Greek Independence Day 2010: Greece Scales Back Celebrations

by Sudha Krishna | March 25, 2010 at 09:40 am

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Greek Independence Day 2010: Economic Crisis in Greece means muted independence day celebrations on March 25th.

The Greece national of day of independence will be a sober affair in 2010 as the country continues to reel from its economic crisis - a crisis that has seen wage freezes and roll backs, bank and currency issues and general strikes.

Greece, General Strike

Military armored units and overflights were left out of the central Athens parade Thursday and will be again omitted at another parade in October. Defense Ministry officials told state television says the decision would save around euro5 million ($6.7 million).

Greek Independence Day Background
Independence Day in Greece is both a religious and secular occasion. For Greek Orthodox Christians it is the celebration of the Annunciation of the Theotokos - the day when the Archangel Gabriel told Mary that she would have a child.
"Bishop Germanos of Patras seized the opportunity by raising the banner of revolution, in an act of defiance against the Turks and marked the beginning of the War of Independence.
That was in 1821 the year that the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman or Turkish empire began in earnest after over 4 centuries of Turkish rule.

The Greeks experienced early successes on the battlefield, including the capture of Athens in June 1822, but infighting ensued. By 1827 Athens and most of the Greek isles had been recaptured by the Turks.

Just as the revolution appeared to be on the verge of failure, Great Britain, France, and Russia intervened in the conflict. The Greek struggle had elicited strong sympathy in Europe, and many leading intellectuals had promoted the Greek cause, including the English poet Lord Byron.

A murky Greek independence was finally achieved after the Battle of Navarine in October, 1827. The treaty of Constantinople in 1832 saw the then Great Powers of Russia, France, Britain begin the complex dismantling of the Ottoman Empire. In the treaty, Greece was formally recognized as an Independent state.

But it was a qualified independence the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the political positioning of Russia, France and England all impacted the newly independent Greece.

An independent Greek state had been established, but with Britain, Russia and France claiming a major role in Greek politics, an imported Bavarian dynast as ruler, and a mercenary army.[116] The country had been ravaged by ten years of fighting, was full of displaced refugees and empty Turkish estates, necessitating a series of land reforms over several decades.[29]

The population of the new state numbered 800,000, representing less than one-third of the 2.5 million Greek inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire. During a great part of the next century, the Greek state was to seek the liberation of the "unredeemed" Greeks of the Ottoman Empire, in accordance with the Megali Idea, i.e. the goal of uniting all Greeks in one country.[29]