Why does Greece have bad relations with all their surrounding countries: Turkey, Albania, Macedonia, Italy?

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MaCeDonIan PhaLanX

It's not about getting along with somebody!
That's the politics of Greece! I canot say that they are in bad relations, because you sould know that the Balkans (Balkan Peninsula) has always been crossroad of wars, killings, ethnic cleansing...
In this situation you canot say that Greeks are the "bad guys"!
Look around, Croatians and Bosnians hate eachother, Serbs and Albanians hate eachother, Armenians and Turks hate eachother, everybody hates Bulgarians, soooo:)
At the end it's one BIG happy family:)
Greetings from Macedonia!

p.s. We respect everybody!

Elaine

Only in your head...

EDIT: Yes, Panagiotis-Panayot-Paul or whatever his name is obviously isn't Greek.

Vasiliki-Î’Î±ÏƒÎ¹Î»Î¹ÎºÎ®

I think you must search it a little bit.

Albania?We have 700.000 (legal) Albanians here in Greece and we are the 2nd country to donorships in Albania-Myth about BAD relationship-BUSTED

Italy?Never-ever heard such thing,We are getting along too good

Fyrom?even if they are using a name which is associated with Greece and and they are "flirting" with Greek land,Greece is the biggest investor there.30% of their economy is depending in Greece.This is a proof that Greece want good relationships,they dont feel the same thoug....

Turkey?Turkey and Greece the last years are doing ok.After all,dont forget that Turks have commit the Pontic genocide,they illegal occupy a part of Cyprus and they massacred thousands of Greeks back in 1922 in Smyrne and of course dont forget the massacre of Chios...
But except that,NOW,we are getting good along.......

Do you want to make the same question about your country Fyrom?I have a perfect answer for this as well.....

bibibi

prpvocative question

screamage

Cliche anyone? A stereotype perhaps? They're for sale cheap! A dime a dozen...no really...how bout a not so hidden agenda? We're giving them away...

cpinatsi

We are on very good terms with Italy and we couldn't care less about religion of our neigbours. Where do you get your facts? The other issues you mantion, like Cyprus and FYROM name, are real and they are not Greece's fault. The mere fact that we are on excellent terms with Italy - and even Albania, although there are issues with the Greek minority's rights in this country - shows that WE are not the problem.

I_got_the_wow_effect

In any other circumstances i would agree with you but i mean common all countries in the Balkans hate each other one way or another so i wouldn't blame it all on Greece...they all just can't get along because there are differences of ideologies, culture, language and religion. That is why you do not see the same disagreements in Africa or Asia or Latin America because there aren't so many diffrences as there are in Europe.

Linktothepast83

Wrong question. Better ask why some of those nations, not all, (as your question is biased), chose to have bad relations with Greece.

Cortophagus

If you mean Greek (Hellenic) Republic then it has not bad relations with Albania, neither with Italy. If you mean the Greek people they do not have bad relations with Italy, so Italy is a little outside of the subject. We could say that Bulgaria would be a little better choice, instead of Italy.

Anyway, lady S is wrong. No one really cares about the fact that most Albanians are Muslim. Even if we had problems with Muslim immigrants, the Albanians especially , even Muslim, they are actually non practicing Muslims or Atheists/Agnostics. So we do not care at all about that. The fact that you had some problems with some Greek Orthodox Christians does not mean that all Greeks are like this.

Edit: As for Panagiotis, he is totally wrong. It is clear in which political space he belongs and which political space his words represent. The fact that those who have problems with neighbor countries are not governmental but normal citizens prove his false and unreal claims.

Edit 2: I thought Panagiotis was a far left winger Greek, but then i realized that he is a far right winger Skopjian.His claims are exactly the same with the ones of the nationalist Prime Minister of FYROM, Nikola Gruevski. However the edit no.1 remains valid.

marissa

Even if I disagree with this just for argument's sake my reply is: at least they are our neighbors and not countries a million miles away. Also, I never thought the day will come but I agree with macedonian phalanx (if misspelled -not intentionally).

jnathan7 j

What is the meaning by this question really? ANY country in the world had sometimes in its history, some conflicts with their neighbours. Let's say:
1) Turkey has (or had) problems with Syria, Jordan, Armenia, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Iraq, ...etc
2) Bulgaria has (or had) problems with FYROM, Greece, Turkey, Serbia, etc
3) FYROM has (or had) problems with Albania, Bulgaria, Greece etc...
4) UK has (or had) a lot of problems with so many countries around the world, as the english Empire had a lot of global conquests
5) Finally I think that the state with the most bad relations in it's "agenda" are the USA and maybe Russia also....

So, it is not a matter of question between Greece and it's neighbours, rather than a matter of ANY state (or country) with ANY other state (or nation) due to historical (political-economical-social- etc) influences in the world.... In the end we are ALL inhabitants of the same planet, and (UNFORTUNATELLY) we have different opinions about various subjects, so it is inevitable to have Bad AND good relations with each other!

