Book claims Greek crisis stems from Ottoman rule

[Jigs]

Monday, October 4, 2010
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
According to the message delivered by ‘Giorgi’s Greek Tragedy,’ rampant bribery seen in today’s Greece, acknowledged as one of the reasons to the sovereign debt crisis, is ‘a carry-over from Ottoman rule.’



In a new novel, author Pauline Hager claims the failed economy of neighboring Greece stems from injustices during the 400 years of Ottoman rule.

According to the message delivered by “Giorgi’s Greek Tragedy,” the rampant bribery seen in today’s Greece and acknowledged as one of the reasons for the sovereign debt crisis is “a carry-over from Ottoman rule.”

Hager’s novel is set in the year 1790 in the Taygetos Mountains of the Peloponnese peninsula, at a time when Greece was under Ottoman rule. “The story recounts the tale of 11-year-old Giorgi and his family,” according to a press statement. “Elite agents of the Ottoman Sultan’s Janissary Corps murder his parents and Giorgi longs for revenge. As a teenager, together with his younger brother, Yianni, they climb the high, craggy mountains, seeking to join forces with their childhood hero and guerrilla leader, Kapetan Zaharias, and his outlawed Greek freedom fighters. Ensconced in deep caves, they lived and trained to battle the Turks.”

The book notes that Greek peasants below in the valley were overworked and overtaxed and they rebelled in 1821.

“The Turkish pashas ruled with a combination of laxity or by extortion,” the press statement said. “Today, Greek families pay over 1,500 euros per year in bribes. A surgeon in a state hospital expects additional euros from a family to perform surgery, in addition to what the state pays him. Tax collectors are notorious for collecting additional euros from citizens to assure them their taxes are properly recorded, and so it goes in all aspects of daily living. The bribery rampant in modern Greece is a carry-over from Ottoman rule.”

 

[below_freezing]

Monday, October 4, 2010
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
According to the message delivered by ‘Giorgi’s Greek Tragedy,’ rampant bribery seen in today’s Greece, acknowledged as one of the reasons to the sovereign debt crisis, is ‘a carry-over from Ottoman rule.’



In a new novel, author Pauline Hager claims the failed economy of neighboring Greece stems from injustices during the 400 years of Ottoman rule.

According to the message delivered by “Giorgi’s Greek Tragedy,” the rampant bribery seen in today’s Greece and acknowledged as one of the reasons for the sovereign debt crisis is “a carry-over from Ottoman rule.”

Hager’s novel is set in the year 1790 in the Taygetos Mountains of the Peloponnese peninsula, at a time when Greece was under Ottoman rule. “The story recounts the tale of 11-year-old Giorgi and his family,” according to a press statement. “Elite agents of the Ottoman Sultan’s Janissary Corps murder his parents and Giorgi longs for revenge. As a teenager, together with his younger brother, Yianni, they climb the high, craggy mountains, seeking to join forces with their childhood hero and guerrilla leader, Kapetan Zaharias, and his outlawed Greek freedom fighters. Ensconced in deep caves, they lived and trained to battle the Turks.”

The book notes that Greek peasants below in the valley were overworked and overtaxed and they rebelled in 1821.

“The Turkish pashas ruled with a combination of laxity or by extortion,” the press statement said. “Today, Greek families pay over 1,500 euros per year in bribes. A surgeon in a state hospital expects additional euros from a family to perform surgery, in addition to what the state pays him. Tax collectors are notorious for collecting additional euros from citizens to assure them their taxes are properly recorded, and so it goes in all aspects of daily living. The bribery rampant in modern Greece is a carry-over from Ottoman rule.”

I've decided to go to greece for vacation whenever I have the money. It sounds much like home.