Translated from french by Grok

Traditional Crafts

Thracian craftsmanship is marked by the tradition of weaving and embroidery practiced in towns and villages for everyday needs. Raw materials are abundant in the region: wool, silk, cotton, and linen. Many terms, words, and expressions used in weaving still have the same meaning today as they did in antiquity and the Byzantine era. This fact demonstrates the great age of the tradition in this region. Weaving in Thrace reached a high level during the last two centuries.

During the Turkish occupation, the population—although subjugated—was economically and culturally more advanced and more prosperous. Trade, organized through production guilds, was its great strength. The Greek language dominated; the educated class and artists contributed to the development of cultural and social life. Artisans and merchants built churches and schools.

At the beginning of the 20th century, these guilds suffered the national misfortunes of Thrace. After the Bulgarian persecutions, major weaving centers such as ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥΠΟΛΗ disappeared, and the guilds were destroyed. The same happened with cotton, linen, and silk due to the new borders imposed on Greece.

Today, with the rapid evolution of technology changing the pace of life, the traditional costume has lost its practical function and has become a museum object. Nevertheless, efforts can be seen everywhere to valorize and revive traditional decorative motifs. Embroidery and woven items are being adapted to the needs of everyday life.

Pagan Sacrifices

Throughout Byzantine and modern history, the high clergy tried by every means to prevent rites that did not seem very orthodox to them. Sacrifices topped the list of prohibitions. But one way or another—under some pretext or thanks to a legend invented after the fact—the immolation of animals in honor of a saint never really stopped in the Greek countryside. In this sense, one can say that the notion of Greekness predates Orthodoxy, since it is directly dependent on our origins.

In the agricultural regions of Thrace, during the horse breeding season, a festival takes place to promote their fertility. It is thanks to ΑΓΙΟΣ ΧΑΡΑΛΑΜΠΟΣ, the protector of farmers, that foals will multiply and harvests will be abundant. To obtain prosperity from the saint, a large calf is sacrificed. The victim is led through the village streets to the sounds of the sacrifice march. Everyone can hang an offering on the sacred animal.

After vespers, at night in the mountains, the “bull” is put to death. As in the ancient taurobolion, those who receive the bull’s blood on themselves will be protected from all disease. That is why everyone—especially women and children—dips their hands or pieces of cotton in the blood and marks red crosses on their foreheads.

If we set aside the sacrifice itself, this ritual is very close to the act performed during an Orthodox baptism, where oil is used to make the sign of the cross on the forehead. Yet another point showing the connection between the current religion and ancient rites.

Treated and Mistreated

During the First World War, the country was shaken by the confrontation between the Liberals gathered around ΒΕΝΙΖΕΛΟΣ, who favored the Triple Entente, and the supporters of neutrality gathered around the pro-German King Constantine I. Dismissed by the king, ΒΕΝΙΖΕΛΟΣ formed an insurgent government in ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗ in 1916 and, with the help of the French army, deposed Constantine. The latter’s son, Alexander I, became king in 1917, and Greece fought alongside the Allies.

On May 15, 1919, Greek troops, on the orders of the Great Powers, landed in Asia Minor, more precisely in Smyrna. This Greek action was formalized by the Treaty of Sèvres in August 1920. It granted Greece—in recognition of its sacrifices—all of Thrace except Constantinople, the administration of the Smyrna region, as well as the Dodecanese, which had been occupied by the Italians since 1912.

However, Mustafa Kemal did not recognize the Treaty of Sèvres, and thus began the Asia Minor War. Moreover, the situation of the Greek army became difficult after the elections of November 1, 1920, which saw the defeat of ΒΕΝΙΖΕΛΟΣ. The royalist party in power recalled Constantine from exile. This greatly displeased the Allies, who changed their policy. Not only did they abandon the Greeks, but they helped the Turks. France, for example, supplied them with military equipment. Meanwhile, Mustafa Kemal wrote to ΒΕΝΙΖΕΛΟΣ, who was in exile, asking Greece to withdraw its troops from Asia Minor while keeping Eastern Thrace. ΒΕΝΙΖΕΛΟΣ passed this proposal on to the then-Prime Minister ΓΟΥΝΑΡΗΣ, who immediately rejected it, believing he could eliminate Mustafa Kemal.

Then, in August 1922, Mustafa Kemal launched a major offensive that crushed the Greek army. Immediately afterward came the massacre of Smyrna—what we call in Greece the “Asia Minor Catastrophe.” Thousands dead, and of course the death of Hellenism in Asia Minor.

