The Greek ethnicity can be related back to the struggle for indepence in
the early 19th century, and more specifically, to the so-called
"Hellenistic" movement among the Christian "millet" of the Ottoman
Empire. The Greek identity was based on ideas of establishing a new
"Byzantium", even though there were big differences among the "hellenes"
- some were "modern" - wanting a constitution in the style of the French
(after the Revolution) - and others were "traditionals" - wanting to
create a "holy" Empire based on the Greek-orthodox institutions. In the
beginning, the ideas of indepence was not restricted to modern day
Greece, simply because Greeks of that time were scattered around inside
the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. The Greek got support for their
ideas of independence from the British Empire (Greece was under military
protection of the British Empire),
maybe because of the rising interest of ancient Greece in that period ?
But, interestingly enough, the other, non-Greek, Slavic populations
reacted against the Greek ideas of superiority, and started to found
their own national movements in the 19th century.
The problem, in my opinion, is that much of the controvercies between the
peoples of the Balkans is related to different (more or less mythical) ideas
of a past (how it was, who the people were, who inhabited the areas,etc.)
before the Ottomans conquered the area.
And surely, many of these ideas has later been proven (by various
archaeologists and historians) to be less than accurate, concerning the
"ethnic" identity, chronology and actual events that took place.
But still the myths linger on...
S.A.
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