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Travel to Greece — Unbiased reviews and
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Greece
Hellenic Republic National
name: Elliniki Dimokratia President: Karolos Papoulias (2005) Prime Minister: Kostas Karamanlis
(2004)
Current government officials
Land area: 50,502 sq mi (130,800 sq km);
total area: 50,942 sq mi (131,940 sq km) Population (2008 est.): 10,722,816 (growth
rate: 0.1%); birth rate: 9.5/1000; infant mortality rate: 5.2/1000;
life expectancy: 79.5; density per sq km: 82
Capital (2003 est.):
Athens, 3,247,000 (metro. area), 747,300 (city
proper) Other large cities:
Thessaloníki, 361,200; Piraeus, 179,300; Patras, 167,000 Monetary unit: Euro (formerly drachma)
Languages:
Greek 99% (official), English, French
Ethnicity/race:
Greek 98%, other 2%; note: the Greek government
states there are no ethnic divisions in Greece
Religions:
Greek Orthodox 98%, Islam 1%, other 1% Literacy rate: 98% (2003 est.) Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.):
$324.6 billion; per capita $29,200. Real growth rate: 4%.
Inflation: 3%. Unemployment: 8.3%. Arable land:
21%. Agriculture: wheat, corn, barley, sugar beets, olives,
tomatoes, wine, tobacco, potatoes; beef, dairy products. Labor
force: 4.94 million; agriculture 12%, industry 20%, services 68%
(2004 est.). Industries: tourism, food and tobacco processing,
textiles, chemicals, metal products; mining, petroleum. Natural
resources: lignite, petroleum, iron ore, bauxite, lead, zinc,
nickel, magnesite, marble, salt, hydropower potential. Exports:
$25.76 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): food and beverages,
manufactured goods, petroleum products, chemicals, textiles.
Imports: $79.92 billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery, transport
equipment, fuels, chemicals. Major trading partners: Germany,
Italy, UK, Bulgaria, U.S., Cyprus, Turkey, France, Netherlands,
Russia, South Korea (2006) . Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 6.185 million (2006); mobile cellular: 11.098 million (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 26, FM 88, shortwave 4 (1998).
Television broadcast stations: 36 (plus 1,341 low-power
repeaters); also two stations in the US Armed Forces Radio and
Television Service (1995). Internet hosts: 905,824 (2007).
Internet users: 2.048 million (2006). Transportation: Railways: total: 2,571 km
(2006). Highways: total: 114,931 km; paved: 105,507 km
(including 880 km of expressways); unpaved: 9,424 km (2004).
Waterways: 6 km; note: Corinth Canal (6 km) crosses the Isthmus
of Corinth; shortens sea voyage by 325 km (2007). Ports and
harbors: Agioitheodoroi, Aspropyrgos, Irakleion, Pachi, Peiraiefs,
Thessaloniki. Airports: 81 (2007). International disputes: Greece and Turkey
continue discussions to resolve their complex maritime, air,
territorial, and boundary disputes in the Aegean Sea; Cyprus question
with Turkey; Greece rejects the use of the name Macedonia or Republic
of Macedonia.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Located in southern Europe, Greece forms an
irregular-shaped peninsula in the Mediterranean with two additional large
peninsulas projecting from it: the Chalcidice and the Peloponnese. The
Greek islands are generally subdivided into two groups, according to
location: the Ionian islands (including Corfu, Cephalonia, and Leucas)
west of the mainland and the Aegean islands (including Euboea, Samos,
Chios, Lesbos, and Crete) to the east and south. North-central Greece,
Epirus, and western Macedonia are all mountainous. The main chain of the
Pindus Mountains extends from northwest Greece to the Peloponnese. Mount
Olympus, rising to 9,570 ft (2,909 m), is the highest point in the
country.
Government
Parliamentary republic.
History
Indo-European peoples, including the Mycenaeans,
began entering Greece about 2000 B.C. and set
up sophisticated civilizations. About 1200 B.C., the Dorians, another Indo-European people,
invaded Greece, and a dark age followed, known mostly through the Homeric
epics. At the end of this time, classical Greece began to emerge (c. 750
B.C.) as a loose composite of city-states with
a heavy involvement in maritime trade and a devotion to art, literature,
politics, and philosophy. Greece reached the peak of its glory in the 5th
century B.C., but the Peloponnesian War
(431–404 B.C.) weakened the nation, and
it was conquered by Philip II and his son Alexander the Great of
Macedonia, who considered themselves Greek. By the middle of the 2nd
century B.C., Greece had declined to the status
of a Roman province. It remained within the eastern Roman Empire until
Constantinople fell to the Crusaders in 1204. In 1453, the Turks took
Constantinople and by 1460, Greece was a province in the Ottoman Empire.
