Why multiculturalism remains a fictional concept in Greece

This article, focusing on Greece, a country of interest to me given I was born to Greek parents before becoming a ward of state from the age of four, explains why its approach to cultural diversity has always been heavily influenced by geopolitical concerns within a view that certain cultural minorities may threaten national unity.

 In other words, while Greek organisations in Australia support multiculturalism which celebrates diverse cultural backgrounds supported by significant government policy and financial support, Greece still encourages minorities to adhere to the dominant Greek culture and opposes group-based cultural practices when they are deemed to be at odds with national unity, albeit its aggressive approach has rightfully softened in recent decades.  

From 1834, at a time when over 90 per cent of adults were illiterate in the new Kingdom of Greece, the Primary and Communal Education Law was enacted to promote the Greek language and Orthodox Church with the intention of erasing regional differences, reversing centuries of Ottoman cultural influence, and constructing a historical link to ancient Hellenic and Byzantine roots.

With the new Greek nation only having a small geographical area compared to today, albeit aspiring then to the “Megali Idea” (Great Idea) to unite all Greek-populated and historically Byzantine territories, tensions with minorities during the 19th century were minimal as most Muslims had gone and the Arvanites (originally from Albania) and Vlachs were already passionate supporters of Greek nationalism both before and after the Greek War of Independence (1821-1829).   

However, after the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) when Greece gained much land from the Ottomans and its population increased from around 2.7 million to 4.8 million to now include substantial Turk and Slavic-speaking populations in northern Greece (Western Thrace and Macedonia), Greece began to “Hellenise” such areas.    

As a result of population exchanges, most notably after Greece’s defeat in the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922) resulted in around 1.2 million destitute Greek Orthodox refugees arriving from Turkey, the Greek government encouraged many to settle in Macedonia and Western Thrace which resulted in Greek Christian Orthodox becoming the majority there (88 per cent and 67 per cent respectively by 1928).

While the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne ruled that Greece must recognise the autonomy of the remaining Muslim minority living in Western Thrace, Greek governments responded by referring to all the Muslims (Turks, Pomaks and Roma) as “Greek Muslims” while ensuring that Greek authorities controlled the bilingual Greek/Turkish schools through curriculum choices, textbook distribution, and teacher appointments to this day.

As a result of Greek policy, most Muslims today in Western Thrace speak Greek (and Turkish) while the number of bilingual schools there has declined from a peak of around 300 to 76 during 2026 as more children shift into Greek-only public institutions, despite the Muslim population being similar (98,000 to 140,000 today compared to 126,017 in 1928).

Following the partition of Macedonia in 1913, Greek governments heavily targeted Slavic languages in northern Greece by closing hundreds of Slavic-language schools and churches that had been established by the Bulgarian Exarchate since the late 19th century because of geopolitical concerns.

Under the Metaxas dictatorship (1936–1941), Macedonian and Bulgarian dialects were brutally targeted:

Over 5,000 such Slavic speakers were interned or imprisoned; compulsory evening/night schools were established to force non-Greek-speaking elders to read, write, and speak Greek; and many non-Greek names of places and surnames were changed to Greek in an attempt to erase non-Greek cultural footprints from official records.

And, while the Metaxas regime ended the aggressive “Hellenisation” laws of the 1920s and 1930s by officially banning antisemitic organisations, hate speech, and antisemitic publications, it also insisted that Jewish schools incorporate the Greek language, history, and culture lessons into their daily curriculum with Jews only considered full citizens if they converted to Greek Orthodoxy