Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
and
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
enjoy close diplomatic relations, which have traditionally been friendly due to cultural, religious and historical ties between the two nations.
The majority of
Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language.
The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
and
Greeks
The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, oth ...
practice the
Eastern Orthodox faith and the two nations were historically bound by alliance treaties and co-belligerence in wars since the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
. In
modern history, the revolutions against the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
, the
Balkan Wars, the
World Wars
A world war is an international conflict which involves all or most of the world's major powers. Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World WarI (1914 ...
and the
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from ...
also have contributed to these relations. Greece opposed the
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
bombing of
FR Yugoslavia
Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yug ...
, being the only NATO member to condemn the actions and to openly express its disapproval. Polls revealed that 94% of the Greek population were completely opposed to the bombing. Greece's subsequently refused to recognize the
unilateral declaration of independence
A unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) is a formal process leading to the establishment of a new state by a subnational entity which declares itself independent and sovereign without a formal agreement with the state which it is secedin ...
of
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
, backing the Serbian stance on this issue as one of the five
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
's member states that have done so.
Greece is a strong supporter of the EU membership candidacy for Serbia, and in 2003 it has proposed the "Agenda 2014" for boosting the Euro-Atlantic integration of all the remaining former Yugoslav states and Albania into the Union. The two countries cooperate in security, tourism, culture and agriculture, with Greece being the third top investor from the EU to Serbia and the fifth overall (as of 2013).
Cultural ties
Greece and Serbia both share a similar Byzantine heritage, as both were a part of the
Eastern Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...
. Both nations are
Eastern Orthodox Christian. Acknowledging this cultural heritage, former vice-president of
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska ( sr-Cyrl, Република Српска, lit=Serb Republic, also known as Republic of Srpska, ) is one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is locat ...
, Dragan Dragic, stated that Serbs' roots stem from
Hellenic civilization
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cultu ...
and that the two peoples are united through Orthodoxy. Some Greek politicians have, likewise, expressed these sentiments. Secretary General for European Affairs Dimitrios K. Katsoudas, in an address regarding Serbia, stated that "Greece and Serbia are two countries linked by ancient and inextricable bonds. Our relationship is lost in the depths of time. Serbian culture and religion were greatly influenced by our common roots in the great civilization of Byzantium."
History
Middle Ages
![Saint Hipomini icon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Saint_Hipomini_icon.jpg)
During the
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...
,
Principality of Serbia
The Principality of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, Књажество Србија, Knjažestvo Srbija) was an autonomous state in the Balkans that came into existence as a result of the Serbian Revolution, which lasted between 1804 and 1817. Its creation wa ...
was a subject of the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
. The ethnogenesis of
Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language.
The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
began in the Byzantine-
Slavic environment, part of the wider
Byzantine commonwealth
The term Byzantine commonwealth was coined by 20th-century historians to refer to the area where Byzantine general influence ( Byzantine liturgical and cultural tradition) was spread during the Middle Ages by the Byzantine Empire and its missiona ...
. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Serbs began fighting for independence, revolting against the
Byzantines. In the following centuries, Serbia's independence was recognized by the Byzantines, and the two were mostly in friendly relations. The Serbs aided the Byzantines at the
Battle of Sirmium
The Battle of Sirmium, Battle of Semlin or Battle of Zemun ( hu, zimonyi csata) was fought on July 8, 1167 between the Byzantine Empire (also known as Eastern Roman Empire), and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Byzantines achieved a decisive victory ...
(1167) and
Battle of Gallipoli (1312)
The Battle of Gallipoli was fought at the end of 1312 or in 1313, between the Byzantines and the Turcopoles led by Halil Pasha. For two years, Thrace was occupied by Halil Pasha (or Halil Edje). Earlier, Byzantine Emperor Michael IX Palaiologos ha ...
. Most of the Serbian queen consorts were Byzantine women (such as
Eudokia Angelina
Eudokia Angelina (or Eudocia Angelina) ( gr, Ευδοκία Αγγελίνα, sr, Evdokija Anđel; around 1173–died , or later) was the consort of Stefan the First-Crowned of Serbia from c. 1190 to c. 1200. She later remarried, to Alexios V Do ...
,
Simonida
Simonida Nemanjić ( sr-cyr, Симонида Немањић; c. 1294 – after 1336), born Simonis Palaiologina ( el, Σιμωνίς Παλαιολογίνα, sr. Симонида Палеолог, ''Simonida Paleolog''), was a Byzantine princes ...
,
Maria Palaiologina
Maria Palaiologina ( el, Μαρία Παλαιολογίνα) was the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos () who became the wife of the Mongol ruler Abaqa Khan, and an influential Christian leader among the Mongols. After A ...
,
Irene Kantakouzene
Irene Kantakouzene ( el, Ειρήνη Καντακουζηνή, ''Eiréne Kantakouzené'', modern pronunciation ''Eiríni Kantakouziní'' , sr, Ирина Кантакузин / ''Irina Kantakuzin''; 1400 – May 3, 1457), known simply as Desp ...
,
Helena Palaiologina
Helena Palaiologina ( el, ; 3 February 1428 – 11 April 1458) was a Byzantine princess of the Palaiologos family, who became Queen of Cyprus and Armenia, titular Queen consort of Jerusalem, and Princess of Antioch through her marriage to King ...
).
Manuel I of Constantinople
Manuel I, surnamed Karantenos/Sarantenos or Charitopoulos ( el, Μανουήλ Α΄ K/Σαραντηνός or Χαριτόπουλος), (? – May or June 1222) was Patriarch of Constantinople from December 1216 or January 1217 to 1222. He see ...
recognized
Sava
The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally t ...
as the first Archbishop of the Serbs.
Hilandar
The Hilandar Monastery ( sr-cyr, Манастир Хиландар, Manastir Hilandar, , el, Μονή Χιλανδαρίου) is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos in Greece and the only Serbian monastery there. It wa ...
on
Mount Athos became one of the most important cultural and religious centres of the Serbian people. Some Byzantine families found refuge in Serbia at the end of the 14th and early 15th century, following Ottoman conquests, such as the Angeloi and Kantakouzenos; notable statesmen in the
Serbian Despotate
The Serbian Despotate ( sr, / ) was a medieval Serbian state in the first half of the 15th century. Although the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 is generally considered the end of medieval Serbia, the Despotate, a successor of the Serbian Empire and ...
of Greek origin include
Janja Kantakouzenos,
Dimitrije Kantakuzin and
Mihailo Anđelović
Mihailo ( sr-cyr, Михаило) or Mihajlo () is a Serbian masculine given name, a variant of the Hebrew name '' Michael''. Common as a given name among Serbs, it is an uncommon surname. It may refer to:
* Mihailo Vojislavljević ( fl. 1050 ...
. The two last Byzantine Emperors were of Serbian maternal descent.
The Serbs were greatly influenced by the
Hellenic culture
The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, beginning in Minoan and later in Mycenaean Greece, continuing most notably into Classical Greece, while influencing the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire. Other cultu ...
of the Byzantine Empire, particularly under the reign of Serbian emperor
Stefan Dušan
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Урош IV Душан, ), known as Dušan the Mighty ( sr, / ; circa 1308 – 20 December 1355), was the King of Serbia from 8 September 1331 and Tsar (or Emperor) and autocrat of the Serbs, Gre ...
. Dušan, who had himself crowned as "
Emperor of Serbs and Greeks
Between 1345 and 1371, the Serbian monarch was self-titled emperor (tsar). The full title was initially Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks, later Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks and Bulgarians in Serbian language, Serbian and ''basileus'' and ''au ...
," made both Serbian and Greek the official languages of
his empire, wrote charters and signed in Greek, and adopted Eastern Roman law as the foundations of his empire. He sought to synthesize the Byzantine Empire into a Serbian-Greek empire. Dušan, therefore, "took pains to woo the Greek inhabitants of those provinces
hat he had acquired in Macedonia and northern Greece His code of law, or ''
Zakonik'', proclaimed the equality of Serbs and Greeks in all his dominions and confirmed the privileges bestowed on Greek cities by Byzantine Emperors of the past whom Dušan was pleased to regard as his imperial predecessors. His administrators were adorned with the Byzantine titles of
Despot,
Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
and ''
sebastokrator
''Sebastokrator'' ( grc-byz, Σεβαστοκράτωρ, Sevastokrátor, August Ruler, ; bg, севастократор, sevastokrator; sh, sebastokrator), was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers wh ...
