When Greeks Think About Turks: The View from Anthropology (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: When Greeks Think About Turks: The View from Anthropology Eleni Bastéa Dimitrios Theodossopoulos, editor, When Greeks Think About Turks: The View from Anthropology. London: Routledge. 2007. Pp. vi + 216. $150.00. The destructive earthquakes of August and September 1999 in Istanbul and Athens brought an outpouring of help and sympathy from Greece and Turkey, respectively, and an increased number of cross-cultural exchanges between the two countries in academic, cultural, political, and popular spheres. It is in this context that When Greeks Think About Turks makes a significant contribution to the study of Greek-Turkish relations, as it directly addresses positions, beliefs, and prejudices that are not always predictable, well known, or widely accepted. Although the authors underscore their own support for cooperation and dialogue between and among Greeks, Turks, Greek-Cypriots, and Turkish-Cypriots, they are careful to describe not only the public’s support but also its skepticism and occasional hostility toward these recent efforts. Three of the authors concentrate on people who had first-hand experiences with Muslims at the end of the Ottoman Empire or with modern-day Turks: Iraklis Millas discusses the image of Turks in Greek literature and history, with an emphasis on the work of Asia Minor authors; Renée Hirschon describes the memories of the Asia Minor refugees whom she interviewed in the Kokkinia suburb of Athens in the 1970s; and Ilay Romain Örs examines the Rum Polites, the Christian Orthodox residents of Istanbul who were exempt from the Exchange. All three conclude that knowing Muslim Turks as neighbors and friends almost always resulted in friendly contact and good memories. Personal experiences conflicted, however, with nationalist rhetoric that cultivated a generalized and degrading image of the Turk as the Other. Christian Greeks who had first-hand experience of living with Turks often found it difficult to communicate with Greeks who lacked that experience, remaining in a liminal condition. Both Hirschon and Örs describe their informants as cosmopolitan by virtue of their subjects’ admission and experience. Certainly, the inhabitants of Smyrna/Izmir considered themselves not only cosmopolitan but also superior to many of the Greeks they encountered in Greece. If it was only because they lived in peace with their Turkish neighbors, then they should have also considered the Christian refugees from Cappadocia or Pontus equally cosmopolitan. Often, however, the “cosmopolitan” badge was reserved only for the Smyrna side—the Greek-speaking-Europeans. Some of the Rum Polites that Örs interviewed in Athens more recently were similarly proud of their own “cosmopolitanism” and considered Athens boringly monocultural. They were unable to recognize the rich and multicultural constitution of Athens today, home to many immigrants from the Middle East and elsewhere. Although I respect the circumscribed positions of the interviewees, I expected a more critical evaluation of their statements by the authors. Most of the other authors deal with contemporary positions among Greeks and Greek-Cypriots. In “How Greeks Think: About the Turks, for Example,” Vassos Argyrou attempts to place the question in a philosophical framework. This would have been more effective had the connections with Greece and Cyprus been delineated more carefully. In several instances in the volume, “Greeks” [End Page 515] stands in for both Greeks and Greek-Cypriots in an unexamined and problematic manner. Nor can Athens stand for Greece as in: “Everything that Athens (and Greece) has to show for itself is ‘third hand’, an importation from Europe, an imitation of the lowest order” (p. 36). Most successful are the essays that concentrate on a targeted area, providing nuanced analyses that help construct the foundations of a comparative Greek-Turkish field of studies, an implicit and explicit aim of many of the authors. Based on research conducted in Patras, for example, Theodossopoulos examines how ordinary people responded to the 1999 earthquakes in Istanbul and Athens. His respondents were empathetic with “the people of Turkey,” while they mistrusted the Turkish state. Human suffering, widely covered by the media, made the experience immediate and almost tangible. Blame for Greek-Turkish problems was placed on Greek, Turkish, and American politicians and their governments, sentiments consistent with the findings of Millas and Hirschon. In “Phantom Menace: What Junior Greek Army Officers...