The Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace ( el, Υπουργείο Μακεδονίας και Θράκης, ΥΜΑΘ) is a former ministry 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 ...

. Responsible for the

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

of Macedonia and

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to ...

, since 2015 it has been demoted to the level of a sub-ministry within the

Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...

. The incumbent

Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace The Deputy Minister for Macedonia and Thrace ( el, Υφυπουργός Μακεδονίας και Θράκης) is the government minister in charge of Greece's Sub-Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace, part of the Ministry of the Interior (Greece), ...

is of

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 ...

. The ministry had been known as the Ministry of Northern Greece until it was renamed on 19 August 1988. It was demoted to a general secretariat in 2009, but was re-established as a ministry in 2012, and again demoted to a sub-ministry within the Ministry of the Interior on 27 January 2015. It is housed in

Government House Government House is the name of many of the official residences of governors-general, governors and lieutenant-governors in the Commonwealth and the remaining colonies of the British Empire. The name is also used in some other countries. Gover ...

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 ...

History

The ministry was founded in 1912 as the Governorate-General of Macedonia () following the acquisition of Macedonia during the Balkan Wars. It was promoted to cabinet level in the late 1920s and renamed the Governorate-General of Northern Greece () in 1945, after being merged with the Governorate-General of Thrace (). It was renamed the Ministry of Northern Greece () in 1955. The third name change occurred in 1988, when it was renamed the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace. In 2009, the ministry was downgraded to a General Secretariat within the

, until it was re-established as a separate ministry in 2012. With the

legislative election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

of SYRIZA in January 2015, the ministry was once more subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior and Administrative Reconstruction, headed by a deputy minister. Shortly after the

Hellenic Army The Hellenic Army ( el, Ελληνικός Στρατός, Ellinikós Stratós, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece. The term ''Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is th ...

entered

on 26 October 1912, King

Constantine I Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...

demanded that he be given control of the newly acquired region of Macedonia, but

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Eleftherios Venizelos had already decided that the fate of the region would lie with his Minister of Justice,

Konstantinos Raktivan Konstantinos Raktivan ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Ρακτιβάν; 1865 – 21 May 1935) was a Greek jurist and politician, who served as cabinet minister, as the ''de facto'' first Governor-General of Macedonia, president of the Athens Bar A ...

, who arrived in the city on 30 October. His position within the Governorate-General of Macedonia was so powerful that his power matched that of the

and caused dismay among the other ministers 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 ...

. Raktivan was later succeeded by other prominent politicians of Greece, such as Stefanos Dragoumis, Emmanouil Repoulis and

Themistoklis Sofoulis Themistoklis Sofoulis or Sophoulis (; 24 November 1860 – 24 June 1949) was a prominent centrist and liberal Greek politician from Samos Island, who served three times as Prime Minister of Greece, with the Liberal Party, which he led for many ...

. Despite its limited freedom of action in later years, the Governorate-General of Macedonia managed to produce an astonishing amount of work between its founding in 1912 and the creation of the Ministry of Northern Greece in 1955. Following the

Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 250px, The fire as seen from the quay in 1917. 250px, The fire as seen from the Thermaic Gulf. The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 ( el, Μεγάλη Πυρκαγιά της Θεσσαλονίκης, 1917) destroyed two thirds of the city of T ...

, the Governorate-General appointed

Ernest Hébrard Ernest Hébrard (1875–1933) was a French architect, archaeologist and urban planner, best known for his urban plan for the center of Thessaloniki, Greece, after the great fire of 1917. Background Hebrard studied at the École des Beaux- ...

as the master architect for the redesign of the city. The Governorate-General was also responsible for the complete incorporation of Macedonia into the Greek state despite the difficult circumstances of the interwar period. Other successes of the Governorate-General at the time include the establishment of numerous government agencies, including the creation of Courts of Appeal, Courts of First Instance and District Courts, the creation of an independent archaeological department, a forestry department and public services, and the provision of shelter to hundreds of thousands of refugees after the

population exchange between Greece and Turkey The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey ( el, Ἡ Ἀνταλλαγή, I Antallagí, ota, مبادله, Mübâdele, tr, Mübadele) stemmed from the "Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" signed at ...

in the 1920s.

The Ministry

Structure

According to Presidential Decree no. 167 (2 September 2005), the Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace was made up of the following departments: *The Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace **The Office of Solicitor of the State **The Office of Financial Control **The Office of the Borderland **The Office of the Assessor of the Audit Office **The Office of the Deputy Minister ***The Office of Defence and Political Planning in Case of Emergency ***The Office of Public Relations, of the Press and of Etiquette **The Office of the Secretary-General ***The Secretariat ****The Office of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Policing and Justice ::::*Department of Cooperation with the countries of south-eastern Europe ::::*Department of European Affairs ::::*Department of the Diaspora ::::*Department of Defence and the Aegean ::::*Department of Policing and Justice :::*The Office of Education, Culture and Citizen Protection :::*The Office of the Economy and Tourism :::*The Office of Infrastructure and the Environment :::*The Office of Administrative Development and e-Governance :::*The Office of the Media :::*The Office of Quality and Efficiency :::*The Office of Facilitation of People with Disabilities ::*The Department of Inspection and Coordination of Services

Political leadership

Since the ''

Metapolitefsi The Metapolitefsi ( el, Μεταπολίτευση, , " regime change") was a period in modern Greek history The history of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece as well as that of the Greek peop ...

'', there have been twenty Ministers for Macedonia and Thrace from two parties,

and

PASOK The Panhellenic Socialist Movement ( el, Πανελλήνιο Σοσιαλιστικό Κίνημα, Panellínio Sosialistikó Kínima, ), known mostly by its acronym PASOK, (; , ) is a social-democratic political party in Greece. Until 2012, it ...

. The first to assume the post following the fall of the

military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...

in 1974 was Nikolaos Martis. Stavros Kalafatis served as the last minister before the ministry's abolition upon the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...

George Papandreou George Andreas Papandreou ( el, Γεώργιος Ανδρέας Παπανδρέου, , shortened to ''Giorgos'' () to distinguish him from his grandfather; born 16 June 1952) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from ...

in 2009. The ministry was re-established on 21 June 2012 after the

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 ...

, but was again absorbed by the Ministry of the Interior on 27 January 2015 after the

of Alexis Tsipras.

Role

The Ministry of Macedonia and Thrace is responsible for "the development of the border regions of Greece, giving Northern Greece the opportunity to acquire a voice and role in the political and economic processes". In particular, the ministry gathers information regarding the communities that fall under its jurisdiction and proceeds to propose and discuss legislation and policies with other government bodies.

References

{{Greek Macedonia Macedonia (Greece) Western Thrace Government agencies established in 1912 1912 establishments in Greece