The Greek war of independence began in 1821, and by 1827 Greece won
independence with sovereignty guaranteed by Britain, France, and
Russia.
The protecting powers chose Prince Otto of
Bavaria as the first king of modern Greece in 1832 to reign over an area
only slightly larger than the Peloponnese peninsula. Chiefly under the
next king, George I, chosen by the protecting powers in 1863, Greece
acquired much of its present territory. During his 57-year reign, a period
in which he encouraged parliamentary democracy, Thessaly, Epirus,
Macedonia, Crete, and most of the Aegean islands were added from the
disintegrating Turkish empire. Unfavorable economic conditions forced
about one-sixth of the entire Greek population to emigrate (mostly to the
U.S.) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. An unsuccessful war
against Turkey after World War I brought down the monarchy, which was
replaced by a republic in 1923.
Two military dictatorships and a financial
crisis brought back the exiled king, George II, but only until 1941, when
Italian and German invaders overcame tough Greek resistance. After British
and Greek troops liberated the country in Oct. 1944, Communist guerrillas
staged a long military campaign against the government; the Greek civil
war, infamous for its brutality, began in Dec. 1944 and continued until
Oct. 16, 1949, when the Communist guerrillas conceded defeat. The Greek
government received U.S. aid under the Truman Doctrine, the predecessor of
the Marshall Plan, to fight against the Communists.
Greece was a charter member of the UN and became
a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1951. A
military junta seized power in April 1967, sending young King Constantine
II into exile. Col. George Papadopoulos, a leader of the junta, gradually
attempted to modify his hard-line right-wing image. A coup ousted
Papadopoulos in Nov. 1973.
A referendum in Dec. 1974, five months after the
demise of the military dictatorship, ended the Greek monarchy and
established a republic. Former premier Karamanlis returned from exile to
become premier of Greece's first civilian government since 1967. Greece
has continued to be ruled by freely elected civilian governments ever
since. On Jan. 1, 1981, Greece became the 10th member of the European
Union. Andreas Papandreou, son of former premier George Papandreou,
founded the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and became Greece's
first Socialist premier (1981–1989).
Greece continued to experience tensions with
Turkey over a disputed, unpopulated 10-acre island and over Cyprus, which
is divided into Greek and Turkish sectors.
The pro-Western Socialist prime minister Kostas
Simitis (1996–2004) was credited with reviving the Greek economy.
Still, The Economist magazine estimated in 2001 that it would be at
least another 15 years before the per capita GDP in Greece comes close to
the current EU average.
In the summer of 2002, the government was
finally able to crack down on the 17 November (17N) terrorist
organization, which had eluded the Greek authorities for the previous 27
years. The radical leftist group was responsible for more than 20 murders
of diplomats and businessmen. In parliamentary elections in March 2004,
the conservative New Democracy Party swept to power, defeating Pasok, the
ruling Socialist Party. The new prime minister, Kostas Karamanlis, vowed
to deliver a successful and safe Olympics (Greece had been criticized for
being lax on terrorism), and, in spite of last-minute construction, the
Athens Olympics was widely hailed as a triumph.
Some 220 separate fires ravaged the Greek
countryside and threatened ancient Olympic sites around Athens in late
August 2007. At least 60 people died and more than half a million acres
were destroyed in the blazes. Prime Minister Karamantis faced criticism
over the country's response to the devastating blazes. The anger did not
carry over to the polls, however, as Karamantis was reelected to a second
term in September. His center-right party, New Democracy, won 42.6% of the
vote in parliamentary elections, defeating the Panhellenic Socialist
Movement (PASOK), headed by George Papandreou.
On June 3, 2008, the mayor of the island of
Tilos, Anastassios Aliferis, performed the marriage of two same-sex
couples. They were the first same-sex marriages in Greece's history.
Violent protests and riots in several Greek
cities followed the death of a 15-year-old boy who was shot on December 6,
2008, by a police officer in Athens. The policeman was charged with
premeditated manslaughter. Though the riots were sparked by the killing,
they were also in protest of the government's economic policies. A general
strike coincided with the protests and crippled transportation systems,
banks, and schools throughout Greece. The violence was the worst Greece
has experienced in years.
See also Encyclopedia: Greece U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Greece National Statistical Service
www.statistics.gr/ .
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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