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The population of Greece is 98% Greek (excluding non-citizens), some religious minorities being Pomaks, Jews, Armenians and various Roma groups. There are also various linguistic and cultural minorities whose members largely determine themselves Greeks. Such groups include Arvanites, Vlachs and Slavophones (some of whom determine themselves as Bulgarians or Macedonian Slavs, although this is not recognized by the Greek government). About 60-65% of immigrants to Greece have come from Albania (following the fall of communism) although some 200,000 have been documented as ethnic Greeks or homogeneis. The other principal nationalities are, according to residence permit data, Bulgarians, Armenians, Romanians, Ukrainians, Pakistanis and Georgians; overall, over 180 different nationalities have been recorded. The legal status of immigrants has been very tenuous since the 1990s (as throughout the European Union), with high levels of illegality). Since 1997 three legalization programs were enacted by the Greek state (a fourth went through in 2005). Several prominent Greek sportsmen migrated to Greece as ethnic Greeks from Albania and Georgia in the 1990s, including legendary weightlifters Pyrros Dimas and Kakhi Kakhiashvili.
Religion The majority of Greek citizens (95-98%) belong to the Greek Orthodox Church and most celebrate at least the main religious feasts, especially Pascha (Greek Orthodox Easter). Greek Muslims make up about 1.3% of the population, and live primarily in Thrace. Greece also has some Roman Catholics, mainly in the city of Patras, Corfu, and the Cyclades islands of Syros, Paros, Tinos, and Naxos; some Protestants and some Jews, mainly in Thessaloniki (which had a major Jewish population until the Holocaust). Some groups in Greece have started an attempt to reconstruct Hellenic polytheism, the ancient Greek pagan religion. See also: Greek Orthodox Church. Prior to Ottoman rule, Greece was part of the Byzantine Empire. The civil and religious capital of the Empire was moved to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) by Constantine I. Since Constantine’s time the Orthodox Christian faith has flourished and spread throughout Eastern Europe. Even under Turkish rule and repeated attempts at proselytization — firstly by the Jesuits and then by the Protestants — Orthodox Christianity survived and flourished. The Greek Constitution reflects this relationship by guaranteeing absolute freedom of religion while still defining the "prevailing religion" of Greece as the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. Non-Greek Orthodox members of parliament are sworn in accordance to their own faith. One small part of Greece, Mount Athos, is recognized by the Greek constitution as an Autonomous Monastic Republic, although foreign relations remain the prerogative of the Greek state. Spiritually, Mount Athos is under the Patriarchate of Constantinople and is therefore in communion with all the monasteries on Mount Athos and with the Orthodox Church based in various countries. The Uniate Greek Byzantine Catholic Church, which is in union with Rome, has a few parishes and chapels in those Greek towns and on those Greek islands, which had been for a longer period of time under Venetian rule. Presently this particular Eastern rite Catholic community, which uses the Byzantine Greek liturgy, also takes care of the Ukrainian minority in Greece. Latin rite Catholics are a larger minority, to be found in the major towns. Jews have been present in Greece for the last 2,300 years. The earliest reference to a Greek Jew is in an inscription, dated circa 300–250 BC found in Oropos, a small coastal town between Athens and Boeotia, and refers to him as "Moschos, son of Moschion the Jew" who was in all likelihood, a slave. The first Greek Jewish population became known as the Romaniotes and their language became known as Yevanic. From the 16th century onwards, Salonica, a city in northern Greece, had one of the largest (mostly Sephardic by then) Jewish communities in the world and a solid rabbinical tradition. On the island of Crete, the Jews played an important part in the transport trade. During World War II, when Greece was occupied by Nazi Germany, 86% of the Greek Jews were sent to concentration camps by the occupating Axis forces ; only a minority survived and most of them have emigrated to Israel. Greece's Jewish community today is estimated at 4,500. According to the most recent Eurostat "Euro barometer" poll, in 2005, 81% of Greek citizens responded that "they believe there is a God", whereas 16% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and only 3% that "they do not believe there is a God, spirit, nor life force". This would make Greece one of the most religious countries in the European Union of 25 members, after Malta and Cyprus. |
Greece Information: Inside
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