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Greek diaspora boys clothes: Greek regions -- diaspora
Greek Diaspora/Omogenia
Figure 1.--Greeks have lived in Egypt since ancient times. The majority of modern Egyptian Greeks lived in Alexandria and to a lesser extent Cairo. These unidentified Greek children lived in Zagazig, a town in the Delta. The postcard back portrait was taken in the 1930s. The children look to be abou 8-15 years old. They all wear sweaters. Interestingly, the older boys wear short pants and the youngr boy long pants. Perhaps he was acousin. The major Greek presence in Egypt ended in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1952. Egyptian officials forced most Greeks to leave ending the unique relationship. The studio was Varjabedian, an Armenian studio.
The Greek or Hellenic diaspora is referred to as Omogenia (Ομογένεια) in Greece. Greece is none of the few ancient peoples that exists as a modern state. Egypt is another state, but has no significant diaspora. Persia (Iran) is another state, but modern Iran is ethnically destinct. The early Greeks after moving south into what is now modern Greece, influences by the Minoans, from an early point were a trading people. And they traveled throughout the Mediterranean, including the Black Sea, and beyond to trade, often setting up colonies which became more thn trading posts. Omogenia is often used by the Greeks to mean the communities of Greeks established outside the homeland throughout the Mediterranean world. This meant the Balkans, southern Ukraine and Russia, Georgia, south Caucasus, the Pontus (northeastern Anatolia), and eastern Anatolia. The Greek duaspora predates the Jewisg=h diaspora by centuries. There is ann unbroken presence from Homeric times. There was a seimic change in the 20th century with the rise of new natioanal states. The Greek diaspora is of some historical importance. Greeks fleeing the Ottomans helped spark the Renaisssance in Italy. The liberation of Balkan Christians began in Greece, to present. Examples of its influence range from the instrumental role played by Greek expatriates in the emergence of the Renaissance, various liberational and nationalist movements implicated in the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire.
Rising nationalism and Soviet Communism , in the Balkans, Russia, and Turey much reducd Greek comminities in the traditional Omogenia. As a result, the largest overseas Greek community today is in America some 3 million people. That is over 25 percent of the Greeknpopulation. And depending on how you classigy Crete, Anerica is helf of the modern diaspora. The American Greek communities is bery moderm, a result of the European emiigration behinning in the late-19th century. Other importantbmodern communities include Australia, Germany, Canada, Britain, France, albani, Ukraine, and Russia.
United States
Greece achieved its independence from the Ottomans in the 1820s. This meant that the Grreeks emmigrating from Greece were recorded as Greeks in the INS data. The 1820s were before significan immigration began from the Balkans. In fact Greek immigration was very limited in the 19th century. Eventually over 370,000 people immigrated from Greece, most after the turn of the 20th century. Most were ethnic Greeks, but there this included some Armenians. This is, however, an unestimation of Greek immigration. Large numbers, perhaps, two-thirds of the emigrants from the Ottoman Empire are believed to be Greeks. [Saloutos] This would mean an additional number, nealy 220,000 Greeks. Today some 3 million Americans identify their ethnicity as Greek. Other than the Irish, the Greeks are the largest ethnic community in comparison to the home population.
Cyprus is another large Medditerean island located south of Turkey. The island was imprtant in the ancient Bonze Age world as a source of copper. The island is a a serious issue dividing Greece and Turkey because there is a minority Turkish etnnic population. Cyprus is a historically Greek island. Aa a result of the Ottoman invasion and occupation, a Turkish population was introduced. The british established a presen in the late-19th century. As independence was achieved after World War II, tension developed between Greece and Trkey. The Turkish Army intervened in 1974 to precent unification with Greece and the island is now partioned between the two national groups. We have not yet developed information on Cyprus for the country, but there is some information on school uniforms.
Anatolia or modern Turkey is often referred to as Asia Minor by the Greeks. It is one of the most contested areas in human history. It has been at times controlled and influences by the Greeks. The Greek seage of Troy occurred at the dawn of recorded history. The Persians threatened Greece when they conquered Asian Minor. Alexander later Helenized the region after defeating the Persians. The Ottomans completed the conquest of Asian Minor when Constaninople fell in 1452, but large numbers of Greeks continued to live in Asia Minor, especially in coastal areas until the 1920s. A war between Greece and Turkey following World War I resulted in a Greek defeat. Much of the Greek population left with the retreating Greek Army or in the repressions and forced resettlerments conducted by the Turks after the war.
There is also a Greek minority in Romania and there has been one for an incredible 27 centuries. The northern Black Sea was not only the source of trade vgiids from Russian rivers flown south, but also the western terrminus of what is now known as the Silk Road. The Greeks were a seafaring people and entered the Black Sea where they established coastal trading colonies. This was at a time when the modern Romanian ethnic population, the Dacians, was just beginning to form. Greeks have at times played an important role in what is now Romania. Trajan famously coquered the Dacians berining them within the Romnan Empire (2nd century AD). For many years,the Greeks were part of the elite, but over time became fully integrated into Romanian society. By the 19th century, Romania was no longer a destination for large numbers of Greek exiles and migrants. America and other countries to the West were the more popular choice. The Greeks that came to Romania were from a generally humble status of society. Greeks came to play an imprtant commercial role in Romania as traders and shop keepers a well as some entrepreneurs. Many Greeks worked as sailors, both in the Black Sea and on the Danube. The Romanian annexation of Dobruja substabtially added to the Greek population (1878). Dobruja is a coastal province located along the Black Sea and this had a much higher Greek population than interior provinces. The Greek involvement in commerce made them a target of the Communist regime that sezed power at the end of World War II (1945). The Communists seized private propertty as well as that of Greek cultural organizations. The security forces arrested hundreds of ethnic Greeks. Many were committed to concentration camps and used as slave labor. The major construction project employing slave labor was the Danube-Black Sea Canal. At the same time, a wave of Greeks entered Romania. After the failure of the Communists in the Greek Civil War (1947-49), the Communists evacuated their strongholds in norhern Greece and broughout many children with them.
Egypt
An estimated 0.3 million Greeks were the country's largest ethnic minority with exception of the Bedouin. Greeks have lived in Egypt since ancient times when they were an importahnt trading people. Egypt was a wonder to the ancient Greeks and an important influence. The Greeks were a trading and sefaring people and as a resulthad early contacts with the Egyptians. The cultural and academic contacts between the two peoples were an important aspect of the current Mediterranean mosaic. Early Greek art shows a strong Egyptian influence. Alexander the Great of course brought Greek rule to Egyopt and after his death, a Greek dynasty (the Poltolmies) ruled Egypt until after Ceasar's asasination, Octavian defeated Anthony and Cleopatra and annexed Egypt into the Roman Empire. Since that time, the Greeks have remained culturally, linguistically, and religiously separate from the larger Egyptian socuety. This continued after the Arab invasion (7th century). The majority of Egyptian Greeks lived in Alexandria and to a lesser extent Cairo. The major Greek presence ended in the aftermath of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Egyptian officials forced most to leave ending the unique relationship. Nassar and other Egyptian nationalists were convinced that expelling minority groups like the Jews and Egyotians would benefit Egypt. In fact the expelling of many talented individual, was one factor in the abject failure of the Egyptian economy. Unfortunately, many Egyptians do not understnd the value of tolerance and diversity and are intent on making Egypt a uniformally Muslim country with little or no diversity of thought and behavior.
Sources
Saloutos, Theodore. A History of Greeks in the United States (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1964).
