5 - What Americans think of Greece today
(Below is in my opinion a very good analysis of today's Greece's position in Eastern Mediterranean compared to its neighbors, by an American friend - 27 October 2017 - Dimitri Kitsikis)
Israel would have made a good
model for Greece to follow when it was still a healthy, emerging market economy
until the shame of 1974 and the miserable political class, who took over the
leadership and ran the country into the ground and made it into an EU German
protectorate.
All this on the idiocy that
somehow big brother Brussels is a protection from Turkey. In Simitis
times, they even thought that they could convince Turkey to put itself in the
same cage, but the Turks, respecting their succession from the Byzantines and
more Greek than the Elladites, were not foolish enough to fall into such a
trap. Instead of the present regime in Greece which has not even achieved the
level of Turkish GDP back in 1974 – despite the transfer money, loans, etc. –
Turkey successfully restructured with the IMF with Kemal Dervis and have a
achieved a GDP many times the size of Greece GDP with industry and
exports. Russia is now their major trading partner and they have moved to
a partial Russian alignment after the failed US coup.
I think that Erdogan and Putin
could achieve a tremendous event for the Orthodox faith with a Russian
Patriarch like Kyrillos of Moscow to replace Bartholomeus. Instead
of social events with the Greek elite for society marriages and baptisms, it
would transform the Ecumenical Patriarch to something truly vibrant and worthy
of its two thousand year heritage, just as it is growing in Russia despite 70
years of attempted eradication and forced Westernization by the
Bolsheviks.. The Russians have every excuse to do this given
Greece’s current atheist government and a Parliament who are hypocrites with no
respect for the Orthodox faith again in favor the present forced Frankokratia
here under Greek Bolsheviks.
The Americans would go crazy with
a Russian Patriarch!!! Already they do not what to do with Erdogan
and Putin…. It would be a just punishment for the EU, too.
Greece has valuable resources and
human capital and a large Diaspora. The political elite who rule Greece
are totally incapable of harnessing this energy. They only know how to
negotiate bail out loans and cajole EU transfer money. Israel a
smaller country exports twice what Greece does and with much higher added
value.
As for Turkish relations –
sometimes good and sometimes bad – but there is mutual respect between Turkey
and Israel. When Ergdogan tried slyly via Flotilla to violate their
borders, the Israeli sent three or four Turks back to Turkey in
caskets….. They were not likely to play around with Israel again in these
matters.
I met with Nicholas Burnes,
former US Ambassador to Greece, recently at a Credit Suisse event. He
sees Macron and Koulis as saviors for France and Greece respectively. He
was cursing Trump every other sentence despite being a former US
Diplomat. I was thinking to myself how many average American voter would
support his policies….. Not many since Trump is now POTUS!
Frankly I do not see elections
here until 2019. Political life in Greece at present has as much interest
as it did under Ioannis Rallis and German occupation…..
Diran
27 October 2017
