Greek-Cabinet-2015-Hallmun.Pdf
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Letter from the Chair Esteemed Delegates, Welcome to HallMUN! I am Kaitlyn Akroush, you chair for this committee. I am currently a second year student at Seton Hall University, double majoring in Diplomacy/International Relations and Philosophy. I have been a part of the Seton Hall United Nations Association since my freshman year and have truly enjoyed every bit of it. I have traveled and attended multiple conferences, participating in both GA and Crisis Committees. This crisis committee in particular will deal with the Greek economic crisis of 2015, caused by both the 2007 global financial crisis as well as Greece’s own financial limitations and EU-imposed austerity measures. Background information is crucial to this committee, as delegates will need to examine both the causes and effects of this fragile economy. As a committee, it is up to you to find resourceful and practical solutions to the imminent crisis Greece faces. Will you steer the country on a new path to economic independence and prosperity, or will you continue to rely on external resources indefinitely? The staff of the “Less Money, More Problems, the Cabinet of Alexis Tspiras, 2015” have invested time to construct the topics of discussion and we are eager to see how you plan to solve the many problems presented. We wish you the best of luck with your research and preparation. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to email. Καλή τύχη! Good luck! Best, Kaitlyn Akroush Chair, “Less Money, More Problems, the Cabinet of Alexis Tspiras, 2015” [email protected] Letter from the Crisis Director Hello Delegates! Welcome to the first ever HallMun! My name is Devin Smith, and I’m very excited to be your crisis director for Alexis Tsipras’ cabinet. I’m originally from a small town called New Egypt, not far from the Jersey Shore, and I’m a senior here at Seton Hall University majoring in Diplomacy with a minor in Middle Eastern Studies. I’ve been doing Model UN since I was in 8th grade all the way back in 2012, and I’m coming out of Model UN retirement to host one last conference. I am extremely excited to spend it working with a committee that I’m sure will be fun, fast-paced, and maybe a little crazy. A combination of playing endless hours of games like Sid Meier’s Civilization, Crusader Kings, and Europa Universalis along with snapping up all of the Percy Jackson books as they came out left me with a deep fascination of Greek history and politics. Even as a high schooler I would closely follow international news, watching closely as Tsipras ascended to Prime Minister with a radical new agenda. Greece, and unfortunately much of the rest of the world, continues to face the same problems Tsipras and his cabinet faced back in 2015: crushing austerity, middling economic growth, a refugee crisis, high unemployment, and of course rampant tax evasion. As crisis director, I’m very excited to see how this committee decides to face Greece’s many maladies. 2020 has been a strange, terrible year, but I am very much looking forward to taking part in hosting one of the first ever fully online Model UN conferences. I look forward to seeing everyone over Zoom (or Microsoft Teams?), but until then please feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions. Τυχαίες ελληνικές λέξεις, Devin Smith A Nation in Crisis: Greece Greece, officially known as the Hellenic Republic, is a country known for having a deep, complex cultural history as well as infamous for its long-standing financial problems. Ever since the nascent Greek state achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830, it seems as if the country has faced crisis after crisis. Unfortunately, at the commencement of this committee in 2015, Greece is facing several massive crises at once. The Greek people are no strangers to adversity, however, and while the problems faced by this committee may be daunting Greece is also well-armed with hope and opportunity. Will you, as members of the newly-in power SYRIZA coalition, be able to turn this opportunity into palpable change? A Brief History Ancient Greece Greece was home to some of the first advanced civilizations in Europe, beginning with the Minoan Civilization in Crete around 2700 BCE. During the Archaic Period (750-550 BCE), Greek colonists spread throughout the Mediterranean, settling along the coast of Asia Minor, Southern Italy, and even as far as the South of France and Spain. Following the repulsion of Persian invaders by Greek city states led by Athens and Sparta, the disparate city states of Greece were all conquered by Alexander the Great, and Greece remained under Macedonian rule until Greece became a Roman protectorate in 146 BCE. Early Greek-speaking Christians in the Eastern Mediterranean were essential in spreading Christianity through the Roman Empire.1 Byzantine Period th Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5 century CE, the Eastern