ABSTRACT
Greek history is broken by several events that framed people's identity anew. Western political thought and philosophy, but also history, the arts, and the natural sciences, are connected with the names of famous Greek thinkers like Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Polybius, Herodotus, Thales, Pythagoras, and Archimedes, among many others. In Western Europe, the legacy and heritage of ancient Greek civilization was invented again and again, and this explains the difference between what is considered to be "Greece" in the East and West. The revival of Greek identity was closely allied with nationalizing belonging that had been occurring in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries all across Europe. In 1981, Greece became the tenth member of the European Union (EU). The Pomaks living in Western Thrace are an example of a Slavic and Muslim minority speaking a different language than Greek or Turkish, also a South Slavic dialect.