'' and his court was a model of that in Constantinople. He minted a silver coinage in the Byzantine style; and churches and monasteries in the Slav as well as the Greek provinces of his empire were decorated by artists of the best Byzantine school."
19th century
During the
First Serbian Uprising
The First Serbian Uprising ( sr, Prvi srpski ustanak, italics=yes, sr-Cyrl, Први српски устанак; tr, Birinci Sırp Ayaklanması) was an uprising of Serbs in the Sanjak of Smederevo against the Ottoman Empire from 14 February 1 ...
(1804–15), the Serbian rebels were joined by Greeks and Greek-
Aromanians
The Aromanians ( rup, Armãnji, Rrãmãnji) are an ethnic group native to the southern Balkans who speak Aromanian, an Eastern Romance language. They traditionally live in central and southern Albania, south-western Bulgaria, northern and ...
, among others,
[ with notable examples being fighter ]Giorgakis Olympios ro, Iordache Olimpiotul
, birth_date = 1772
, death_date =
, birth_place = Livadi, Larissa, Ottoman Empire
, death_place = Neamț, Moldavia
, image = Georgakis Olympios Greek Fighter.JPG
, image_size = 180
, Nickname =
, bir ...
, diplomat Petar Ičko, secretary Naum Krnar
Naum Krnar ( sr-cyr, Наум Крнар; d. 13 July 1817) was the secretary of Karađorđe, the leader of the First Serbian Uprising. Krnar was an ethnic Greek, hailing from Thessaly. He spoke several languages and worked as a merchant in Belgra ...
, fighter Konda Bimbaša Konda Bimbaša ( sr-cyr, Конда Бимбаша, March 1804–d. May/June 1807) was a mercenary in Alija Gušanac's Dahije detachment in the Sanjak of Smederevo who switched sides to the Serb rebels during the First Serbian Uprising, proclaimed ...
, and others. Greek ''armatolos
The armatoles ( el, αρματολοί, armatoloi; sq, armatolë; rup, armatoli; bs, armatoli), or armatole in singular ( el, αρματολός, armatolos; sq, armatol; rup, armatol; bs, armatola), were Christian irregular soldiers, or mi ...
'' Nikotsaras (d. 1807) planned to cross Mount Olympos to join the Serbian rebels. Military cooperation between the two nations was forged in the semi-autonomous Danubian Principalities, which were governed mostly by Phanariote
Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Fanariots ( el, Φαναριώτες, ro, Fanarioți, tr, Fenerliler) were members of prominent Greek families in Phanar (Φανάρι, modern ''Fener''), the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople where the Ecumenic ...
Greek voivode
Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the ...
s. There are indications that communication and cooperation between Serbs and Greeks of the Greek mainland had also been established early. For example, in 1806 the French consul in Thessaloniki reported that "the Turks are very furious against the Greeks because of their communications with the Serbs". It was reported that many Slav and Greek peasants were arrested suspected of aiding the Serbian rebels.[ The ]klephts
Klephts (; Greek κλέφτης, ''kléftis'', pl. κλέφτες, ''kléftes'', which means "thieves" and perhaps originally meant just "brigand": "Other Greeks, taking to the mountains, became unofficial, self-appointed armatoles and were kno ...
and armatoloi were encouraged by the Serbian rebels and Russian actions.[ The Serbian rebels were important allies to the Greeks; after the suppression of the First Uprising, ]Karađorđe
Đorđe Petrović ( sr-Cyrl, Ђорђе Петровић, ), better known by the sobriquet Karađorđe ( sr-Cyrl, Карађорђе, lit=Black George, ; – ), was a Serbian revolutionary who led the struggle for his country's independ ...
fled to Bessarabia, where he joined the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
national liberation movement ''Filiki Eteria
Filiki Eteria or Society of Friends ( el, Φιλικὴ Ἑταιρεία ''or'' ) was a secret organization founded in 1814 in Odessa, whose purpose was to overthrow the Ottoman rule of Greece and establish an independent Greek state. (''ret ...
'', becoming an active member. The Greeks were primarily interested in using the Serbian lands as base of the Greek operations. Miloš Obrenović
Miloš, Milos, Miłosz or spelling variations thereof is a masculine given name and a surname. It may refer to:
Given name
Sportsmen
* Miłosz Bernatajtys, Polish rower
* Miloš Bogunović, Serbian footballer
* Miloš Budaković, Serbian ...
, the leader of the Second Serbian Uprising
The Second Serbian Uprising ( sr, Други српски устанак / ''Drugi srpski ustanak'', tr, İkinci Sırp Ayaklanması) was the second phase of the Serbian Revolution against the Ottoman Empire, which erupted shortly after the re ...
(1815–17) was fully uncooperative. The first historian of the Serbian Revolution
The Serbian Revolution ( sr, Српска револуција / ''Srpska revolucija'') was a national uprising and constitutional change in Serbia that took place between 1804 and 1835, during which this territory evolved from an Ottoman prov ...
was a Greek, Triantafillos Doukas.[ Many Serbs joined the Greek War of Independence (1821–29), such as ]Hadži-Prodan
Prodan Gligorijević, known simply as Hadži-Prodan ( sr-cyr, Хаџи-Продан Глигоријевић; 1760 – 1825) was a Serbian ''voivode'' (military commander) in the First Serbian Uprising of the Serbian Revolution, then the Gree ...
and Vasos Mavrovouniotis.
Dimitrios Karatasos
Dimitrios Karatasos ( el, Δημήτριος Καρατάσος, 1798–1861), known as Yero-Tsamis ( el, Γέρo-Τσάμης) or Yero-Karatasos ( el, Γέρo-Καρατάσος), was a Greek chieftain who participated in the Greek War of Indepen ...
sought to establish a Greek-Serbian alliance in 1861, traveling to Belgrade, but died during his trip. Lambros Koutsonikas, a Greek veteran and historian, dreamt of a Greek–Serbian federation of "two sisters" (1863).
The Treaty of Vöslau, signed between Greece and Serbia on 26 August 1867, bound the two countries in an alliance.
Balkan Wars
In the First Balkan War
The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...
of 1912–1913, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
and Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...
(Balkan League
The League of the Balkans was a quadruple alliance formed by a series of bilateral treaties concluded in 1912 between the Eastern Orthodox kingdoms of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, and directed against the Ottoman Empire, which at the ...
) defeated the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
and divided the former territories of European Turkey among themselves. The division of the geographical area of Macedonia became a major point of contention among the allies. Greece had captured Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
and much of western Macedonia, while Serbia had captured most of northern Macedonia, both areas also coveted by Bulgaria.
In June 1913 Serbia and Greece signed a defensive pact ( Greek-Serbian Alliance of 1913) opposing to Bulgaria's expansionist goals. Eventually on 16 June of the same year Bulgaria attacked both countries, starting the Second Balkan War
The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 ( O.S.) / 29 (N.S.) June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies r ...
. Being decisively defeated by the Greeks in the Battle of Kilkis-Lahanas
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
and by the Serbs in the battle of Bregalnica
The Battle of Bregalnica was fought between the Kingdom of Bulgaria army and the Kingdom of Serbia during the Second Balkan War
The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of th ...
, Bulgaria retreated into defensive positions until Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
entered the war by attacking Bulgaria and threatening Sofia, resulting in the latter's defeat. Greece and Serbia found themselves being the winner parties by having successfully fought the war side by side.
World War I
Despite its defensive alliance with Serbia, Greece remained neutral in the early part of the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, due to the dissension between Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos, who was pro- Entente and favoured entering the war, and King Constantine I of Greece, who was pro-German and favoured neutrality. The resulting National Schism
The National Schism ( el, Εθνικός Διχασμός, Ethnikós Dichasmós), also sometimes called The Great Division, was a series of disagreements between King Constantine I and Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos regarding the foreig ...
was resolved only in 1917, when Constantine was forcibly deposed by the Entente Powers and Greece entered the war under Venizelos.
