Life of the Turkish minority in Greece from the perspective of everyday life Cover Image

Život turecké minority v Řecku z pohledu každodennosti
Life of the Turkish minority in Greece from the perspective of everyday life

Author(s): Alena Höfrová, Kristina Bredárová, Vendula Kadlecová
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, History, Social Sciences, Essay|Book Review |Scientific Life, Geography, Regional studies
Published by: Kulturní studia
Keywords: Turkish minority; Greece; identity; everyday life; mother tongue; minority education; religion

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the paper was to determine the current state of the Turkish minority in the Greekregions of Central Macedonia and Thrace. Specifically, Xanthi (Thrace) and Thessaloniki(Central Macedonia) were of prime interest. The field research was conducted in the secondlargest Greek city of Thessaloniki, where historical and socially relevant sites of the Turkishminority were visited. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were conductedat the headquarters of the Turkish Embassy. This house was the birthplace of the firstPresident of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Nowadays, this house serves as a museum andis visited mainly by Turks. Thessaloniki has well documented tourist locations around the cityexcept for the Atatürk museum, which also has very few Greek visitors. The field researchcontinued in Xanthi and its surroundings. In Xanthi, the field research included an initialobservation followed by semi-structured interviews. These techniques were performed in theold Turkish quarter, two minority schools, a local mosque, and a traditional Turkishrestaurant. The consensus of the interviewees was that they “feel” that they are Turkish, buttheir homeland is Greece. Similarly, they consider their native language is Turkish, whileGreek is deemed essential for living. Turkish minority children attend local minority schoolsand in many cases commute from surrounding villages to the schools. For college, studentsmust leave Greece for Turkey if they want to study in the Turkish language since this optionis not available in Greece. The Greek language that is utilized in Greek universities istypically more difficult and specialized than the everyday Greek used by the Turkish minorityand therefore this group prefers to study in Turkey or at another European university. Theareas with the highest concentration of a minority Turkish population do not perceivediscrimination from the majority Greek population due to their long-term cohabitation.Nonetheless, when members of this minority leave this area, they experience discriminatorybehavior due with their faith and ethnicity.

  • Issue Year: 7/2016
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 24-39
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Czech