ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the first ethnographic experience for the research, beyond its humorous, even surreal contrasts, paradigmatically reveals a number of significant continuities and discontinuities marking the discourse of 'Greek-Turkish friendship'. Through the use of interviews and ethnographic experience from author's participant observations in Turkish-Greek festivals and other initiatives, as well as archival research, author explore the transformations of the discourse of Greek-Turkish friendship through a genealogical enquiry from 1999 until 2013. On 17 August 1999, a disastrous earthquake hit the area of Izmit in Turkey, leaving thousands dead, injured or homeless. The immediate decision of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs to send the rescue team EMAK to the disaster areas acquired an unprecedented degree of coverage in the Turkish media, accompanied by bold front page headlines thanking their 'neighbour' for the help offered. The period after the earthquakes in Turkey saw an explosion of calls for 'civil society' action and empowerment.