Corfu served as a refuge for the Serbian army that retreated there by the Entente forces ships from the homeland occupied by the Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
ns and Bulgarians
Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe.
Etymology
Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely unders ...
. During their stay, a large portion of Serbian soldiers died from exhaustion, food shortage, and different diseases. Most of their remains were buried at sea near the island of Vido
Vido ( el, Βίδο) is an island of the Ionian Islands group of Greece.
It is a small island (less than a kilometer in diameter) at the mouth of the port of Corfu.
History
The island was known to the ancients as Ptychia ( grc, Πτυχία ...
, a small island at the mouth of Corfu port, and a monument of thanks to the Greek Nation has been erected at Vido by the grateful Serbs; consequently, the waters around Vido island are known by the Serbian people as the Blue Graveyard (in Serbian, Плава Гробница), after a poem written by Milutin Bojić
Milutin Bojić ( sr-Cyrl, Милутин Бојић; – ) was a Serbian war poet, theatre critic, playwright, and soldier.
A native of Belgrade, he began writing poetry at an early age and published a number of literary reviews under a p ...
after World War I.[Serbs in Corfu](_blank)
, at the Embassy of Serbia website
World War II
In 1941, during the Helleno-Italian War, when Hitler demanded passage around the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 ...
to attack Greece, the Regent Prince Pavle of Yugoslavia
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, also known as Paul Karađorđević ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Pavle Karađorđević, Павле Карађорђевић, English transliteration: ''Paul Karageorgevich''; 27 April 1893 – 14 September 1976), was prince regent o ...
attempted to appease Hitler by offering a non-aggression pact but, ultimately, signed the Tripartite Pact
The Tripartite Pact, also known as the Berlin Pact, was an agreement between Germany, Italy, and Japan signed in Berlin on 27 September 1940 by, respectively, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Galeazzo Ciano and Saburō Kurusu. It was a defensive milit ...
that would allow German passage. In return, the Greek city of Thessaloniki was promised to Yugoslavia. Two days later the army, aided secretly by the UK and the USSR
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, overthrew the regime with the popular support of both the Serbian people. Although it is arguable that this had more to do with the Serbs' anti-German sentiments rather than a love for Greece, the fact remains that the Serbian people still remembered Venizelos' response to Vienna's suggestion for Greece to attack and invade Serbia decades earlier: "Greece is too small a country to do such big malice". Despite the fact that the new Yugoslav government again tried to appease Hitler (given that the country was surrounded on three sides) with neutrality and promises of adhering to previous agreements, the Serbian people were enthusiastic in denouncing the Tripartite Pact and Serb crowds paraded the streets of Belgrade shouting slogans like "Better War than the Pact". Hitler was not pleased and, immediately following the coup had decided to invade Yugoslavia—no longer trusting their proclamations—and divide the Yugoslav territories of the Adriatic coast, Banat, and Macedonia between Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria, respectively. After the fall of Yugoslavia, the Serbian people were punished with genocide by the pro-German Croatian Ustaše
The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Move ...
.
Yugoslav wars
In mid-1992, the UN responded to Serbian offensives in the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
by declaring a full embargo on trade with Serbia by all member nations. The sanctions placed Greece, which had recognized the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina shortly after its declaration in 1992, in a difficult position. Serbia was an important trading partner with strong religious and historical ties to Greece, and Serbia had initially supported the Greek position on the Macedonia naming dispute
The use of the country name "Macedonia (terminology), Macedonia" was disputed between Greece and the North Macedonia, Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) between 1991 and 2019. The dispute was a source of instability in the Balkans#W ...
. Beginning in 1992, the Konstantinos Mitsotakis
Konstantinos Mitsotakis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Μητσοτάκης, ; – 29 May 2017) was a Greek politician who was 7th Prime Minister of Greece from 1990 to 1993. He graduated in law and economics from the University of Athens. Hi ...
and Andreas Papandreou
Andreas Georgiou Papandreou ( el, Ανδρέας Γεωργίου Παπανδρέου, ; 5 February 1919 – 23 June 1996) was a Greek economist, politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics, known for founding the political party PASOK, ...
governments, fearing that the Bosnian war would spread in a direction that would involve Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
, Albania
Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...
and Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
, undertook long series of peace-negotiations with Serbia's president, Slobodan Milošević, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžić ( sr-cyr, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Bosnian Serb politician, psychiatrist and poet. He was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Tr ...
, and the Bosnian government without results. Meanwhile, food, oil, and arms were reported moving from Greece into Serbia in violation of the UN embargo. Before, during, and after its 1994 presidency of the EU, Greece was the only EU nation to back the Serbian position that Serbian forces had entered Bosnian territory. In early 1994, Greece incurred the displeasure of its European allies by voting against NATO air strikes on Serbian positions. Greece also refused the use of its NATO air bases at Preveza on the Ionian Sea for such attacks and refused to supply Greek troops to the UN peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. In NATO, Greece's position was diametrically opposed to that of Turkey, which supported the Bosnian government.
In December 1994, after official talks with Milošević in Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, Papandreou reiterated that the positions of Greece and Serbia on the Bosnia issue were virtually identical. A Milošević proposal for a confederation of Greece and Serbia with the Republic of Macedonia failed to gain support among any faction in Greece.
Assistance to Bosnian Serbs and Republika Srpska
According to University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...
professor 'C. Wiebes', the Hellenic National Intelligence Service
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) ( el, Εθνική Υπηρεσία Πληροφοριών, ΕΥΠ, ''Ethnikí Ypiresía Pliroforión'', EYP) is the national intelligence agency of Greece. Originally modeled after the United States Centr ...
(EYP) systematically sabotaged NATO operations in Bosnia in the mid-1990s, in an attempt to aid Bosnian Serb
The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sr-Cyrl, Срби у Босни и Херцеговини, Srbi u Bosni i Hercegovini) are one of the three constitutive nations (state-forming nations) of the country, predominantly residing in the politi ...
nationalists. In his report for the Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
government, entitled ''Intelligence en de oorlog in Bosnie 1992-1995'', Wiebes claims that EYP leaked classified NATO military plans (to which, as an allied intelligence service, it had access) to the Serb Bosnian leadership, and often to General Ratko Mladić
Ratko Mladić ( sr-Cyrl, Ратко Младић, ; born 12 March 1942) is a Bosnian Serb convicted war criminal and colonel-general who led the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) during the Yugoslav Wars. In 2017, he was found guilty of committing ...
himself, during the summer of 1995. Eventually, Wiebes states in the report, NATO allies ceased sharing NATO military plans with the Greek authorities.
In August 2008, a group of lawyers from Chania
Chania ( el, Χανιά ; vec, La Canea), also spelled Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno and west of Heraklion.
The muni ...
, Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...
, Greece, visited ICTY Indictee Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžić ( sr-cyr, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Bosnian Serb politician, psychiatrist and poet. He was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Tr ...
and offered their services for free and have asked international organizations to ensure a just trial for the former Bosnian Serb President.
=Srebrenica
=
According to Agence France Presse
Agence France-Presse (AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency.
AFP has regional headquarters in Nicosia, Montevideo, Hong Kong and Washington, D. ...
(AFP), a dozen Greek volunteers fought alongside the Serbs at Srebrenica. They were members of the Greek Volunteer Guard (ΕΕΦ), or GVG, a contingent of Greek paramilitaries formed at the request of Ratko Mladić as an integral part of the Drina Corps. Some had links with the Greek neo-Nazi organisation Golden Dawn, others were mercenaries. The Greek volunteers were motivated by the desire to support their "Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
brothers" in battle.[Grohmann, Karolos; "Greece starts probe into Srebrenica massacre"; Reuters, 27 June 2006 ] They raised the Greek flag at Srebrenica after the fall of the town at Mladić's request, to honour "the brave Greeks fighting on our side."["Greek role in Srebrenica massacre investigated"](_blank)
, ''The Independent'', 29 June 2005 Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžić ( sr-cyr, Радован Караџић, ; born 19 June 1945) is a Bosnian Serb politician, psychiatrist and poet. He was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes by the International Criminal Tr ...
subsequently decorated four of them."
