE

Professor George Provopoulos, Commercial Bank of Greece

The Hellenic Observatory Annual LectureDr Costas Karamanlis, The Prime Minister of GreeceThe Greek Prime Minister, Costas Karamanlis, is expected to give a public lecture for the Hellenic Observato-ry. The exact date is still to be confirmed, but it is likely to be in the Michaelmas term (autumn of 2006). Finaldetails will be placed on the Observatory’s web-page: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/hellenicObservatory

Good bye...and thanks!In November 2005 we were sad to say goodbye to Maria Kantirou, who had been the HO Administrator since May 2004.

Maria quickly became a central part of the HO Team, organising our public activities, managing the office and dealing with stu-dents and visitors with calmness, and generosity of time. Maria left us to take up a post with the Open University and we wouldlike to take this opportunity to thank her for all the hard work at the HO.

The Observatory was please to host Athina Palapanidou for a short period after Maria left, working as a temporary administra-tive assistant. Thereafter, she resumed her studies in Greece. We thank them both and send them our every good wishes!

The HO will be holding the Third Biennial PhDSymposium on the Social Sciences and ContemporaryGreece in Spring 2007. We will be making a call forpapers in Autumn 2006 and we will simultaneously bepublishing details of the themes of the Symposium andhow to apply. For more information please visit regu-larly the HO website:http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/hellenicObservatory/events/Default.htm

Who’s Who 2006/7Prof. Kevin FeatherstoneEleftherios Venizelos Professor & Director of the HO

Dr Spyros EconomidesHO Deputy Director & Senior Lecturer, Contemporary Greek Studies

Dr Vassilis MonastiriotisLecturer in the Political Economy of Greece and South East Europe

Ms Maria NikitaHO Administrator

Ms Eleni XiarchogiannopoulouResearch Assistant

Dr Nikos Papadakis & Dr Konstantina Maragkou Visiting Fellows

The Third LSE PhD Symposium on Modern Greece

For further information about the Hellenic Observatory, see our webpages:

http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/hellenicObservatory/Or write to:

The Administrator, Hellenic Observatory, London School of Economics and Political Science,

Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK. ñ Tel: +44 207 955 6066 ñ Fax: +44 207 955 6497