Greece is a developed capitalist country, it is a member of the European Union and NATO, and its history can be traced back to the ancient Greek period. Greece is located on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, and the country is surrounded by the sea on three sides, bordering the Aegean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Ionian Sea. On the map, at the other end of the Aegean Sea is Turkey, and the two countries border part of northeastern Greece.
Turkey, like Greece, is a member of NATO, but relations between the two countries are very bad. Until now, the two countries have often clashed over issues such as energy and maritime division, seriously undermining peace and stability in the Mediterranean region. The reason why the relationship between Greece and Turkey is so bad is rooted in the national hatred and family hatred left over from history.
1. Colonial rule
In the 14th century, the Ottoman Empire, founded by the Turks, began to expand wildly outwards, occupying all of Greece in just a few years. Greece lost its status as an independent state and became a colony of the Ottoman Empire.
The rulers of the Ottoman Empire adopted a repressive policy towards Greece, and they set up a governor of the European territories in Sofia, who directly administered Greece, while arranging for some of the original Greek nobles to maintain law and order and collect taxes.
The Turks enslaved the Greeks in a frenzy, taking Greek women directly into slavery with the government and the imperial palace, and robbing boys from Greek Orthodox families to do Yeniceri. The Turks developed a "Millet system" for non-Muslim Greeks, imposing high additional taxes on them.
Some Greeks, unwilling to be enslaved by the Ottomans, migrated partly to Western Europe and partly left the plains to hide in the mountains. The Greeks, who accepted Ottoman rule, did not abandon their old faith, they were either Christians or secret Christians.
These people ostensibly converted to Islam promoted by the Ottoman Empire only to avoid harsh taxes and fees, and they maintained their faith in the Greek Orthodox Church behind their backs, and they did not sever their ties with the Greek Orthodox Church. However, this could not prevent the Ottoman Empire from suppressing the Greek economy and culture, and Greece was completely reduced to a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.
2. The War of Independence
Since the 19th century, the Greek people have accumulated a strong sense of resistance because of hundreds of years of oppression, when the strength of the Ottoman Empire is declining, there are many riots in the ruling area, and the Turkish army is exhausted, which makes the Greek people see the hope of national independence.
On March 4, 1821, Ipsylandis led a revolt in Iaşi, Romania, and Greeks from all over the world responded. The rebel army grew larger and larger, spreading across most of Greece, even on many of the islands in the Aegean Sea.
The Turkish army was still very strong at that time, and in June of the same year, Ipsylandis led his army into Greece to engage the Turkish army head-on, but was defeated and the main general Ipsyrantius was also captured by the enemy. The war became more and more intense, and in October of the same year the Greek army occupied the city of Tripolis and basically liberated the Peloponnese.
In January 1822, Greece established a national government and declared its independence. Soon the Greek rebels were brutally suppressed by the Turkish army, and the Greek people living on the island of Chios were massacred by the Turkish army, more than 20,000 were brutally killed, and more than 40,000 were forced into slavery.
Immediately after that, the Turkish army marched towards the Peloponnese, and after going deep inland, it was almost completely annihilated by fierce resistance, and the morale of the Greek army soared. Unfortunately, Greece did not take advantage of the chase, but missed the opportunity because of the infighting in the leading group.
Greece once had a situation where two governments, pro-European and pro-Democrats coexisted, and later the pro-European faction resolved the democrats through armed conflict, and the Greek civil war was ended, at which time the Greek army had been severely damaged and its strength was much less than before.
In July 1824, the Ottoman Empire and Egypt allied themselves to invade Greece, and the Greek army was no match for the combined forces of the two countries, and the situation on the battlefield was quickly reversed. By June 1827, Greece had retained only a portion of the Peloponnese and some islands in the Aegean Sea, and the rest had been taken back by the Ottoman Empire.
The hardships of the war, the atrocities of the Turkish army, and the involvement of interests increased the attention of Russia, France, Britain and other European powers to the Greek war of independence, and they successively recognized the identity of Greece as an independent state and provided material and military assistance to Greece. After gaining the support of the European powers, the Greeks ended in victory in the War of Independence, by which time the Greeks had been enslaved by the Turks for nearly 400 years.
Third, the competition for resources
Greece entered a period of rapid development after escaping the colonial rule of the Ottoman Empire, and they have not forgotten the centuries-old national hatred and homeland hatred. In 1912, Greece united with Bulgaria and other countries to form the Balkan Alliance and declared war on the Ottoman Empire, a war known in history as the Balkan War.
The Ottoman Empire suffered a crushing defeat in the Balkan Wars, and he had to ask the European powers to mediate. The Ottoman Empire reluctantly signed the Treaty of London with the Balkan Allies, dividing almost all of the fruits of its years of expansion on the European continent to several Allies, leaving only a small piece of land in and around Istanbul.
The Balkan Wars led to World War I between the Allies and the Allies, and the Ottoman Empire was once again in the camp of defeat. This time he was forced to sign the Treaty of Sèvres, again losing large tracts of territory and crumbling imperial rule. Greece gained most of the islands in the Aegean Sea when the victorious powers divided their territories, becoming the biggest winner of World War I.
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, it was replaced by the Republic of Turkey. The dispute between Greece and Turkey did not disappear with the collapse of the empire, but rather tended to intensify. The dispute between Greece and Turkey is mainly over the division of the continental shelf and airspace in the Aegean Sea, while the issue of sovereignty over some of the islands in the Aegean Sea has also caused great differences between the two countries.
After Greece detected a large amount of oil and gas resources in its own waters, Turkey directly drove drilling ships into Greek waters without its consent, openly robbing Greece of its oil resources. Greece's repeated dispatch of warships to destroy has failed, Turkey has relied on oil for high returns, Greece has no way but to be angry, and the contradictions between the two countries have been stimulated again.
The oil dispute has not yet been resolved, and Turkey has seized a piece of Greek territory to resettle Middle Eastern refugees. Not only that, Turkey also intimidated Greece, saying that if Greece dared to open fire, it would fight back vigorously. Both countries have sent in large numbers of troops along the border at the junction, and the conflict is on the verge of erupting.
4. Summary
Greece and Turkey, though at opposite ends of the Aegean Sea, are neighbors on the border of each other, and the two countries are very close on the map. However, their relationship was very tense and even conflicted, and its roots were that the Ottoman Empire had colonized the Greek people for nearly 400 years. In addition to the ethnic hatred left over from history, resource interests are also an important reason for the current tension between the two countries.
Greece is slightly inferior to Turkey in terms of economic development and military strength, and if war does break out between the two countries, Greece is likely to be the losing side. However, Greece, although weak, has strong allies such as European countries, so Turkey will not necessarily be the final winner. War has never been the best way to resolve disputes, and only respect for peace can bridge the rift.