Stirring the Greek Nation

Book excerpt: This work examines the background to Greek nationalist politics and its effects on public opinion towards international events and territorial claims, from the end of the Second World War to the collapse of constitutional rule in 1967. It explains how intermittent public mobilisation on various foreign policy issues created a political culture that combined elements of nationalism, religion, race and stereotypes about the national Self and the Other. The book challenges widely-held assumptions that Greek irredentism was all but dead and buried in the aftermath of the Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922, and that anti-Americanism was the product of US support for the Colonels' regime of 1967-74 and its condoning of the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. It begins with an examination of the revival of irredentism in connection with Greek national claims after 1945 and the two campaigns for the union of Cyprus with Greece during the 1950s and 1960s. The second part of the study reveals anti-Americanism to be largely the result of failed post-war Greek territorial ambitions - particularly the frustration of the Enosis claim - rather than the actual intervention of the United States in Greek affairs. Drawing on a huge variety of sources including the Greek press, records of the Greek Parliament, the US and British National Archives, as well the archives of numerous individuals, this book provides a fascinating account of Greek political culture and national self image at a crucial time in the country's political development.