In 2005 Greek deputy Andreas Andrianopoulos
Andreas ( el, Ἀνδρέας) is a name usually given to males in Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Denmark, Armenia, Estonia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Finland, Flanders, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, the Netherlands, and Indonesia. The name ...
called for an investigation of the Greek volunteers' role at Srebrenica where the Srebrenica Massacre
The Srebrenica massacre ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Masakr u Srebrenici, Масакр у Сребреници), also known as the Srebrenica genocide ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Genocid u Srebrenici, Геноцид у Сребрен ...
was carried out. The Greek Minister of Justice Anastasios Papaligouras
Anastasios Papaligouras ( el, Αναστάσιος Παπαληγούρας; born 14 April 1948) is a Greek lawyer and New Democracy politician and was Minister for Mercantile Marine and Island Policy.
Born in Athens, Papaligouras studied law at ...
commissioned an inquiry, which had still not reported as of July 2010.
NATO bombing of FR Yugoslavia
NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia caused a strong popular reaction in Greece, Prime Minister Costas Simitis
Konstantinos G. Simitis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Γ. Σημίτης; born 23 June 1936), usually referred to as Costas Simitis or Kostas Simitis (Κώστας Σημίτης), is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece a ...
sought a political solution to the Kosovo conflict
The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war ...
. Greece refused to participate in the strikes against FR Yugoslavia
Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yug ...
.
Several polls were conducted, one of which revealed that 99.5% of the Greek population were completely opposed to the bombing, with 85% believing NATO's motives were strategic and not humanitarian. Another revealed that 94% of Greek people opposed NATO and the war against Yugoslavia. 69% wanted U.S. President Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
tried for war crimes, while 52% opposed the admittance of Kosovo Albanian refugees to Greece.
20 prominent Greek judges of the supreme court (Council of State) signed a declaration, where they declared NATO guilty of war crimes. The more dramatic event was a People's Tribunal of over a 10.000 people in Athens, Greece, where the Greek Supreme Court declared President Clinton and NATO leaders guilty of war crimes.
During a C-SPAN discussion in 2005 with General Wesley Allen Clark, the commander of NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
during the Kosovo War and NATO bombings, it was reported that several Greek non-governmental organizations were sending relief supplies in the middle of the bombings, which caused the bombing of certain targets more difficult, the intention of the organizations was to forestall the military action by sending humanitarian aid to the Kosovo Serb enclaves.
Other factors
Greeks in Serbia
According to the 2002 census, there were 572 Serbian citizens of Greek ethnicity. Greek community associations in Serbia estimate a total of 4,500 Serbian citizens of Greek ethnic descent. The Greek Foreign Ministry asserts that marriages between Serbs and Greeks living in Serbia are quite common, and that this is both a cause and result of the close bonds shared by many Greeks and Serbs. In February 2008, the Greek minority living in Serbia turned to Greece to not recognize the unilateral secession in Kosovo by the Kosovo Albanians. They stated that the independence of Kosovo would endanger the stability in the Balkans and weaken the traditional Serbian-Greek relations.
Serbs in Greece
According to the 2001 census, 5,200 people Serbian-born people have Greek citizenship. It is estimated that more than 15,000 Serbs live in Greece. Prominent sportspeople with Greek citizenship include Peja Stojaković and Vlantimir Giankovits.
Humanitarianism
Following the outbreak of war in the Balkans, Serbs received tremendous humanitarian aid from Greece and Cyprus, as well as the Churches of Greece and Cyprus, beginning in the early 1990s. This aid came from all sectors of Greek society: from the state, from the Church, from various organizations, and from the public. The majority of the aid focused on helping Serbs from the Republika Srpska, the Republic of Serb Krajina, and Serbia proper who had suffered as a result of the wars that ravaged those areas.
Aid to Serbia
In late July 1995, it was announced that the Greek-Serbian Friendship Society would be distributing humanitarian aid in the form of rice to Serbia by mid-August. According to the president of the organization, Panayiotis Mihalakakos, the total cost of the project exceeded 5 million drachmas and the Piraeus Port Authority had co-sponsored the initiative and provided necessary packaging and transportation of the cargo.
In March 1999 businessman Stavros Vitalis secured the participation of 250 Greeks to leave for Belgrade in order to offer any kind of help they could to the Serb people. Among the 250 people were lawyers, doctors, and other professionals. Stavros Vitalis was reported as saying that they were on the side of the Serbs because they regarded them as friends and brothers.
On 25 October 1999, Serbia's Minister of Health Leposava Milicevic received a delegation from the Greek-Serbian Friendship Society "Ancient Greece." The delegation was led by the organization's president Laios Constantinos. The meeting with the health minister produced a number of initiatives regarding humanitarian aid drives, health protection, and medical supplies.
In April 1999, the municipality of Kalamaria collected 50 tons of humanitarian aid consisting of food and medicines. The mission was headed by mayor of Kalamaria Christodoulos Economidis. The Greek Ministry of Health issued a special permit that allowed blood donated by volunteers from the municipalities of Kalamaria, Pentalofos, and Florina, along with the monks of the Serbian monastery of Hilandariou in Mount Athos, to be included in the humanitarian drive. During that same month, representatives of the Athens-based Society of Greek-Serbian Friendship announced that they would be sending a 16-truck convoy of humanitarian aid consisting of food and medical supplies, and worth over 2 million German marks, to Serbia on 20 April. The friendship society's efforts were reported as ongoing, with continued collection drives and relief aid convoys leaving at regular 20-day intervals. The friendship society also informed the press that it had engaged lawyers to bring charges against NATO leaders before the Greek Bar and the Hague International Court for their aggression against Yugoslavia and the innocent civilian lives that had been lost as a direct result of the aggression.
On 7 May 2006, a charity dinner was organized by Lifeline Hellas Humanitarian Organization in Thessaloniki under the patronage of Crown Prince Alexander II and Crown Princess Katherine for the purpose of helping to reduce shortages of important equipment in hospitals by upgrading the Neonatal Intensive Care Units in Belgrade, Nis, Novi Sad, and Kragujevac and thereby saving the lives of newborn infants. This was the second event of its kind organized in 2006, following the successful charity dinner organized in late January in Athens. Numerous companies and organizations, as well as eminent families and members of the business community of Thessaloniki, cooperated and supported the humanitarian event. Speeches were made by President of the Board of Directors of Lifeline Hellas Mr. John Trikardos, Crown Prince Alexander, Crown Princess Katherine, Minister of Macedonia-Thrace Mr. George Kalaitzis, General Consul of Serbia and Montenegro in Greece Mr. Radomir Zivkovic, Prefecture of Thessaloniki Mr. Panayiotis Psomiadis, Vice Mayor of Thessaloniki Mrs. Kolovou Lemonia (on behalf of the Mayor Mr. Papageorgopoulos), and President of the American College Anatolia Mr. Richard Jackson. Other distinguished guests included members of the Greek Parliament and former ministers and government officials of the Greek government.
Aid to Serbs in Bosnia
On 4 October 1995, it was announced that a "peace train" carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid consisting of clothing, pharmaceuticals, and food would leave Greece on 26 October to aid Bosnian Serb refugees. This effort was organized by the "Macedonian-Thrace Coordination Committee for Aid to the Orthodox Serbs of Bosnia" and had been established at the initiative of the Balkan Strategy Development Institute and the Greek-Serbian Association. The committee's members included prefectures, northern Greek cities, local municipalities, chambers, and public and private enterprises.
On 5 December 1995, 70 tons of humanitarian aid consisting of olive oil, flour, baby food, and medicine were sent to the Bosnian Serbs in the region of Prijedor by the municipality of Neapolis. The effort was headed by mayor of Neapolis Mr. Hadjisavas.
On 22 February 1996, 200 tons of humanitarian aid consisting of food, clothing, and medicine gathered by the Athens Association of Greek-Serb Friendship arrived in Republika Srpska. The aid was accompanied by a delegation led by the association's chairman Mr. Konstantinos Christopoulos.
