Greece

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For other meanings see Greece (disambiguation).

Greece is a country in the southeast of Europe on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula. It is bounded on land by Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania to the north, to the east by Turkey and the waters of the Aegean Sea and to the west and south by the Ionian and Mediterranean Seas. Regarded by many as the cradle of Western civilisation, Greece has a long and rich history during which it spread its influence over three continents.

Greece is formally called the Hellenic Republic (in Greek Elliniki Dimokratia). Greeks call their country Hellas, which in modern Greek is pronounced Ellas. In everyday speech the form Ellada is used. Greeks frequently call themselves Hellenes even in English. The English name "Greece" derives from a Latin name, Graecia, originally used for a region in what is now northern Greece inhabited by a people called the Graekos.

Ελληνική Δημοκρατία
Elliniki Dhimokratia

(In Detail)
National motto: Eleftheria i thanatos (Greek: Liberty or Death)
Official language	Greek
Capital	Athens
President	Kostis Stephanopoulos
Prime Minister	Kostas Karamanlis
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 94th 131,940 km2 0.86%
Population  - Total (2001)  - Density	Ranked 70th 10,964,020 80.5/km²
Independence  - Declared  - Recognised	From the Ottoman Empire March 25, 1821 1828
Currency	Euro(€)¹, Greek euro coins
Time zone	UTC +2
National anthem	Imnos pros tin Eleftherian
Internet TLD	.GR
Calling Code	30
(1) Prior to 2001: Greek drachma

Table of contents

1 History 2 Politics 3 Local government 4 Geography 5 Economy 6 Demographics 7 Culture 8 Miscellaneous topics 9 See also 10 External links 10.1 Ministries 10.2 Other official sites

History

Main article: History of Greece The shores of the Aegean Sea saw the emergence of the first civilisations in Europe, namely the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations. After these has subsided a Dark Age followed until around 800 BC a new era of Greek civilisation emerged. It was this Greece of city-states that established colonies along the Mediterranean, resisted Persian invasions and whose culture would be the basis of Hellenistic civilisation that followed the empire of Alexander the Great (king of Macedonia).

Militarily Greece itself declined until it was conquered by the Romans from 168 BC onwards, though Greek culture would in turn conquer Roman life. A province of the Roman Empire, Greek culture would continue to dominate the eastern Mediterranean and when the Empire finally split in two the Eastern or Byzantine Empire, centred on Constantinople, would be Greek in nature, as well as encompassing Greece itself. From the 4th century to the 15th century the Eastern Roman Empire survived eleven centuries of attacks from the west and east until Constantinople fell on May 29, 1453 to the Ottoman Empire. Greece had gradually been conquered by the Ottomans during the 15th century.

The Ottomans ruled Greece until the early 19th century. In 1821 the Greeks rebelled and in 1822 they declared their independence, but did not succeed in winning it until 1832. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, in a series of war with the Ottomans, Greece sought to enlarge Greece to include the Greek-speaking population of the Ottoman Empire, slowly growing in territory and population until it reached its present boundaries in 1947.

After World War II, Greece experienced a civil war that lasted until 1949. In 1967 the military seized power in a coup d'etat, establishing what became known as the Regime of the Colonels. In 1973 the regime abolished the Greek monarchy. In 1974, The military junta's sponsorship of a failed coup in Cyprus led to the its collapse. In 1975, following a plebiscite to abolish the monarchy, a democratic republic was established. Greece joined the European Union in 1981 and adopted Euro as its currency in 2001.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Greece The 1975 constitution includes extensive specific guarantees of civil liberties and vests the powers of the head of state in an indirectly elected president, who is advised by the Council of the Republic. The prime minister and cabinet play the central role in the political process, while the president performs some governmental functions in addition to ceremonial duties. The president is elected by parliament to a five-year term and can be re-elected once.

Members of Greece's unicameral parliament (the Vouli ton Ellinon) are elected by secret ballot for a maximum of four years, but elections can be called earlier. Greece uses a complex reinforced proportional representation electoral system which discourages splinter parties and ensures that the party which leads in the national vote will win a majority of seats. A party must receive 3% of the total national vote to gain representation.

For a list of Greek political parties, see List of political parties in Greece.

