POLITICS

Hon John Pandazopoulos (Chair Parks Victoria) + Dean Kalymniou (Lawyer) join Just Gold CEO Kyriakos Gold to talk about the Greek Revolution of 1821, politics of the time and multiculturalism in Australia. The audience joins in to share their lived experience, right in the heart of Melbourne's Greek Quarter.  

It’s almost impossible to separate the Greek war of independence from the political ideals of its time. A ‘birth child’ of the European Enlightenment movement, the Greek war of independence was instigated by scholars and intellectuals influenced by the theories of the Enlightenment about justice, equality and the emancipation of the masses - and the actions of the French Revolution.

The idea for national independence arose out of the gradual decline of the Ottoman Empire and its failure to keep ruling its subjects in the Balkans; people living under Ottoman rule developed a strong desire to gain control of their land and their rights. The emergence of a strong sense of national identity was the spark that led to the war of independence, marking the end of the multi-ethnic Empires.

In what is a historical paradox, the war could not have ever succeeded without the help of Empires - those that formed the Holy Alliance (Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, Prussia and Russia), to defend the status quo created at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, turning against all revolutionary movements and Enlightenment ideals. The above states were empires comprised of many different peoples; the cohesive link that united these peoples was the Monarch, a holy person who ruled ‘by the grace of God’, yielding absolute power.

Thus, when the Greek Revolution broke out, it was treated with hostility by the governments of Europe, as they considered it an insurrection against the legitimate Monarch. However, the peoples of Europe, led by intellectuals who had grown up with the ideas of ancient Greek philosophers, were thrilled by the idea that the ancient Greeks had been resurrected and were claiming their independence. Thus, a philhellenic movement was born to help the revolution by means of money, supplies and volunteers from across Europe.

As the Philhellenes were creating a wave of support for the Greek struggle, inspired by their admiration for the cradle of the Western civilisation, the fighters themselves reconnected to their ancestors’ legacy -- from the start, the idea of an independent national state had the demand of a constitution at its core, suggesting new political structures and inspired by democratic ideals.

It is telling that the first Greek Constitution was influenced not only by that of the United States but also by the ideas of the French Revolution, such as the equality of all citizens without discrimination and titles of nobility, the prohibition of slavery, the separation of powers in executive and legislative, etc.

At the same time, liberal thinkers were developing ideas of what this new status quo would look like. A typical representative of these liberal thinkers is that of Rigas Feraios, who called on the peoples of the Balkans to revolt and establish a Federation that would comprise of all peoples, even the Turks, and guarantee equal rights for all. In effect, the Greek war of independence was arguably the first significant event that marked the end of the age of Empires and showed another way for the nations of Europe to coexist, sometimes work together, other times fight each other, and continuously influence each other; not as part of multi-ethnic empires, but as independent nation-states, with a strong sense of identity.