Roman Empire, based in Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), thrived in the Eastern Mediterranean until it fell to the Ottomans in 1453. The Byzantine Empire, though a direct continuation of the Roman Empire, was distinct for following Orthodox Christianity and mostly speaking Greek, with Latin falling out of use. For most of Byzantine rule, Greece prospered. However, after the fall of Constantinople to the Latins in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, the Byzantine Empire was dealt a blow that it could not recover from. Although Constantinople was reconquered by the Byzantines in 1261, it was th considerably weakened. In the 13 century, much of the Greek peninsula was conquered first by Serbs and then by the Ottoman Turks. With the exception of several 1 https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Greece islands under Venetian rule, Greece and the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire were fully annexed by the Ottoman Empire by 1460.2 Ottoman Occupation Though some Greeks living in Constantinople and in the Venetian-controlled Ionian Islands lived in prosperity, the Ottoman period was a largely dark and difficult time for Greece. Greeks under Ottoman rule suffered from heavy taxation, religious discrimination, and an Ottoman policy of hereditary estates, effectively forcing the rural Greek population into serfdom. Greek revolts against Ottoman rule were common and were frequently put down violently with great bloodshed. While the idea of a reclaimed Constantinople and a restored Byzantine Empire faded after centuries of Ottoman control, the idea of an independent Greek state did not. The Greeks, having mastered seafaring and commerce due to their unique position in Ottoman society, established prosperous albeit disparate communities within the th Ottoman Empire and in Western Europe in the 18 century. The ideas of the Reformation and the Enlightenment along with the French Revolution led to the creation th 3 of a Greek nationalist movement in the late 18 century. War of Independence and the Hellenic Republic th In the late 18 century, a Greek secret society called Filiki Eteria was formed with the goal of establishing an independent Greek Orthodox state. Filiki Eteria planned simultaneous revolts in the Peloponnesian Peninsula, the Danubian Principalities (modern-day Romania and Moldova), and Constantinople, and launched a revolt th beginning in the Danubian Principalities on March 6 , 1821. Though the revolt in the Danubian Principalities was swiftly put down, the Peloponnesian Greeks declared war th on the Ottomans on March 17 and by the end of the month the entire peninsula was in open revolt. Despite initial successes and more revolts starting Crete, Macedonia, and Central Greece, the Ottomans and their Egyptian allies brutally suppressed these other revolts. Wholesale massacres took place, including the island of Chios seeing three quarters of its 120,000 strong Greek population killed. Two consecutive civil wars among different Greek factions weakened the revolt, and Sultan Muhammad Ali of Egypt’s son Ibrahim Pasha invaded and quickly subdued the Peloponnesian Peninsula. However, the Ottoman Empire’s shocking brutality against the Greek people galvanized Western European support in favor of the rebels. France, Britain, and Russia decisively 2 https://www.ancient.eu/Byzantine_Empire/ 3 https://www.britannica.com/place/Greece/Greece-under-Ottoman-rule intervened on behalf of the Greeks, and an independent Greek state was recognized under the London Protocol in 1830. The modern Greek state has long suffered financial woes and periods of instability. Greece’s first default on loans came during its independence struggle, and it has remained in default for roughly half its existence as an independent country. It defaulted again in 1843 and 1893 due to poor fiscal poverty. Even the notion of full Greek self-rule was not fully realized at first, due to interference by Western European powers. It was the Bavarian Prince Otto who was put on the throne and in charge of the country, rather than a native Greek, and Greece found its ports occupied by Britain and France when it attempted rapprochement with Russia in the 1850’s.4 Greek Genocide and 1923 Population Exchange with Turkey Though Greece had become independent in 1830, ethnic Greeks remained a sizable minority within Anatolia and Thrace. Unfortunately, the status of Greeks and other minorities within the Ottoman Empire worsened in the years leading up to the First World War. The Ottomans engaged in forced expulsion, massacres of villages, death marches, and forced conscription into labor battalions against its Greek population. Several hundred thousand Greeks were killed in this genocide, and by 1922 most Greeks residing in Asia Minor had either fled or been killed.5 Following Greece’s defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922, the two nations agreed to a wholesale population exchange.