Do you greeks still hate persians?

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zoltan

are there any persians left? do u speak farsi? are you a zorastian? then you are persian..no we dont hate those people.. they are worthy advocates we still respect they spilled thier blood on greece 3 times.. a very noble race.

vikymi

we ve never hated persians..unless u mean the turkish and i d say yes(some ppl do,as they hate us as well)

Χριστόφορος

Well I'm sure the Ancient Greeks hated the Persians. Hell, the Persians completely destroyed Greek settlements, and even razed Athens to the ground.

Modern Greeks don't have any negative feelings towards Persians/Iranians. You know, things that happened almost 2,500 years ago are now water under the bridge.

As for Turks, on the other hand... well that lasted for several centuries, and only about 180 years ago did the Greeks finally manage to liberate themselves from Turkish occupation. And even just a few decades ago, the Greeks living in Turkey were exiled and their homes seized by the Turkish government. The wound cut by the Turks is still too fresh to be forgiven, as far as most Greeks are concerned.

Of course, there's two sides to every coin. The Greeks weren't perfect little angels, either - they did their fair share of things to Turks as well.

For totally blunt: In general, yes, there's usually no reason for any given Greek to hate any given Turk, and vice versa. One could say, there's generally no reason for anybody to hate anybody, politics removed. But the Greek-Turkish rivalry is rooted in much more than just politics. It's six centuries of bad-blood and bad history, which has continued up until as recently as a couple decades ago. I'll give you an example.

My ex-girlfriend's father is originally from Constantinoupoli/Istanbul. One night when he was young, the Turkish authorities came and kicked his entire family out of their home, allowing them only to take the clothes on their backs basically. His family was forced to flee to Greece, where they had no relatives, no nothing! In the process of fleeing Turkey, his mother got separated from the rest of the family, and she was not to be seen again until she found them in Athens 15 years later. And the Turkish government had the audacity two years ago to track down his address in Greece, and to send him a letter demanding that he return to Turkey to perform his obligatory military service. I ask, does he have a reason to hate the Turks in general? Or is it just a simple game of politics, a political game that destroyed his childhood and family?

For mangolover: True, he has a legitimate reason to hate the Turkish government of the time, but not Turks of the general public who had nothing to do with the government. Of course, very often a hatred of the people is derived ultimately from a hatred of the government. This is why many people "hate" Americans. I, for example, never gave my personal 'ok' to the U.S. government to invade Iraq, but it happened, and now because of it I'm hated by some because of the label of being American. I don't say it's fair, but it's understandable why and how this comes to be.

Vasiliki-Βασιλική

No we were enemies like...2.500 years ago....

Serendipity

You are refering to "300".
No, but as the other answerer said, there are bad feelings with Turkey, and for good reason.
Pretending that there isn't doesn't help, these things, and others should be sorted out.

Vergina

Actually Greeks never hated Persians.
Now, fake persian rugs sold in a premium price,that's another story that we know it Farsi :)))

sandman

when did we start?

mangolover

for cristopher: still there is no reason to "hate", you can hate that turkish government, just like millions in turkey does... i personnally never wanted you ex girlfriend´s father to be removd and didint have enouhg power to block all because that government was doing much more to some turkish people... what about it?

Misviv

That's a movie about Ancient Greece. Too remote. Greece had been invaded by many other nations since.

Contempt for Turks exists not just among Greeks but also most of Turkey's neighbors. Who likes a greedy bloodthirsty neighbor anyway. The Turks who don't see this are just delusional.

vasiliki

why sould we hate persians??? we don't have nothing to do with them!

Totally Blunt

Like Serendipity says, there is a good reason why there was enmity between Turks and Greeks, because emperialists wanted weak nations clashing with each other in the region, so that they could control the region easily.

I'm not sure that's what Serendipity means, though.

Having said that, if Greeks and Persians were neighbors, they would have something to argue about. Lacking that, they are left with what the same emperialists say about each of them. It is up to them to learn the truth about each other.

PS. I wouldn't barge in if people didn't insist there is dislike between Turks and Greeks. Leaving politics aside, Turks and Greeks have nothing about each other to dislike. If you add politics, the closest friends may have cause to quarrel.

PS2. I don't like misviv either, but that's more personal than ethnic.

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