Zoi ((Î–Ï‰Î®))

Does Albania have good relationships with FYROM or Serbia? Does Turkey have good relatioships with Bulgaria, with Iran, Irak?
Well about Italy, I can't think of something...it's purely first world country and nothing, to it's fortune, connects it to the sensitive area of BALKANS.
So, NO GREECE HASN'T BAD RELATIONSHIPS WITH IT'S SURROUNDING COUNTRIES, and Cpinatzi has already answered you.
You are either a Fyromian,or a misinformed USA citizen (sorry people,no offense, it's true,you know it),there are better things to do than trying to remind yourself that you exist through Yahoo. :-)

EDIT:
"I'm Macedonian" did someone tell you what privacy means? What are you trying SO HARD to prove?
Are you going to report me again? No problem, if that's what it takes to make you happy.
You mixed up reality with virtual reality, or is virtual reality of Yahoo, your only true existence????
You will see the world from a different aspect if you bear a kid you know, you will find a meaningful purpose,trust me, I'm older enough
;-)

OLYMPIA

zoltan are you on some kind of drug?
Take a brake man! Get over it!
And z, about you question comen let's leave Greeks alone! At the end they are our neighbours! They are only human and humans makes mistakes! So what if everybody hates them! Don't foget their country is 90 % on water! So......zbogum selo moe...ojdov jas vo zaborav:)

Lady S

This part of the world (the Balkans) is a very turbulent region; there is a lot of history and a lot of disagreements between different countries. Greece has problems with Turkey, Albania and Macedonia. As far as I know, they are in good relations with Italy, but technically, Italy doesn't share a border with Greece because there is the international sea between, so they are not officially neighbours... maybe that's why they don't have any problems, LOL (just kidding).

OK, and now seriously. As for problems between Greece and Turkey, that is a long story and goes back all the way to the Ottoman Empire. Greece was ruled by the Ottomans for over 400 years. Later, after Greece was liberated, there was an attempt to expand Greek territory to the Asia Minor, which belongs to Turkey, and that resulted in catastrophe; that's when the big population exchange between Greece and Turkey took place. Finally, there was the Cyprus issue; Greeks wanted to unite Cyprus with Greece, and since there were also Turks living in Cyprus, Turkey interfered and invaded northern part of the island. Those are the major issues; there are some more, but less important to mention.

As for Albanians, I think Greeks don't like them because there are a lot of Albanian immigrants in Greece, taking their jobs and also some of them are associated with criminal activities. I have to admit that the fact that most Albanians are Muslims is probably also one of the reasons why most Greeks don't like them, so those who say "it doesn't matter" are not being completely honest. Come on, be honest, you would be a lot friendlier to them if they were Orthodox. (By the way, it's not true that all Albanians are Muslims; some of them are Catholic, but I think about 70% are Muslims.)

Finally, they have problems with Macedonians because of the name dispute; Greeks don't want that country to use the name Macedonia, because that name is historically bounded with Greece since the ancient times. Of course, these people are not the ancient Macedonians, but I think they should have the right to use that name, because their country is situated in the region known as Macedonia, which is also shared by 3 different countries.

anastaci

Must be the wrong education. They are forced to think that are directly descendants of the ancient Greeks (wrong !) and they have chauvinistic attitude towards their neighbors.
In the same time they are transparently humble and inferior towards The Great Powers...

MarinaTheMacedonian

Because they are racist. They hate everyone.

zoltan

WHAT NEIGHBOURS!!!...every one is jealous of greece...and greeks..in FACT ..WHY do you all desperatley want to have good relation ships with you all? is it becuase you want greece to your selfs? by way of political negotions? you think that you can take greece by this way?or slander us with ,racisist remarks?to me you are all potential enemys and should be treated that way. just look after your own countries and leaves us alone..we do fine with out you ...our beaches and isalnds are ours not frymonian or turkish or bulgarian or albanian.or american or english or any ones elase ...all our land is ours ..your all jealous of greeks and greece..thats a fact .....go and bath in your laggons and rivers and bath houses.and showers..we have beautifully beaches which are in abundance..and are all ours...maybe you can go to malta and sunbake and bath? after all they are in the med too....who needs neighbours like you...no thanks...go away..

Panagiotis

Indeed Greece has bad relations with all its neighboring countries.

This is solely due to the Greek politicians using this tested and known to work strategy for at least 60 years now: In order to divert the attention of the poor from the social problems and the growing poverty in the country, it is important to invent and maintain external enemies and "unite" against them, having as leaders, who else but those who speak this nationalist propaganda themselves. While most of the lower class, socially insecure people easily accept this group psychosis created by the powerful political oligarchy as an excellent means of projecting their own frustrations and disappointments, people belonging to the middle and upper middle classes have no difficulties to understand that such disposition can only harm the economic development of both Greece and its neighbors, and the international reputation of Greece in the world.

In sum, this phenomenon is the result of the ways in which the Greek oligarchy reinforces their position in the divided Greek society, not a fault of the Greek people themselves.

Just Another Macedonian

Greeks have problems with all their neighbors, and its not their fault... yeah, right. I say that's just Greek politics. That's how it works. I agree with Panagiotis, he said it right. I would add just one thing. Greeks are stubborn, not ready for compromise and they always have to be right and always have to get their own way... They are indeed not what you call good neighbors.

Macedonian Phalanx, you don't think Greeks are bad guys? You have no idea what's going on. Do you live in Macedonia at all?

Irmak

I won't answer your questions. I just read the answers above. I want to ask something:

Why do Greeks always blame Turkey about the problems? Why don't they behave fairly and give a peace chance to the past?

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