Greece


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The Hellenic Republic, commonly known as Greece, is a country in the
southeast of Europe on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula.
Bounded on land by Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, and Albania to the north, to the east by Turkey and the waters of
the Aegean Sea and to the west and south by the Ionian and Mediterranean
Seas. Regarded by many as the cradle of Western civilisation, Greece has a
long and rich history during which it spread its influence over three continents.

History                                     National motto: Eleftheria i
                                                      thanatos
                                             (Greek: Liberty or Death)
The shores of the Aegean Sea saw the    Official
emergence of the first civilisations in language          Greek
Europe, namely the Minoan and Mycenaean
civilisations. After these has subsided Capital           Athens
a Dark Age followed until around 800 BC
a new Hellenic Greece emerged. It was   President         Kostis
                                                          Stephanopoulos
this Greece of city-states that
established colonies along the          Prime minister    Konstantinos
Mediterranean, resisted Persian                           Simitis
invasions and whose culture would be    Area              Ranked 94th
the basis of Hellenistic civilisation   Ê- Total          131,940 km2
that followed the empire of Alexander   Ê- % water        0.86%
the Great king of (Macedonia).          Population Ê-     Ranked
                                        Total (2001) Ê-   70th10,964,020
Militarily Greece itself declined until Density           80.5/km²
it was conquered by the Romans from 168
BC onwards, though Greek culture would  IndependenceÊ-    From the Ottoman
in turn conquer Roman life. A province  DeclaredÊ-        Empire March 25,
of the Roman Empire, Greek culture      Recognised        1821 1828
would continue to dominate the eastern
Mediterranean and when the Empire       Currency          Euro¹, Greek
                                                          euro coins
finally split in two the Eastern or     Time zone         UTC +2
Byzantine Empire, centred on
Constantinople, would be Greek in       National anthem   Imnos pros tin
nature, as well as encompassing Greece                    Eleftherian
itself. From the 4th century to the     Internet TLD      .GR
15th century the Eastern Roman Empire
survived eleven centuries of attacks    Calling Code      30
from the west and east until              (1) Prior to 2001: Greek drachma
Constantinople fell on May 29, 1453 to
the Ottoman Empire. Greece had gradually been conquered by the Ottomans
during the 15th century.

Ottoman rule remained until in 1821 the Greeks declared their independence.
After the Greek War of Independence was concluded in 1828, Greece was then
established as a monarchy in 1833. During the 19th and early 20th centuries
Greece sought to encompass the Greek-speaking population of the Ottoman
Empire, slowly growing in territory and population until it reached its
present size in 1947.

After World War II, Greece experienced a civil war that lasted until 1949
after which it joined NATO in 1952. On April 21, 1967 the military seized
power in a coup d'etat that also abolished the Greek monarchy. Conflict over
the issue of Cyprus led to the collapse of the military junta in 1974 and
the establishment of a democratic republic in 1975. Greece joined the
European Union in 1981.

Politics

The 1975 constitution includes extensive specific guarantees of civil
liberties and vests the powers of the head of state in an indirectly elected
president, who is advised by the Council of the Republic. The prime minister
and cabinet play the central role in the political process, while the
president performs some governmental functions in addition to ceremonial
duties. The president is elected by parliament to a 5-year term and can be
reelected once.

Members of Greece's unicameral parliament (the Vouli ton Ellinon) are
elected by secret ballot for a maximum of 4 years, but elections can be
called earlier. Greece uses a complex reinforced proportional representation
electoral system which discourages splinter parties and makes a
parliamentary majority possible even if the leading party falls short of a
majority of the popular vote. A party must receive 3% of the total national
vote to qualify for one of the 300 parliamentary seats.

Peripheries

Greece consists of 13 administrative regions known as peripheries, which are
further subdivided into 51 prefectures (nomoi, singular - nomos):

    * Attica:          * Crete        * Ionian Islands    * South Aegean
         o Attica           o Chania       o Corfu             o Cyclades
                            o Heraklion    o Kefallinia        o Dodecanese
    * Central               o Lasithi      o Levkas
      Greece:               o Rethimno     o Zakinthos    * Thessaly
         o Euboea                                              o Kardhitsa
         o Evritania   * East         * North Aegean           o Larisa
         o Fokis         Macedonia         o Chios             o Magnesia
         o Fthiotis      and               o Lesbos            o Trikala
         o Viotia        Thrace            o Samos
                            o Drama                       * West Greece
    * Central               o Evros   * Peloponnesus           o Achaea
      Macedonia             o Kavala       o Arcadia           o Aitolia-Acarnania
         o Khalkidhiki      o Rodhopi      o Argolis           o Ilia
         o Imathia          o Xanthi       o Corinth
         o Kilkis                          o Laconia      * West Macedonia
         o Pella       * Epirus            o Messinia          o Florina
         o Pieria           o Arta                             o Grevena
         o Serres           o Ioannina                         o Kastoria
         o Thessaloniki     o Preveza                          o Kozani
                            o Thesprotia

Beyond these there is one autonomous region, Mount Athos (Ayion Oros - Holy
Mountain), a monastic state under Greek sovereignty.

The nomoi are divided into 147 eparchies (singular eparchia), which are
divided into 1,031 municipalities: 130 urban municipalities (dimi) and 901
rural communities (kinotites). Before 1999, there were 5,775 local
authorities: 361 demoi, 5,560 koinotites, subdivided into 12,817 localities
(oikosmoi).

Geography

The country consists of a large mainland, the southern end of the Balkans,
and the Peloponnesus peninsula, separated from the mainland by the canal of
the Isthmus of Corinth. With the mostly internal Aegean Sea there are
numerous islands, including Crete, Rhodes, Euboea, and the Dodecanese and
Cycladic groups. Greece has more than 14,880 kilometres of coastline and a
land boundary of 1,160 kilometres.

About 80% of Greece is mountainous or hilly. Much of the country is dry and
rocky; only 28% of the land is arable. Western Greece contains lakes and
wetlands. Pindus, the central mountain range, has an average elevation of
2,650 m. The legendary Mount Olympus is the highest point in Greece at 2,917
m above sea level.

Greece's climate features mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers.
Temperatures are rarely extreme, although snowfalls do occur in the
mountains and occasionally even in Athens in the winter.

Economy

Greece has a mixed capitalist economy with the public sector accounting for
about half of GDP. Tourism is a key industry, providing a large portion of
GDP and foreign exchange earnings. Greece is a major beneficiary of EU aid,
equal to about 3.3% of GDP. The economy has improved steadily over the last
few years, as the government tightened policy in the run-up to Greece's
entry into the EU's single currency, the euro, on January 1, 2001.

Major challenges remaining include the reduction of unemployment and further
restructuring of the economy, including privatising several state
enterprises, undertaking social security reforms, overhauling the tax
system, and minimising bureaucratic inefficiencies. Economic growth is
forecast at 3%-3.5% in 2002.

The national central bank of Greece is the Bank of Greece.

Demographics

Most Greeks (98%) adhere to the Greek Orthodox Church, which is under the
protection of the state that also pays the clergy's salaries, and Eastern
Orthodox Christianity is the "prevailing" religion of Greece according to
the constitution. The Greek Orthodox Church is self-governing but under the
spiritual guidance of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople.

A Greek Muslim minority (of 1.3%), concentrated in Thrace, was given legal
status by provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 and is Greece's only
officially recognised minority.