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Greece and Turkey: As Heirs of Byzantine CultureGreece and Turkey: As Heirs of Byzantine Culture For almost two centuries, since the Greek heroic uprising in 1821, Greece and Turkey have locked horns and fought valiantly for their survival as two separate national entities, in terms of ethnicity, language and religion. In their struggles for survival as nations, both Greece and Turkey have been inspired and sustained by grand visions and illusions of past glories. To liberate Constantinople and perhaps recreate a mini Byzantine Empire had been the Greek dream, at least until the great catastrophe of 1922. The Turks, on the other hand, had tried desperately to hold on to as much of the Ottoman Empire as possible, at least until the end of the First World War, which brought the demise of that dream and the birth of the Republic of Turkey in 1923. Since then, Turkey has been driven by another equally utopian dream: to create a country only for Turks in Anatolia, by ethnic cleansing and forceful Turkification of the great mosaic of peoples who historically had lived and prospered in Western Asia, and in Asia Minor in particular. Armenians, Syrians, and Greeks have become the tragic victims of a misguided policy that has deprived Turkey of artistic and commercial skills, as well as of capital, culture, education, and an enriching diversity. The “Turkey for Turks only” policy has had another unforeseen consequence. It has made Turkeys application for membership in the European Union more incongruous than it would have been otherwise. For if Turkey really considers itself exclusively Turkish (that is, Asiatic) and religiously Islamic (that is, Asiatic again), then the suspicion and the question arises, why would it want to be part of EU? The glaring contradiction cannot escape the European attention, although some Turks “diplomatically” may pretend that they do not see the irrationality of such policy. So, hypothetically, if the long process of negotiations for membership in the EU does not have a happy ending for Turkey for whatever reason, one would suspect that some Turks would not be satisfied with their “Asiatic identity,” that is, as being just Turkish and Muslim. For they know well that they are more than that. They know that they are the heirs of Byzantium, just as the Greeks do, politically and culturally. The Turks also know that they are a “mixture” of the races, languages, religions, and cultures of greater Anatolia. If you were to scratch a Turk from (west, north, south, or east of) Ankara, you would find probably more of a Lydian, a Carian, a Phrygian, a Greek, a Pontian, a Syrian, or an Armenian, than a “pure Turk” under his skin. This would especially be true, if the skin happened to be not too thick, and had the luck to have felt the civilizing breeze of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Well, then, in this light, to be excluded from the “Christian Club” of European Union might not be the worst thing to happen to the Turks. For it may force them to reconsider more carefully their identity and their historical dept to other peoples in the region, the Greeks and the Armenians in particular, who helped them create and sustain for centuries a Turkish Empire, worthy heir of Byzantine Empire, that had been their. One could dare to go a step further and say that the Europeans, had they faced the dilemma initially thus, “to let the Turks in or to keep the Greeks out,” probably would have opted against the Greek inclusion. For the Greek Orthodox Christianity does not fit well with the European Catholic and Protestant traditions, while the Greeks are too close- connected to the Turks culturally. They are certainly heirs of Byzantium, politically and culturally, and as such they have been traditionally opponents of “European culture.” In the short run, such a hypothetical outcome, with Turkey and Greece out of the European Union, may seem negative, in terms of the funds that these countries will not get from the Europeans. But, in the long run, it may be proven a blessing in disguise, if these two closely related countries were forced to find ways to work together to solve their own problems peacefully and to undertake common cultural projects. They then could rediscover the common roots of their identities in the Ottoman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Hellenistic Empires, and ultimately in the Classical Hellenic civilization. More importantly, they could become the nucleus of the creation of a new model of Federation of States (including Cyprus and the other Balkan States) that share in this common cultural heritage. The new model would be based on religious tolerance, economic cooperation, strategic synergy, and philosophic Hellenic paideia. This may be a dream, but it is a dream worth dreaming and thinking about. Greece and Turkey have allowed the Europeans and other external powers to manipulate their national aspirations and keep them divided and exploited. They would be better off, if they decide to cooperate and invest in common educational and cultural projects. If the Germans and the Frenchmen can find common ground and forget their bloody past, the Greeks and the Turks can to do the same and with as good or better reason. It would be better for them both, if they were to build schools and universities for the study of ancient Hellenic philosophy and modern European science, instead of building more warships to fight another Greco-Turkish war over Imia, or some other rocky island in the Aegean. This kind of insanity must be stopped because it is not worthy of these two nations and their long histories. They should do better than that. Fighting each other for the last two hundred years has not been good for either of these two nations, which are destined, by geography and history, to face each other and to feel each other as friends rather than foes. It is time that their respective political leaders tried a different, a less belligerent and more friendly approach. Reason demands this now. There is hope among thinking Greeks and Turks these days that the newly re-elected Gentlemen, Kostas Karamanlis and Tayyip Erdogan, as Prime Ministers of Greece and Turkey respectively, will try to imitate their famous predecessors, Eleutherios Venizelos and Mustafa Kemal, in this regard. They can take bolder steps in the direction of closer cultural ties and economic cooperation between the two historic nations. Amen! Dr. Christos Evangeliou is Professor of Hellenic Philosophy at Towson University, and author of several books including the latest, Hellenic Philosophy: Origin and Character.
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