In January 1923, the convention on the compulsory population exchange took place. One and a half million Greeks emigrated from Turkey (350,000 settled in Athens). The Turkish minority in Western Thrace and the Greek minority in Istanbul, each numbering about 120,000 people, were exempted from the compulsory exchange.

A coup by Venizelist officers led by ΠΛΑΣΤΗΡΑΣ and ΓΟΝΑΤΟΣ forced Constantine to abdicate in favor of his son George II. The new government requested peace, and on July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, causing Greece to lose Eastern Thrace up to the ΕΒΡΟΣ river, Asia Minor, and the islands of ΙΜΒΡΟΣ and ΤΕΝΕΔΟΣ.

Later, Eastern Thrace was offered to the Bulgarians as a gift by the Nazis. It only became Greek again upon liberation in 1945.

Current Situation

The current situation in Thrace is complex and rapidly evolving. This stems, among other things, from the fact that the Treaty of Lausanne is interpreted in various ways. Thus, at the April meeting of the U.S. Congress, Greece was accused of not recognizing the Turkish minority in Thrace (the expression “Turkish minority” has been forbidden in Greece since 1988, and all philhellenes understand why the term “Greek Muslims” is preferred instead) and of denying them the right to elect their own muftis. Greece simply replied that it was following the Treaty of Lausanne. But this meeting gave Greece the opportunity to point out the gradual disappearance of our minorities in Constantinople and on the islands of ΙΜΒΡΟΣ and ΤΕΝΕΔΟΣ.

Let us be more precise with the numbers before going further. In the prefecture of ΡΟΔΟΠΗ live 57,000 Muslims and 47,000 Christians; in the prefecture of ΞΑΝΘΗ live 42,000 Muslims and 47,000 Christians. In Greece we estimate that in Western Thrace as a whole there are about 120,000 Muslims (on the internet Turks claim 150,000) out of a total population of 329,580. Meanwhile, only 2,500 Greeks remain in Constantinople-Istanbul. Yet the Treaty of Lausanne provided for a balance of these populations on both sides of the border!

In this context, the slightest incident becomes a pretext for a religious war. Yet it is only now that the Greek government is truly concerning itself with the dramatic situation in Thrace. By contrast, the action of the Turkish consulate is practically omnipresent. Muslim children attend primary school in Greece, then go to Turkey for middle school and high school. They live in special facilities, have special grading scales, and receive special aid. As for the money, it is hoarded in Turkey for greater security (sic), and there are specialized agencies for such transactions.

All this breeds fanaticism (one is either Christian or Muslim), a sense of insecurity, and a feeling of abandonment by Athens.

Many villages are occupied either by Christians or by Muslims, and satellite dishes sprout on every roof, turning toward the sun like heliotropes: the sun of Turkey.

In Greece, just as our history is ancient and indisputable, our geography is young and unstable: the borders of our state are not even fifty years old. Therefore they must be defended with great vigilance. This is not about advocating blind nationalism, but about awakening consciences: the conscience of history, of civilization, and of traditions.

«ΤΑ ΕΘΙΜΑ ΚΑΙ ΟΙ ΣΚΟΠΟΙ ΚΑΛΟ΄ΝΑΙ ΝΑ ΓΡΑΦΤΟΥΝΕ
ΓΙΑΤΙ ΑΡΓΑ Η ΓΡΗΓΟΡΑ ΜΙΑ ΜΕΡΑ ΘΑ ΧΑΘΟΥΝΕ»

And these consciences can only be built on the basis of knowledge. The role of Greek intellectuals and philhellenes is the research and teaching of this knowledge. Because knowledge is power, and it is practically the only power for small countries.

One day, at the end of a performance by the Greek traditional dance group CIRCE, a young woman approached the dancers who were wearing Thracian costumes. She was Bulgarian. Her first words were to say that these costumes were from her country. Then some group members came to get me to talk with this woman. After a few exchanged words, she understood my interest in the matter and called her husband, saying he was a historian and would convince me better than she could. He was very assertive at first, but when I spoke about population ratios in ΘΕΣΣΑΛΟΝΙΚΗ, the Second Balkan War, the Bulgarian declaration of war, the guilty friendship between the Bulgarians and the Nazis, etc., he admitted to me that he was French, that he only had a master’s degree in history, and that he did not really know these events!

We can no longer remain inactive while seeing what is happening in Thrace. Otherwise we risk regretting it as we do with Cyprus, half of which has been occupied by the Turks for 22 years. So it is not enough to be born Greek to be Greek; one must think Greek and be proud of it. And that can only happen through the development of Greekness.

Greece is a state; Greekness is a choice.

The tunes and customs should be written down, because sooner or later one day they will be lost.

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