Local government

Main articles: Peripheries of Greece Greece consists of 13 administrative regions known as peripheries, which are further subdivided into 51 prefecturess (nomoi, singular - nomos):

Attica: Attica Central Greece: Euboea Evritania Fokis Fthiotis Viotia Central Macedonia Khalkidhiki Imathia Kilkis Pella Pieria Serres Thessaloniki

Crete Chania Heraklion Lasithi Rethimno East Macedonia and Thrace Drama Evros Kavala Rodhopi Xanthi Epirus Arta Ioannina Preveza Thesprotia

Ionian Islands Corfu Kefallinia Levkas Zakinthos North Aegean Chios Lesbos Samos Peloponnesus Arcadia Achaea Argolis Corinth Ilia Laconia Messinia

South Aegean Cyclades Dodecanese Thessaly Kardhitsa Larisa Magnesia Trikala West Greece Achaea Aitolia-Acarnania Ilia West Macedonia Florina Grevena Kastoria Kozani

Beyond these there is one autonomous region, Mount Athos (Ayion Oros - Holy Mountain), a monastic state under Greek sovereignty.

The nomoi are divided into 147 eparchies (singular eparchia), which are divided into 1,033 municipalities: 133 urban municipalities (demoi) and 900 rural communities (koinotetes). Before 1999, there were 5,775 local authorities: 457 demoi, 5,318 koinotetes, subdivided into 12,817 localities (oikosmoi).

Geography

Main article: Geography of Greece The country consists of a large mainland at the southern end of the Balkans; the Peloponnesus peninsula, which is separated from the mainland by the canal of the Isthmus of Corinth; and numerous islands, including Crete, Rhodes, Euboea and the Dodecanese and Cycladic groups of the Aegean Sea. Greece has more than 14,880 kilometres of coastline and a land boundary of 1,160 kilometres.

About 80% of Greece is mountainous or hilly. Much of the country is dry and rocky; only 28% of the land is arable. Western Greece contains lakes and wetlands. Pindus, the central mountain range, has an average elevation of 2,650 m. The legendary Mount Olympus is the highest point in Greece at 2,917 m above sea level.

Greece's climate features mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Temperatures are rarely extreme, although snowfalls do occur in the mountains and occasionally even in Athens in the winter.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Greece Greece has a mixed capitalist economy with the public sector accounting for about half of GDP. Tourism is a key industry, providing a large portion of GDP and foreign exchange earnings. Greece is a major beneficiary of EU aid, equal to about 2.4% of GNP. The economy has improved steadily over the last few years, as the government tightened policy in the run-up to Greece's entry into the EU's single currency, the euro, on January 1, 2001.

Major challenges remaining include the reduction of unemployment and further restructuring of the economy, including privatising several state enterprises, undertaking social security reforms, overhauling the tax system, and minimising bureaucratic inefficiencies. Economic growth is forecast at 4 - 4,5 % in 2004.

The national central bank of Greece is the Bank of Greece.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Greece Most Greeks (98%) adhere to the Greek Orthodox Church, which is under the protection of the state that also pays the clergy's salaries, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the "prevailing" religion of Greece according to the constitution. The Greek Orthodox Church is self-governing but under the spiritual guidance of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople.

Although Greece is hardly an ethnicaly homogenous society, the Greek Muslim minority (of 1.3%), concentrated in Thrace, which was given legal status by provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 is Greece's only officially recognised minority. There are also minorities of Slavs, Albanians, Vlachs (Aromanians and Megleno-Romanians), and Roma.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Greece

Miscellaneous topics

• Classics
• Education in Greece
• Communications in Greece
• Transportation in Greece
• Military of Greece
• Foreign relations of Greece
• Tourism in Greece
• List of Greek language television channels
• List of radio stations in Greece
• List of Greek roads
• List of Greek dances
• Church of Greece

See also

• Hellenic National Intelligence Service
• National Statistical Service of Greece
• Bank of Greece
• National Bank of Greece

External links

• Greece.com - Complete country guide
• world-wide press freedom index Rank 19 out of 139 countries

Ministries

• Ministry of the Interior, Public Administration and Decentralisation
• Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Ministry of Development
• Ministry of Public Order
• Ministry of Mercantile Marine
• Ministry of the Aegean and insular policy
• Ministry of Justice
• Hellenic Ministry of Culture
  • online resource center with extensive information about the culture of Greece, its history, archeleogical sites, etc.

Other official sites

• Greece Now - Government sponsored e-zine on Greek life
• Government.gr - Official governmental site (mainly in Greek)
• Hellenic Parliament - Official parliamentary site