The Megali Idea in theory

Ever since Greece became an autonomous state in the early 19th century, the idea of liberating the rest of the Hellenic homelands has been a major national objective. At the time the vast majority of ethnic Greeks lived outside the borders of our Kingdom. Greeks outside of Greece suffered in the hands of barbarians - mostly Turks & Bulgarians. The atrocities committed by those groups against us and our people have not been forgotten, and will never be.
Here, I will not talk about the Megali Idea as a historical political movement, because it is something that still divides the Greek nationalist community. Instead, I will explain 1) The Megali Idea in theory and 2) Analyze its current importance.

The Megali Idea in theory

The Megali Idea is a Greek nationalist concept that suggests the liberation of all the Hellenic lands that are still within foreign borders. A large part of the Megali Idea has already been achieved through the Balkan wars, but our defeat in the Greco-Turkish war of 1919 has left us, Greek patriots, with our hearts in pain for our lost fatherlands.

The lands included in the Megali Idea are compromised of Western Anatolia (Ionia, Bythinia, Mysia/Aeolis, Caria/Doris), Eastern Rumelia (or Eastern Thrace), the southern Black sea shores (Pontus), the island of Cyprus and Northern Epirus. Other versions also include Cappadocia and more extreme versions even parts of Ukraine, southern Italy, while some even suggest Alexandria. Macedonia, Thessaly, the Ionian & Aegean Islands, Southern Epirus, and south-western Thrace are also included but have already been annexed by Greece. 

In all but a name, the Megali Idea is the notion of a unified Greater Greece. That larger and stronger version of our country would have Constantinople as its capital and ideally only have citizens that are of Greek ancestry.

The Megali Idea today

After the huge and abrupt decline of Greek presence in Anatolia (because of the Greek genocide and the population exchange between Greece and Turkey), the Megali Idea has lost its relevance in the modern Greek nation, at least for the majority of Greeks. There are, however, still places outside Greece that have a majority Greek Christian population. Cyprus is currently the most crucial region of the Megali Idea, with the whole island outside the Greek state, and a chunk of it controlled by our eternal enemy. Northern Epirus is even less talked about despite all the injustices committed constantly by the Albanians against the native Greek population. Southern Italy also has an ethnic Greek population but the matter is completely neglected, which can probably be excused because of the fact that Greek national awareness is quite weak among Greeks there. The neglect of the topic of Northern Epirus, however, cannot be excused. There are still Greeks there, who speak the Greek language, practice the Greek Orthodox faith and are proud of their Hellenic heritage! The recent self-sacrifice of Hellenic ethnomartyr Constantine Katsifas brought the issue into the spotlight for a while but it seems like nothing has changed even a year later.

~Michael C. Dim.

Map of the "Hellenic Race".

This map shows the genetic similarity of modern populations to the Greeks.

As it is clear in the map, Greece, southern Italy, the Balkans, and western Turkey are the regions most closely related to the Greeks.
This should not come as a surprise, since it is thought that Greek, as a language, was closely related to ancient Illyrian (which was spoken in the region of Dalmatia, western Balkans), Thracian (spoken in the region of Thrace, south-eastern Balkans), as well as Phrygian and the Anatolian languages (spoken in western Anatolia). The Illyrians were thought by some ancient Greeks to also be Greek, or at least less-Barbaric compared to other peoples, so it would make sense if they were genetically related. It is also very likely that the genetic similarity between western Anatolians and Greeks has existed even before Greek colonization to the east. Even if that is not true, the western part of Anatolia was an important center of Hellenism in the middle ages and really up until the early 20th century, and many Greeks from the mainland migrated there. Those who converted to Islam during Ottoman rule and assimilated to the Turkish population are responsible for the genetic similarity between western Turks and Greeks. The opposite hardly happened, because it was illegal under Sharia law for Muslims to convert to Islam, and it would be foolish to do so, since Christians had fewer rights in the Ottoman empire.

One might wonder "How come the southern Slavs are related to the Greeks? Did they not come centuries later?". While it is true that Slavs migrated south around the 7th century A.D, it should be noted that Slavs are just a linguistic group and that they are not racially homogenous. Most modern southern Slavs are descendants of slavicisated native Balkan populations, like the Pelasgians, who were genetically related to the Greeks.

In the case of southern Italy, things are very simple. The region is also known as "Great Greece" because many Greeks migrated there. These populations remained Greek-speaking and Hellenic even up until the 11th century AD, when they were de-Hellenized and linguistically Latinized. This is one of the reasons why modern Greek and Italian cultures are considered to be identical. What is odd, however, is that northern Italy is also genetically similar to Greece, which is actually surprising considering they were never Hellenic, never had Greek colonies and the fact that the region was subject to many migrations from Germanic and Celtic tribes. This could possibly suggest that the original people of the region (the original Romans, Etruscans, etc) were actually Hellenic or Hellenic-like. Also surprising is the fact that Ireland and Scotland are not very genetically related to Greece, even though they are anthropologically classified as Mediterranean. This could be explained by the fact that they are from Iberia, therefore west Med, not east Med.

Another conclusion we can draw from this map is that Greeks are more related to European populations than to the Middle East

~Michael C. Dim.

Welcome!

Hello Everyone, Michael here!
Welcome to my blog. I won't say the name because I might change it in the near future.
This is an English blog about Greece. Here you will find information related to ancient, medieval and modern Greece, the nation of Hellas, Greek nationalist politics, Greek culture, language, religion, etc.
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