ABSTRACT
A century after the city’s incorporation into the Greek state, Thessaloniki’s history and identity remain subject to regular renegotiation to serve contemporary political ends. Competing historiographic accounts are inseparable from hotly contested views of national identity. The official commemorative volume produced for the half-centennial, for example, made no mention of the Jewish community and avoided the WWI national schism. After the 1917 fire, Thessaloniki emerged as a prominent symbol of the cleavage between the Byzantine tradition, to which the Asia Minor refugees belonged, and Neoclassical modernization—a cleavage that has haunted both Thessaloniki and the country as a whole since its founding. If we accept this deeper and dramatic symbolism, then the history of the city is an allegory of the two conflicting natures of Greek national identity. Though the 2012 conference is a step forward, suspense regarding the future still haunts a past that is regularly called upon to offer solutions for the present. The debate will be endless.