On 3 July 1997, humanitarian aid consisting of clothing and foodstuffs arrived in Doboi. The aid was accompanied by a 10-person delegation from the municipality of Peristeri in Athens, including mayor of Peristeri Giorgos Panopoulos. The delegation was welcomed by mayor of Doboi Drago Ljubitsic who stated that the friendly ties between the Greeks and the Serbs would last forever and that no one will be able to interrupt them.
Miscellaneous aid
During the 1990s an initiative for Greek families to host Serbian children—especially those who were refugees, orphans, had lost family members during the wars, or came from poor families—was established in order to help children forget their hardships for a while and overcome psychological problems caused by the traumatic experiences they had lived through. In 1999, a Greek delegation of the Greek-Serbian Friendship Society "Ancient Greece," after meeting with Serbian Minister of Health Leposava Milicevic, was reported as having launched such a program. However, reports of Serbian children being hosted in Greece precede this initiative by several years. Cooperation between the Greek Red Cross
The Hellenic Red Cross ( el, Ελληνικός Ερυθρός Σταυρός, ΕΕΣ) is the Greek national Red Cross Society, founded on 10 June 1877.
External links
*Official Hellenic Red Cross website
1877 establishments in Greece
Greece
...
and the Serbian Red Cross for the hosting of Serbian children is said to have been established in 1993.
One of the earliest hostings of Serbian children recorded in the media dates to late 1995 when 50 Bosnian Serb children from Zvornik spent Christmas and New Year's with Greek families. Another 50 Bosnian Serb children from the same town arrived in Thessaloniki on 10 January 1996 for a two-week vacation with families in Kavala and Imathia. In July 1998, a total of 540 orphans and children of refugees from Republika Srpska and Serbia left for Greece and were hosted over the summer by various municipalities and communities in the country. It was the fourth hosting mission that had been organized by the Central Union of Municipalities and Communities of Greece in cooperation with the Red Cross that year. In total, the Central Union of Municipalities and Communities of Greece had been responsible for hosting more than 2,000 Serbian children by that point. Greek Ambassador to Belgrade Panayiotis Vlassopoulos stated that hospitality for these children in Greece constituted only a portion of the humanitarian aid which Greek local governments and organizations have been providing for Yugoslavia since war erupted. He added that these initiatives contribute to the strengthening of Greek–Serbian relations. In 1999, the Yugoslav Red Cross and a Greek-Serb friendship society organized the hosting of children between the ages of 8 and 12 by families in Kavala for a nine-month period. The children were accompanied by their teachers so that they'd be able to keep up with their studies. The mayor of Kavala, Stathis Efifillidis, was quoted as saying that, "All the residents of the city have shown their love for the children."
The hosting of Serbian children did not end in the 1990s and is still ongoing in the 2000s. In 2002, Greek families hosted Serbian orphans from 20 December 2002 to 6 January 2003. Greek families again hosted orphan Serbian children in the summer of 2003, from 10 July to 10 August. The hospitality program, like many others, was held with the cooperation of the Greek Red Cross and the Yugoslav Red Cross. In 2006, a total of 216 children of refugees, children who lost a parent in the war, and children from poor families spent Christmas in Greece within the framework of the hospitality programme for Serb children held by the Serbian and the Greek Red Cross. It was the second time that year that Serbian children were hosted. Since the Greek and Serbian Red Cross launched the hosting of children from Serbia in 1993, an estimated 16,000 children have stayed with Greek families. As a result, very close friendship ties have been forged and, in most cases, contact between the children and the host families continues.
The Orthodox Churches of Greece and Cyprus have also been a great source of humanitarian aid to the Serbs. When, in September 1996, Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church visited Cyprus, he presented Archbishop Chrysostomos of the Church of Cyprus with an icon of the Virgin Mary as a token of appreciation for the help and support the Church of Cyprus and the people of Cyprus had shown to the people of Serbia. Archbishop Chrysostomos praised the close relations between the Churches of Serbia and Cyprus, remarking that the presence of Patriarch Pavle was proof of the unity and brotherhood between the two Churches. Patriarch Pavle compared the situations that Greeks in Cyprus face to those that Serbs face, saying that both Cyprus and Serbia were struggling for their freedom. He also reaffirmed Serbian support to the Greeks of Cyprus. During his official visit to Serbia in September 2001, Archbishop Christodoulos announced that the Church of Greece would be donating 150 million drachmas for the mission of the Serbian Orthodox Church and another 100 million drachmas for the construction of the church of Saint Savvas. In an address at Belgrade's Cathedral, Archbishop Christodoulos referred to the help which the Greeks had offered to the Serbs. For all of his activities and assistance to the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serbian people, Patriarch Pavle conferred the medal of Saint Sava of the First Order to Archbishop Christodoulos. At the ceremony Patriarch Pavle was quoted as saying that, "The Greek Church has always sympathised with the troubles we have been in, rendering us support as well as aid in medicines and food". Likewise, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica awarded Archbishop Christodoulos the highest medal of the Yugoslav Federation for the help of the Greek Church towards the Serbian people during the last decade. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America also supplied humanitarian assistance to Serbs. In 2004, Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (HC/HC) raised over five thousand dollars to assist in the rebuilding of the Orthodox Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Kosovo after the seminary was burnt by Albanians. During the first days of Holy Week, the Rev. Protopresbyter Nicholas Triantafilou, President of HC/HC, announced that offerings collected during the week would be designated for this cause as well as coordinating relief efforts. It is also worth noting that, following the catastrophic fire at Chilandar Monastery in Mount Athos, the Greek authorities coordinated the collection of donations and the rebuilding effort. Most of the expected cost, estimated at over 30 million euros, will be provided by Greece. By June 2004, the government had already disbursed 300,000 euros for the first phase of the work.
Serbian aid during 2007 and 2021 Greek forest fires
Following the Greek forest fires in 2007, Serbia sent six M-18 Dromader and one Antonov An-2 firefighting planes, 6 firefighting all-terrain vehicles, 55 firefighters, and put specialized military units on alert in case they were needed to assist the Greek Army battling fires and clearing out the debris. According to Assistant Minister of Interior Predrag Maric, over 300 firemen signed up for Greece in less than an hour.
On 7 September 2007, Defense Minister, Dragan Šutanovac
Dragan Šutanovac ( sr-cyrl, Драган Шутановац, ; born 24 July 1968) is a Serbian politician, former leader of the Democratic Party and former Minister of Defence in the Government of Serbia.
He supports the accession of Serbia t ...
and the Ambassador of Greece to Serbia, Christos Panagopoulos, welcomed the pilots and technicians of Jat Airways who assisted in extinguishing the fires in Greece, at the Lisičji Jarak Airport
Lisičji Jarak Airport ( sr, Аеродром Лисичји Јарак / Aerodrom Lisičji Jarak) is located 13 km north from the city of Belgrade, near Padinska Skela, Serbia. The airport is mostly used for pilot training and sport para ...
.
Šutanovac stated that Serbia had acted upon the request of the Greek Ministry of Defense, and he thanked Jat Airways and the representatives of the Serbian Ministry of Defense who, as he added, helped selflessly the brotherly nation of Greece.
Minister Šutanovac said that he was also interested why the planes of Jat had not been used for extinguishing fires in Serbia this summer, adding that the Ministry of Defense was not the bearer of this work.
The Ambassador of Greece said that that day showed once again the excellent cooperation between the two nations thanking everyone who had taken part in extinguishing fires.
He also remarked that in the last ten days, Serbian pilots and technicians showed great skill in extinguishing fires, which moved the whole of Greece and the Greek nation in particular.
"I am here to convey Greek President and Government's warmest regards. We shall never forget your brotherly act", the Ambassador of Greece to Serbia Christos Panagopoulos said.
On the initiative of Crown Prince Alexander II and Crown Princess Katherine an important charity event in aid of victims of the tragic Greek fires, took place on 24 September 2007 at the Ekali Club in Athens, in cooperation with the Hellenic Basketball Club Association (ESAKE), Lifeline Hellas and with the support of Vlade Divac, distinguished NBA player. Famous basketball players were present to support this humanitarian event. Among many the event was attended by: Vlade Divac, Predrag Danilovic, Zarkο Paspalj, Dusan Ivkovic, Wayne Cooper, Scott Pollard, Grant Napiere, Chris Webber, Glen Rice.
