Hi Marginal, its good to have a fair moderator in the Turkish Forum here, the last one we had was a bit of a brute and vulgar, so AADMIN had to ban him.

Anyways, on to what a Greek is:

A Greek is whoever says they are a Greek. The vast assortment of people that at one time lived from the coast of Spain, to Egypt, up through your country of Turkey's interior, and into the far expanses of Afghanistan. We are very proud of having such a strong tradition and history. From science and drama, to Christian beginings and Reniasance origins, even you must agree this is a full plate to be proud of. Alexander the Great professed his Hellenism to the great King of Persia; Darius, at our greatest triumph," "I hegemon of all Greeks, come to avenge the wrong done us Greeks by Persia" and at our greatest tragedy, the fall of Constantinople your Sultan; the Conqueror referred to emperor Constantine Paleologos as "a Greek dog". Your land of Turkey was once a Greek speaking land. The Hittites and Lydians were long peacefully hellenized by the time of the arrival of the Turks. It is even evident today, 80 percent of Turkish towns having Greek origin names; Istanbul, Ankara, etc. You cannot deny, when your archeologists find an ancient cemetary, with thos familiar Greek letters that say: "Here lies Maria" or "Niko, the father". This land belonged to Greeks once. But that was a long time ago.

I dont know many Greeks who talk much about "taking back lands from Turkey" I occasionally read something about it on the internet of course. I can assure you that most Greeks- sadly in a way- , are very ambivalent towards Turkey. The extent of their anger is really towards the Cyrpus problem, of course, because this still burns in the memory of living Greeks. But that is an issue for another day.

I dont think i am superior because i was born a Greek, but i sure am happy with the hand ive been dealt, and you have a right to be too. I look at what we have done and what we've been through, and though i try really hard not to be a "nationalist", i still am very proud of it, at least for its own sake.

I really honestly look forward to the day Turkey can join the European Union, because then i know that one day Greeks will be welcome again in Turkey, and that they will be not so much animosity, and much cooperation between too countries that could have a lot to gain from it.

On the issues of "racial origins". Of course we are not 100 percent ancient Hellene. But id like to think that a good deal of our blood is of that same ancient stock, it dosent matter though, And either way, it dosent matter, like i said, a Greek is anyone who says "I am Hellene", like Alexander of Macedon at the Olympics.
I dont care about "race", and i try my hardest not to judge others by what nation or race they swear by(though i admit a bit of prejudice towards some, though we are guilty of that i think).


Regards,

Jorgios Matheos.

p.s. Have you read the book "Turkey Unveiled"? it is a recent publishing by British authors who lived in Turkey. It takes the good with the bad, and is very informative. I just want to know if you as a Turk find it accurate, thanks!