The Hellenic Republic and The Czech Republic: Closer than expected? An In-Depth Analysis of Bilateral Relations Based upon the Czech Sources Ioannis Koreček / Ιωάννης Κορετσεκ ΜΕΤΑΠΤΥΧΙΑΚΗ ΕΡΓΑΣΙΑ M. A. Thesis Επιβλέπων Καθηγητής Νικόλαος Μαραντζίδης Supervisor: Nikos Marantzidis Τμήμα Βαλκανικών, Σλαβικών & Ανατολικών Σπουδών Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας – Θεσσαλονίκη Department of Balkan, Slavic & Oriental Studies University of Macedonia – Thessaloniki Οκτώβριος/October 2013 © 2013, Ioannis Koreček/Ιωάννης Κορετσεκ Η έγκριση της μεταπτυχιακής εργασίας από το Τμήμα Σλαβικών & Ανατολικών Σπουδών του Πανεπιστήμιου Μακεδονίας δεν υποδηλώνει απαραιτήτως και αποδοχή των απόψεων του συγγραφέα εκ μέρους του Τμήματος (Ν. 5343/32 αρ. 202 παρ.2). ii Abstract The submitted paper deals with the in-depth analysis of bilateral relations between the Hellenic Republic and the Czech Republic. The research is based mainly upon the Czech sources, which are fairly unknown in the Hellenic environment, so the comparison may work as a reflection for other researches. The Thesis examines mutual historical, cultural, political and economic analogies, similarities and differences in order to show wide complexity of mutual connections and relative closeness between the two countries. On the background of aforementioned analysis bilateral political relations and mutual economic linkage are examined. Περίληψη Αυτή η μεταπτυχιακή εργασία είναι μία ανάλυση, που ασχολείται με διμερείς σχέσεις ανάμεσα Ελληνική Δημοκρατία και Δημοκρατία της Τσεχίας. Αυτή η έρευνα βασίζεται κυρίως στις τσεχικές πηγές, οι οποίες μπορεί να είναι άγνωστη στο Ελληνικό περιβάλλον. Η εργασία πραγματεύεται την αμοιβαία ιστορικές, πολιτιστικές, πολιτικές και οικονομικές αναλογίες, ομοιότητες και διαφορές για να δείξει τις μεγάλες πολυπλοκότητες των αμοιβαίων συνδέσεων μαζί με σχετική εγγύτητα μεταξύ των δύο χωρών. Μετά αυτή η ανάλυση εξετάζονται αμοιβαία πολιτικές και οικονομικές σχέσεις. Keywords: Historical analysis, Bilateral relations, Political Relations, Economic relations, Greece, the Hellenic Republic, the Kingdom of Greece, the Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak Republic, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Signs: 190 564 Words: 28 405 iii CONTENT / ΠΕΡΙΕΧΟΜΕΝΑ INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 THE ENCHANTED SYMBOLIC OF 2004 ........................................................................ 5 CZECH AND GREEK ANALOGIES ................................................................................ 7 BASIC POLITICAL AND HISTORICAL PROXIMITIES ............................................................................................. 7 SIMILAR POSITION IN VERSAILLES-WASHINGTON SYSTEM ............................................................................ 8 DISTRUST TO POWERS ........................................................................................................................ 10 DIFFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................... 13 CULTURE AND POWER ......................................................................................................................... 13 RELIGION .......................................................................................................................................... 14 A NATION OF INSURGENCY .................................................................................................................. 16 INDUSTRIALIZATION ............................................................................................................................ 18 THE MIRROR EXPERIENCE .................................................................................................................... 22 REMARKABLE MUTUAL CONTACTS BETWEEN CZECHS AND GREEKS ................................... 25 MUTUAL CONTACTS FROM DURING THE MIDDLE AND MODERN AGE .............................................................. 25 MUTUAL CONTACTS FROM THE 20TH CENTURY UNTIL THE FALL OF IRON CURTAIN 1989 .................................... 27 MUTUAL CONTACTS FROM 1989 UNTIL TODAY ........................................................................................... 31 MUTUAL CULTURAL INTERCHANGE ............................................................................................................ 33 CZECH–HELLENIC BILATERAL RELATIONS .................................................................. 36 BILATERAL RELATIONS FROM ESTABLISHMENT OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA UNTIL WWII ............................................. 36 BILATERAL RELATIONS DURING THE COLD WAR ERA ...................................................................................... 