The shame is the lack of historical knowledge


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Posted by KP on February 04, 2002 at 15:12:56:

In Reply to: Re: COMMENTS ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH posted by rm on February 04, 2002 at 09:14:32:

Firstly, I believe Turkey's oppression and continuing hostility towards Greece IS economic and not religious, it's just that religion is the symbol of difference in the Aegean and so becomes shorthand for 'the other'. This became so because the Ottomans used religion as the benchmark for otherness in their dealings with oppressed peoples - from Greeks to Armenians to Albanians to Bulgarians etc. If you look into the history of the Ottoman years where Greek's suspicions of anything Anatolian was understandably born, you will see bias against Orthodoxy even in the Ottoman administration of government, eg., one couldn't hold a post, even a minor official post, in the Ottoman empire unless one was a Muslim. Before you go off 'feeling ashamed', look into the reason why contemporary Greeks still react so strongly on this issue. I too am ashamed that so many Greeks sound off BEFORE they know the history of their own culture, eg., were you aware that Crete did not gain full independance from the Ottomans (as they were still called at the time) until 1912? Yes in the living memory of our grandparents the rule of the 'bey' is recalled. A century ago was only a blink in any scale of history, so please, I urge Greeks and those of Greek origin to access their own modern history before condemning any other Greek.


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