Greece

Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country is the south-east of Europe. It borders Turkey, Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria. Greece maintains close relations with Serbia and Russia, and maintains strong cultural ties with Cyprus.

## History

### Twentieth Century

In the aftermath of the First World War, Greece attempted further expansion into Asia Minor, a region with a large native Greek population at the time, but was defeated in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, contributing to a massive flight of Asia Minor Greeks. Following the catastrophic events in Asia Minor, the monarchy was abolished via a referendum in 1924 and the Second Hellenic Republic was declared. Premier Georgios Kondylis took power in 1935 and effectively abolished the republic by bringing back the monarchy via a referendum in 1935. A coup d'état followed in 1936 and installed Ioannis Metaxas as the head of a dictatorial regime known as the 4th of August Regime. Although a dictatorship, Greece remained on good terms with Britain and was not allied with the Axis.

On 28 October 1940, Fascist Italy demanded the surrender of Greece, but the Greek administration refused and in the following Greco-Italian War, Greece repelled Italian forces into Albania. Greece was eventually occupied by the Nazis and their Axis partners. After liberation, Greece experienced a polarising civil war between communist and anticommunist forces, which led to economic devastation and severe social tensions between rightists and largely communist leftists for the next thirty years.

King Constantine II's dismissal of George Papandreou's centrist government in July 1965 prompted a prolonged period of political turbulence which culminated in a coup d'état on 21 April 1967 by the Regime of the Colonels. The brutal suppression of the Athens Polytechnic uprising on 17 November 1973 sent shockwaves through the regime, and a counter-coup established Brigadier Dimitrios Ioannidis as dictator. On 20 July 1974, as Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus, the regime collapsed.

The former Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis was invited back from Paris where he had lived in self-exile since 1963, marking the beginning of the Metapolitefsi era. The first multiparty elections since 1964 were held on the first anniversary of the Polytechnic uprising. A democratic and republican constitution was promulgated on 11 June 1975 following a referendum which chose to not restore the monarchy.

Greece became the tenth member of the European Communities (subsequently subsumed by the European Union) on 1 January 1981, ushering in a period of sustained growth. Widespread investments in industrial enterprises and heavy infrastructure, as well as funds from the European Union and growing revenues from tourism, shipping and a fast-growing service sector raised the country's standard of living to unprecedented levels. Traditionally strained relations with neighbouring Turkey improved when successive earthquakes hit both nations in 1999, leading to the lifting of the Greek veto against Turkey's bid for EU membership.

### Economic Crisis

In 2009, Greece, along with Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Spain and Cyprus were hit with blistering sovereign debt crises. Greece was one of the worst hit by the crisis, leading the government being forced to rely upon bailout packages from the European Union – predominantly Germany and France – and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In May 2010, the Greek government introduced a series of austerity measures in order to curb the government’s debt crisis. However, this led to mass social unrest across Greece. The ‘Troika’, a committee formed by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF, offered Greece another series of bailout loans worth €130 billion.

The austerity measures did manage to bring Greece’s budget deficit down from €24.7 billion to only €5.2bn. However, the measures were also accredited to raising unemployment from 7.5% to 27.9%. Economic experts argued that Greece and the EU should engineer an ‘orderly default’, allowing Athens to both withdraw from the Eurozone and reinstate the drachma. This scheme was violently put down by European states, who risked losing up to €100bn in debt claims against Athens.

The Troika offered Greece a second €130bn bailout package to prevent a default and Grexit – Greek exit from the Euro. In 2014, it appeared that the Greek economy was on the road to stability and debt repayments were being meet with some efficiency. However, in 2015, the left-wing party SYRIZA won the national elections of a platform of anti-austerity and fighting back against the Troika. As tensions grew between the Greek government and the Eurozone, the Greek economy once again spiraled into collapse, and eventually Athens missed a debt repayment to the IMF at the end of June. However, after intense negotiations between the EU and Greece, a deal was eventually reached on 10 July. Euro markets across the world re-stabilized as the impending Grexit was averted.

Greece made its final debt repayment its European creditors in 2022, and the final payment to the IMF is expected in 2030.

### Occupation of Macedonia

*See Full Article: Second Yugoslav War and The Race for Skopje*

On 2 October 2021, Bosnia and Croatia declared war on Serbia over the violation of Bosnian sovereignty. Upon this declaration, Greece remained neutral, although as part of NATO, it was involved in the implementation of a no-fly zone over the Bosnian-Serbian combat zone. Albania joined the war on Serbia’s side, being guarenteed Kosovo, parts of Montenegro and Macedonia. As Albania became bogged down in their offensive into Montenegro, and the frontline in Bosnia became cemented, Serbia and Albania decided to launch a quick and blistering attack, knocking Macedonia out of a position of threat.

