ABSTRACT
Two generations of Greek citizens have reached adulthood in this climate of constant tension, nurtured by the idea that Turkey is the 'traditional' enemy of Greece. Greek national education and Greek historiography have contributed greatly to this perception, actively promoting an essentialist view of Greek history founded on the idea of continuity with the classical ancient Greek past (Herzfeld 1982, 1987, 1997; Just 1989; Stewart 1994; Faubion 1993; Karakasidou 1997; Sutton 1998; Hirschon 2000; Brown & Hamilakis 2003; Hamilakis & Yalouri 1996, 1999; Yalouri 2001). As I have pointed out in the introduction to this volume, the timelessness of the national version of history in Greece-that barely distinguishes between the Greeks of classical times and the contemporary population-puts forward a conception of historical causality that excludes the Turks from the lands that had once been inhabited by various Greekspeaking populations (see also Papadakis 1998: 70-71). In the timeless course of Greek national(ist) history, the centuries of Ottoman presence in the Balkans and Anatolia appear as a rather recent phenomenon or, in the eyes of some Greeks, an anomaly.