Crown Prince Alexander II and Crown Princess Katherine continued their noble efforts on 29 September 2007, when they visited the Messinia region and the municipality of Andania to deliver Serbian donations of clothes for children as well as baby equipment to the victims of the forest fires in Greece.
In August 2021 Serbia sent a special unit consisting of 37 firefighters and 3 helicopters to assist Greece in fighting against wildfire rampage.
Bilateral relations
Serbian-Greek relations have traditionally been friendly due to cultural and historical factors. Friendly relations have played an important role in bilateral relations between the two nations, especially during the wars of the 1990s and the Balkans Campaign in World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.
Greece is the top investor in Serbian economy and during the NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
bombing of Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
, Greece openly expressed its disapproval and polls revealed that 94% of the Greek population were completely opposed to the bombing.
State
Following the dissolution of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, Serbia inherited the rights and obligations of the union and, as a result, the existing bilateral contractual framework with Greece. Out of the many Greek-Serbian bilateral agreements, it is worth pointing out the agreements on mutual judicial relations, scientific and educational cooperation, tourism development, air transport, international road transportation of passengers and goods, and economic and technological cooperation.
There are regular high-level visits between the two countries, such as Foreign Minister Ms. Dora Bakoyannis
Theodora "Dora" Bakoyanni ( el, Θεοδώρα "Ντόρα" Μπακογιάννη; ; ''née'' Mitsotakis; el, Μητσοτάκη, links=no; born May 6, 1954) is a Greek politician. From 2006 to 2009 she was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece ...
the recent visit to Belgrade (20 April 2007), on which she was accompanied by Deputy Foreign Minister Mr. Euripides Stylianidis, and the recent official visit to Athens of Serbia's Foreign Minister, Mr. Vuk Jeremić
Vuk Jeremić ( sr-cyr, Вук Јеремић, ; born 3 July 1975) is a Serbian politician and diplomat who served as the president of the United Nations General Assembly from 2012 to 2013 and as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia from 200 ...
. There are also frequent contacts between the two countries ministries and agencies on various matters concerning individual sectors.
Greece is one of Serbia's main EU trade partners. Bilateral trade has increased significantly over the past few years. According to the data of the Bureau of Economic and Trade Matters of Greece's Embassy in Belgrade, Greek direct investments in Serbia (from 1996 onwards) amount to $1.2 billion. There are investments in all sectors, but mainly in the industrial and banking sectors. It is worth noting the presence of 150 Greek-Serbian companies, as well as 120 purely Greek businesses that employ 25,000 jobs.
Serbia has an embassy in Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
and a consulate-general in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
while Greece has an embassy in Belgrade, consulate-general in Niš
Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, while ...
and liaison-office in Pristina
Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians an ...
. Serbia also maintains honorary consulate and a memorial museum in Corfu.
Police and military cooperation (defense)
On 20 October, Interior ministers of Serbia and Greece, Ivica Dacic and Prokopis Pavlopoulos
Prokopios Pavlopoulos ( el, Προκόπιος Παυλόπουλος, ; born 10 July 1950), commonly shortened to Prokopis (Προκόπης), is a Greek lawyer, university professor and politician who served as the president of Greece from 2015 ...
signed an agreement on police cooperation between their two countries in Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
that paves the way for intelligence sharing for all crime forms, illegal migration, narcotics trade and human trafficking.
The defense ministers of Serbia and Greece, Dragan Sutanovac and Evangelos Meimarakis met in Belgrade on 26 February 2009 discussing the sharing view of a stable Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
based on mutual trust and cooperation and the huge possibilities to boost the military cooperation between the two countries. Greece still supports Serbia in the Kosovo question.
Greek position on Serbia in EU
In June 2008 Greece's ambassador to Serbia Christos Panagopoulos said Greece consistently backs Serbia's development and wants it to assume its place in the EU. He stated that political leadership of Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
wish is for Serbia to take its place in the European family and that Greece believes that is the best for Serbia and for regional stability. According to Panagopoulos, Greece is conducting a policy of support to Serbia's development and improving the lives of its citizens, as reflected in the large aid that Serbia received after 2000, as well as investments that exceed 2.5 billion EUR
The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens ...
. He recalled that in 2001 and 2002 the serious situation in the country dictated that aid was predominantly of a humanitarian character, but that this was followed by development aid. Greece adopted an important aid program, dubbed the "Hellenic Plan for the Economic Reconstruction of the Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
", which earmarked 230 million EUR for Serbia. The bulk of this sum, about 80 percent, was intended for infrastructure, including Corridor X, which was a priority both for Serbia and Greece. Of the overall costs of construction of Corridor 10, amounting to about 300 million EUR, 100 million will constitute a net donation from the Greek government
Greece is a parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the President of Greece is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government within a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in both the go ...
. He underlined that one of Athens and its Belgrade-based embassy's goals was the promotion of economic relations, which had a very positive dynamism, since Greece topped the list of countries making direct and indirect investment in Serbia. He said that Greece is present in all strategic branches of the economy, meaning that Greek investors came to Serbia to stay and that Greek investment will create more than 27,000 jobs for Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
n citizens. Panagopoulos expressed his hope that this trend would shortly be expanded with Serbian investment in Greece.
On 19 October 2008, The Greek Foreign Minister, Dora Bakoyannis
Theodora "Dora" Bakoyanni ( el, Θεοδώρα "Ντόρα" Μπακογιάννη; ; ''née'' Mitsotakis; el, Μητσοτάκη, links=no; born May 6, 1954) is a Greek politician. From 2006 to 2009 she was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece ...
, said that Greeks and Serbs have a special relationship and that Serbia is coming closer to the European Union, making important steps on the way and that she believed Serbia had much to offer for the EU.
Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas met with Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremić on 22 May, they said that relations between the two countries are excellent, they further discussed Western Balkans in the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
, Greece said the region would join the EU by 2014. Jeremić thanked Greece's position on Kosovo, the economic cooperation and overall excellent relations. Greece is Serbia's top important partner in Southeastern Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (a ...
. Greece helped with the visa liberalization, and Jeremić said: "This year, our citizens will be able to travel to the Greek sea much easier. They will spend their vacations in Greece, because there is no seacoast in the region where our citizens can feel better than in Greece...." Droutsas said Greece is ready to ratify Serbia's Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) immediately.
Economy
Greece is the third overall top investor from the EU to Serbia and was the top investor in Serbian economy in 2008. In 2013, Greece invested $1.66bn.
Sister cities
Some of the sister cities between Serbia and Greece:
* Belgrade - Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
* Niš
Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, while ...
- Cassandreia
Cassandreia, Cassandrea, or Kassandreia ( grc, Κασσάνδρεια, ''Kassándreia'') was once one of the most important cities in Ancient Macedonia, founded by and named after Cassander in 316 BC. It was located on the site of the earlier Anc ...
; Sparta
Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...
; Glyfada
Glyfada ( el, Γλυφάδα, ) is a suburb in South Athens located in the Athens Riviera along the Athens coast. It is situated in the southern parts of the Athens' Urban Area. The area stretches from the foot of the Hymettus mountain to the S ...
; Maroussi
Marousi or Maroussi ( el, Μαρούσι, also Αμαρούσιο ''Amarousio'') is a suburb in the northeastern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. Marousi dates back to the era of the ancient Athenian Republic; its ancient name was Athmon ...
; Alimos
* Novi Sad
Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...
- Ilioupoli
Ilioupoli ( el, Ηλιούπολη, " Sun City") is a suburban municipality belongs to Central Athens regional unit and located in the central-southern part of the Athens. Its name is the modern form of the ancient name of Heliopolis in E ...
* Smederevo
Smederevo ( sr-Cyrl, Смедерево, ) is a city and the administrative center of the Podunavlje District in eastern Serbia. It is situated on the right bank of the Danube, about downstream of the Serbian capital, Belgrade.
According to ...