On 3 January 2022, Albania invaded Macedonia with the support of pro-Albanian militias inside the country. Greece, fearing that Serbia would also invade in support of their allies, and thus threaten Greece’s northern border. Greece launched their own invasion of Macedonia the following day in order to secure control of as most of the country as possible. On January 6, Serbia followed up with their invasion of Macedonia, precipitating the ‘Race for Skopje’. The aim was to take, Skopje, the Macedonian capital and therefore secure control of the rest of country.

Greek Special Forces para-dropped into Skopje with NATO support on 8 January in order to seize control of the city before the Serbians descended. In the early hours of 9 January, Greek troops are in control of most of Skopje. The following day Serbian forces begin to enter Skopje, and while there is no declaration of war against each other, Greek and Serbian forces became involved in a fire-fight, which eventually left the Greeks cornered. The arrival of Greece heavy units that evening led to the Serbians withdrawing from Skopje. A ceasefire and impromptu peace treaty was agreed to between Greece and Serbia in February, with a similar agreement signed between Greece and Albania on 3 April.

The Vienna Accords, signed on 2 September 2022, granted Greece the right to occupy Macedonia for three years, gradually withdrawing over that time.

### Annexation, Ejection and Withdrawal

With the deadline for full withdrawal from Macedonia approaching, the Greek government announced that it was annexing Macedonia on 14 August 2025. Only the day before, Serbia announced the incorporation of Montenegro as an autonomous region. In response, NATO ejected Greece on 15 August, stating that Greece had violated the Vienna Accords and that they could no longer be trusted to uphold the principles of the organisation. The following day, Greece was ejected from the European Union - who cited similar reasons to NATO - alongside Serbia.
While being kicked out of the European Union, a proviso was made at the 15 August leaders meeting, allowing Greece to retain the euro as its currency until ‘the appropriate response has been decided’. This action raised questions as to Greece’s position in the euro, causing markets around the world to become unstable. However, as the euro markets became more and more unstable, French President Marine le Pen announced France’s unilateral withdrawal from the euro. This was followed the next day with Greece’s Prime Minister Yanis Varoufakis announcing Greece would do the same.

Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland all announced their withdrawal from the euro between September 2025 and January 2026.

## Government and Politics

Greece is a unitary parliamentary republic, with the President of the Republic as the head of state, elected by the Parliament for a five-year term. Executive power, according to the constitution is exercised by the President and the government, the head of which is the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister belongs to the leader of the political party that can obtain a vote of confidence by the Parliament.

Legislative power rests with 300-member unicameral parliament. Members of parliament are elected for four-year terms through a system of proportional representation in 48 multi-seat and 8 single-seat constituencies. The Judiciary is comprised of three Supreme Courts; the Court of Cassation, the Council of State and the Court of Auditors; and a number of civil law courts.

### Administrative Divisions

For administrative reasons, Greece is divided into 15 regions, which a subsequently subdivided into 325 municipalities. These regions are:

* Attica
* Central Greece
* Central Macedonia
* Crete
* East Macedonia and Thrace
* Epirus
* Ionian Islands
* North Aegean
* Peloponnese
* Thessaly
* West Greece
* West Macedonia
* Macedonia Major
* Skopje

Greece also contains one autonomous state: Mount Athos

### Foreign Relations

Greece maintains a strong relationship with Russia as a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, along with China and the UIR. Greece has historically had strained relations with its neighbour Turkey, but over the past few decades, Greece and Turkey have been normalizing relations. However, issues still remain between Turkey and Greece, such as Turkish challenges to Greek sovereignty rights in the Aegean Sea.

## Economy

**Greece** stumbled from bailout to bailout since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008. Greek GDP contracted for over a decade as successive Greek governments negotiated austerity cuts that would allow **Greece** to remain in the eurozone and envoy a standard of living compatible to Western Europe.

After finally leaving the euro in 2025, **Greece** reinstated the drachma which depreciated sharply against other major currencies effectively reducing Greece's crushing foreign debt through devaluation. This made Greek exports cheaper and made it cheaper to travel to Greece revitalizing the country's tourism industry. However, foreign goods became more expensive. Greece had a standard of living closer to a Balkan nation like Serbia than a Western European nation like Italy or France.

Bitter over its rejection by Western Europe, **Greece** increased trade and economic integration with Russia and the other members of the Eurasian Ecinomic Union. China bought up cheap Greek assets on mass included a stake in the port of Piraeus which became a crucial entry point for the export of Chinese goods to Europe by sea. Greece became a crucial western link in the maritime portion of China's New Silk Road Project.