A Greek "Evzones" presidential guard stands to attention in front of the parliament during a demonstration against austerity measures in central Athens on July 12, 2015 (AFP Photo/Angelos Tzortzinis)
By Carolyn Yeager
Modern Greece is a fairly new experiment in independence, and as such has never actually functioned totally independently. The world expects too much from Greeks, confusing them with the ancient Athenian democracy that we learn about in school. The Greeks are also confused about this, since they encourage this comparison with those great Greek citizens of old … a comparison they cannot live up to.
First Greece was incorporated into the Roman Empire, followed by the Byzantine, and then for 300 years Greeks were subsumed into the Ottoman Empire ruled by Muslim Turks. Their modern state was formed only in 1830 with the help of the European Powers who helped the Greeks win their war of independence.
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