- Volos
Volos ( el, Βόλος ) is a coastal port city in Thessaly situated midway on the Greek mainland, about north of Athens and south of Thessaloniki. It is the sixth most populous city of Greece, and the capital of the Magnesia regional unit ...
* Kruševac
Kruševac ( sr-cyr, Крушевац, , tr, Alacahisar or Kruşevca) is a city and the administrative center of the Rasina District in central Serbia. It is located in the valley of West Morava, on Rasina river. According to the 2011 census, t ...
- Corfu
* Jagodina )
, image_shield = Jagodina-grb.png
, image_flag = FLAG Jagodina.png
, image_skyline =
, image_caption =
, image_map = File:Municipalities of Serbia Jagodina.png
, map_caption = Location of Jagodina w ...
- Corinth
Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government refor ...
* Aleksinac
Aleksinac ( sr-Cyrl, Алексинац) is a town and municipality located in the Nišava District of southern Serbia. According to 2011 census, the town has a population of 17,978 inhabitants, while the municipality has 51,863 inhabitants.
Hi ...
- Lavrio
Laurium or Lavrio ( ell, Λαύριο; grc, Λαύρειον (later ); before early 11th century BC: Θορικός ''Thorikos''; from Middle Ages until 1908: Εργαστήρια ''Ergastiria'') is a town in southeastern part of Attica, Greec ...
; Patras; Eana; Lavris; Sampolitio; Veronas
* Čačak
Čačak ( sr-Cyrl, Чачак, ) is a city and the administrative center of the Moravica District in central Serbia. It is located in the West Morava Valley within the geographical region of Šumadija. , the city proper has 73,331 inhabitants, wh ...
- Katerini
Katerini ( el, Κατερίνη, ''Kateríni'', ) is a city and municipality in northern Greece, the capital city of Pieria regional unit in Central Macedonia, Greece. It lies on the Pierian plain, between Mt. Olympus and the Thermaikos Gulf, ...
; Filippoi
Filippoi ( Greek: , ''Philippi''), is a village and a former municipality in the Kavala regional unit, East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kavala, of which it is a municipal u ...
* Grocka
Grocka ( sr-cyr, Гроцка, ) or Grocka na Dunavu ( sr-cyr, Гроцка на Дунаву, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. According to the 2011 census results, the municipality has 83,906 inhabitants.
Location and geography
Th ...
- Agia Paraskevi
* Kragujevac - Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
* Pančevo - Neapoli
* Šabac
Šabac (Serbian Cyrillic: Шабац, ) is a city and the administrative centre of the Mačva District in western Serbia. The traditional centre of the fertile Mačva region, Šabac is located on the right banks of the river Sava. , the city ...
- Argostoli
Argostoli ( el, Αργοστόλι, Katharevousa: Ἀργοστόλιον) is a town and a municipality on the island of Kefalonia, Ionian Islands, Greece. Since the 2019 local government reform it is one of the three municipalities on the islan ...
* Paraćin
Paraćin ( sr-Cyrl, Параћин, ) is a town and municipality located in the Pomoravlje District of central Serbia. It is located in the valley of the Velika Morava river, north of Kruševac and southeast of Kragujevac. In 2011 the town had a p ...
- Eleftherio-Kordelio
Eleftherio-Kordelio ( el, Ελευθέριο-Κορδελιό, ''Elefthério-Kordelió'') is a suburb of the Thessaloniki Urban Area and was a former municipality of the regional unit of Thessaloniki, Greece. Since the 2011 local government refor ...
; Perdika
Perdika (Greek: Πέρδικα) is a village and a former community in Thesprotia, Epirus, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Igoumenitsa, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area o ...
Church relations
The Greek Orthodox Church
The term Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also cal ...
has had excellent relations with the Serbian Orthodox Church, including acquiring and giving humanitarian aid to Serbia during all of the wars. These relations have extended also to the Serbian state. Regarding the latter, the Church of Greece has supported "Serbian positions even on the matter of the secession of Montenegro from the Federation." as well as supporting Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
on Kosovo, and likewise, the Serbian Church has supported the Greek position on Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
. Like the other Orthodox churches, the Church of Greece does not recognize the self-declared autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church
The Macedonian Orthodox Church – Archdiocese of Ohrid (MOC-AO; mk, Македонска православна црква – Охридска архиепископија), or simply the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC) or the Archdiocese o ...
and considers it part of Serbian Church.
In 1994, the Greek Orthodox Church declared Radovan Karadžić as "one of the most prominent sons of our Lord Jesus Christ working for peace" and decorated him with the nine-hundred-year-old Knights' Order of the First Rank of Saint Dionysius of Xanthe.[Velikonja, Mitja (2003). Religious separation and political intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina. College Station: Texas A&M University Press. p. 265. .] Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew announced that "the Serbian people have been chosen by God to protect the western frontiers of Orthodoxy".
Confederation plan from 1992
Despite strained ties during Josip Broz Tito's rule of Yugoslavia, Serbian-Greek relations reached the point where the creation of a state for Serbs and Greeks was seriously proposed by Slobodan Milošević in 1992. According to the proposal Greece, Serbia, and North Macedonia would all be members of the tripartite confederation. In 1994, Milošević invited Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou
Andreas Georgiou Papandreou ( el, Ανδρέας Γεωργίου Παπανδρέου, ; 5 February 1919 – 23 June 1996) was a Greek economist, politician and a dominant figure in Greek politics, known for founding the political party PASOK, ...
to consider the longstanding proposal of the Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
- Belgrade-Skopje
Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and List of cities in North Macedonia by population, largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre.
The territory of Sk ...
confederation. Papandreou characterized the idea as "a pioneering, interesting proposal" but noted that it had not yet been examined. Main opposition New Democracy
New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that was decisively distinc ...
party leader Miltiadis Evert
Miltiadis Evert ( el, Μιλτιάδης Έβερτ; german: Ebert; 12 May 1939 – 9 February 2011) was a Greek politician, a member of Parliament, government minister, and ex-chairman of the New Democracy party.
Origins
Evert was born in Athen ...
, who had also met with Milošević, said that all Balkan countries should instead gain accession to the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
. Political Spring party leader Antonis Samaras
Antonis Samaras ( el, Αντώνης Σαμαράς, ; born 23 May 1951) is a Greek politician who served as 14th Prime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. A member of the New Democracy party, he was its president from 2009 until 2015. Samaras ...
said that the proposal was "interesting but should be thoroughly examined." These proposals failed to gain any significant response from the Greek government, mostly because of the precarious state of Yugoslavia at the time.
The position of the Republic of Macedonia regarding the tripartite confederation was widely supported by politicians and intellectuals. Immediately following Milošević's renewed call for a loose confederation between Greece, Serbia, and the Republic of Macedonia, Socialist Party of Macedonia
The Socialist Party of Macedonia ( mk, Социјалистичка партија на Македонија, ''Socijalistička Partija na Makedonija'', SPM) is a political party in North Macedonia founded on 22 September 1990 as a successor to t ...
president Kiro Popovski deemed the longstanding proposal as a "present utopia but a feasible future prospect." In 2001, former president of the Republic of Macedonia Kiro Gligorov noted the wide support for the proposal amongst ethnic Macedonian intellectuals: "This begun when Yugoslavia was beginning to fall apart, when intellectuals and politicians gathered in order to examine the perspectives that we had for our country. Our common position was that a confederation with Greece was the best solution." Macedonian novelist Ante Popovski in an interview with the French newspaper '' Libération'' on 27 March 2001 stated, "I am supporting the idea of a confederation with Greece. We shall not be in danger of losing our identity, because our language is entirely different from the Greek one, while it resembles with the languages of the two other large neighbors, the Serbs and the Bulgarians."
Transportation
Transportation between Serbia and Greece is well developed due to Greece's attractiveness as a tourist destination to Serbian tourists who often find it less expensive and more comfortable to travel to the Greek coast rather than to western European or north African destinations. From Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport
Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport ( sr, / ) or Belgrade Airport ( sr, / ) is an international airport serving Belgrade, Serbia. It is the largest and the busiest airport in Serbia, situated west of downtown Belgrade near the suburb of Sur ...
in Serbia, Air Serbia
Air Serbia (stylised as ''AirSERBIA''; sr, / ) is the flag carrier of Serbia. The company's headquarters is located in Belgrade, Serbia, and its main hub is Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. The airline was known as Jat Airways until it was ...
operates year-round flights to Athens International Airport
Athens International Airport ''Eleftherios Venizelos'' ( el, Διεθνής Αερολιμένας Αθηνών «Ελευθέριος Βενιζέλος», ''Diethnís Aeroliménas Athinón "Elefthérios Venizélos"''), commonly initialised as ...
and Thessaloniki International Airport
Thessaloniki Airport , officially Thessaloniki Airport "Makedonia" ( el, Κρατικός Αερολιμένας Θεσσαλονίκης "Μακεδονία", Kratikós Aeroliménas Thessaloníkis "Makedonía") and formerly Mikra Airport, is ...
. Aegean Airlines
Aegean Airlines S.A. ( el, Αερογραμμές Αιγαίου Ανώνυμη Εταιρεία ''Aeroporía Aigaíou Anónimi Etairía'', ) is the flag carrier airline of Greece and the largest Greek airline by total number of passengers carri ...
operates a year-round line from Athens to Belgrade as well.
Coach bus service between Greece and Serbia is paradoxically weak. The only bus line between Serbia and Greece is a low-frequency line operated by Alamanis Tours from Belgrade Bus Station
Belgrade Bus Station ( sr-cyr, Београдска аутобуска станица) is the main bus station in Belgrade, Serbia. Located in Savski Venac, the bus station is composed by a bus depot
A bus garage, also known as a bus depot, ...
.
On 9 October 2008, Greek Minister of Finance George Alogoskoufis announced that 100 million euro will be donated for the construction the main highway that will connect Serbia and Greece to the rest of Europe, the Corridor X.
Tourism
In Greece
Greece is said to have welcomed the most seasonal tourists from Serbia than any other country. While Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
and Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
are traditionally popular destinations for Serbs on vacation, tourist charters from Belgrade often channel Serbian travelers to Heraklion, Kos, Zakynthos, and other less densely populated destinations. Unlike English, German, and other foreign tourists, many of whom canceled their vacations in Greece due to protests and economical crisis in the summer of 2010, Serbian tourists broke the record, visiting the country in great numbers. The Serbian President stated, in Athens in June 2010, that this is how Serbia, in a small way, is helping Greek friends during hard times for them.
An estimated 350,000 Serbian citizens visited Greece in 2008. 432,000 Serbians visited in 2009. Many Serbs visit Greece because of the important Serbian heritage found in the country. Some of the cultural and religious sites especially important to Serbs include: the Hilandar
The Hilandar Monastery ( sr-cyr, Манастир Хиландар, Manastir Hilandar, , el, Μονή Χιλανδαρίου) is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos in Greece and the only Serbian monastery there. It wa ...
monastery in Mount Athos, the Zeitenlik cemetery in Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
, and the island of Corfu.
In Serbia
In 2015 Serbia was visited by 43,869 Greek tourists, while the number increased on 61,749 in 2016 and on 75,657 in 2018.
Dedications
In most Serbian towns there are several streets named after Greek individuals or regions. In downtown Belgrade there are streets named after Rigas Fereos, Eleftherios Venizelos, Athenian street, Thessaloniki street, Agion Oros street, Macedonian street, Corfu street, to name a few. There are also monuments dedicated to Rigas Fereos and Eleftherios Venizelos in the very center of the Serbian capital.
The second largest Serbian city of Novi Sad
Novi Sad ( sr-Cyrl, Нови Сад, ; hu, Újvidék, ; german: Neusatz; see below for other names) is the second largest city in Serbia and the capital of the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It is located in the southern portion of the Pan ...
is sometimes known as "Serbian Athens". The mountain of Fruška Gora is the site of 17 monasteries and is called the "Serbian Agion Oros, Athos".
In the center of Athens, next to Sytagma square, there's a street named after Serbian national hero Karađorđe
Đorđe Petrović ( sr-Cyrl, Ђорђе Петровић, ), better known by the sobriquet Karađorđe ( sr-Cyrl, Карађорђе, lit=Black George, ; – ), was a Serbian revolutionary who led the struggle for his country's independ ...
, and many Greek towns have streets named after Vasos Mavrovouniotis, a Montenegrin Serb who fought in the Greek Revolution. There is a museum in Corfu called the "Serbian house", dedicated to World War I Serbian soldiers.
Sports
Football
Serbia and Greece share a lot of mutual history in contemporary football. In Serbia, the Superleague Greece is closely followed due to the large migration of Serbian expat footballers to Greece, where the league has more money to pay for players' salaries than in Serbia—it is due to this reason that Greek football players are practically nonexistent in Serbia despite Serbian footballers having a large presence in Greek football. Serbian football players have frequently made their career heyday in Greece and have a special place in Greek popular culture. The first Serbian player to ever make a revered name for himself in Greece was Borivoje Đorđević, who represented Panathinaikos F.C., Panathinaikos in the late 1970s. Arguably, Predrag Đorđević, affectionately called ''Djole'' by Olympiakos spectators, was one Serbian footballer to have played in Greece. Otherwise, Vladimir Ivić was the most successful Serbian football player to have played in Greece for a team other than Olympiacos—Ivić had an illustrious career with P.A.O.K. F.C., PAOK, before which he had played briefly for AEK Athens. In 1995, when UEFA suspension on FR Yugoslavia was lifted, the first international game played by a Serb club was precisely a friendly Red Star vs. Olympiacos, in Belgrade.
Ultras Brotherhoods
Many Greek and Serbian football clubs share ultra brotherhoods. Serbian FK Partizan and Greek PAOK FC are known "brother-teams" as they both play in black-white uniform, and their biggest enemies in the Greek and Serbian derbies are respectively, Red Star Belgrade and Olympiacos F.C., Olympiacos, who both play in red-white jerseys.
The main supporters of Red Star Belgrade are the Delije Ultras, while the Olympiakos supporters are called Gate 7 Ultras, their slogan is "GATE 7 - DELIJE. Orthodox Brothers" and both teams wear the colours red and white. The main supporters of Partizan Belgrade are the Grobari Ultras, while the PAOK FC are called Gate 4 Ultras, their slogan is "Black & White. Same colour - Same faith" ( sr, исте боје - иста вера, ) and both teams wear the colours black and white. Both groups often display Byzantine Empire and Orthodoxy symbols as icons of their friendship.
Organizations
It is estimated that there are dozens of organizations situated throughout both nations and a smaller amount in the diaspora, but because few of them have established foundations on the internet, it is difficult to keep an accurate tally of how many truly exist. Generally, however, prominent Greek-Serbian organizations have been known to meet with government officials and political figures, religious leaders, and fellow Greek-Serbian groups in order to strengthen mutual relations, sponsor cultural and historical celebrations, establish economic initiatives, and coordinate various humanitarian efforts. Smaller Greek-Serbian organizations generally organize local recreational activities. On 28 July 2006, 18 members of the Serbian parliament took the initiative of establishing a Serbian Greek friendship group, and are looking to increase parliamentary cooperation between both nations.
Events
Belgrade International Book Fair
In 2009, Greece was the country of honour at the 54th International Book Fair in Belgrade, founded 1856. Serbian and Greek writers Dragan Velikic and Tanasis Voltinos opened the event. Serbia was honoured at the 9th Thessaloniki International Book Fair in 2012.
See also
* Foreign relations of Greece
* Foreign relations of Serbia
* Serbian words of Greek origin
* Accession of Serbia to the European Union
* Greece–Yugoslavia relations
Annotations
, sr, српско-грчко пријатељство/srpsko-grčko prijateljstvo, "Serbian-Greek friendship"), or even Greek-Serbian brotherhood (српско-грчко братство), "Serbian-Greek brotherhood").
Notes
References
Bibliography
* (Public Domain)
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External links
; State organizations
*
*
;Other
*
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Serbian-Greek Friendship Official Site
Association of Serbs in Greece
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greek-Serbian Relations
Greece–Serbia relations,
Bilateral relations of Greece, Serbia
Bilateral relations of Serbia, Greece