38 BILATERAL RELATIONS AFTER THE FALL OF IRON CURTAIN .............................................................................. 44 THE NEW ERA OF BILATERAL RELATIONS AFTER THE CZECH ACCESSION TO NATO AND EU ................................. 46 UTILITIES OF CZECH-GREEK MISSIONS ....................................................................................................... 50 ECONOMIC RELATIONS ........................................................................................ 53 TOURISM .............................................................................................................................................. 60 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 64 SOURCES .......................................................................................................... 67 PRIMARY SOURCES AND DATABASES: ........................................................................................................ 67 SECONDARY BIBLIOGRAPHIC SOURCES: ...................................................................................................... 72 JOURNALS AND OTHER TYPES OF EXPERT EXAMINATION ............................................................................... 73 MEDIA ................................................................................................................................................. 75 iv APPENDIXES ...................................................................................................... 77 TAB. 1 – MUTUAL TRADE BETWEEN THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC IN MILLION € ................ 77 TAB. 2 – CZECH OUT COMING TOURISM TO GREECE .................................................................................... 77 TAB. 3 – HELLENIC OUT COMING TOURISM TO THE CZECH REPUBLIC .............................................................. 78 GRAPH 1 – RATIO OF EXPORT/IMPORT BETWEEN THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC .................. 78 GRAPH 2 – RECORDED HELLENIC BALANCE SHEET OF MUTUAL TRADE WITH CZECH REPUBLIC IN MILLIONS € ......... 79 GRAPH 3 – OVERALL TURNOVER BETWEEN GREECE AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC IN MILLIONS € ............................. 79 LIST OF HEADS OF HELLENIC DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA AND THE CZECH REPUBLIC .................... 80 LIST OF HEADS OF THE CZECH (SINCE 1993) AND CZECHOSLOVAK DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS IN GREECE ................... 81 v Introduction Greece and the Czech Republic are two European countries, which share historical events of the same time and space. They are official allies united under the EU and NATO. They have the common obligations, they must defend each other and they also have to follow common European law. Both of them take part in the process of Europeanization and they went through its main issues. Within the Europe Greece and the Czech Republic seem to be quite remote: the distance, the language, the ethnicity, regions are different. If we look closer, we may notify that there are quite surprising sameness between the two countries. This M.A. thesis will try to prove that both of them have much more in common than considerate. It will also try to demonstrate that consequences, which were sometimes literally opposite for one and the other country, are having common background. So in fact, both societies may sometimes look each other quite without understanding and not realizing at the moment that their opinions had arisen from completely the same paradigm. After the Great War 1914–1918 European countries started to leave system of bilateralism, which had been bounding the countries by series of treaties. In the more and more globalizing world it appeared to be clumsy solution, which could not have prevented disasters of wars. Within the 20th century world definitely adopted preference of multilateral relations that for instance created EU. If there is a demand to explore what are relations between two countries, it must be taken into consideration all broad effects, which have flown into current settings. If we want to fully understand the real range of their bilateral relations, we simply cannot ignore their mutual multilateral settings, under which both are succumbed. Due to the effects of globalization and Europeanization as a result of overwhelming multilateralism, we have to understand that volumes on bilateral level are relative.1 Having the issue projected into this paper, we cannot expect that Czech Republic stays in the top interest of Hellenic Republic and the same works opposite. We have to calculate that 1 Thompson Alexander and Verdier Daniel, Multilateralism, Bilateralism and Regime Design. Unpublished manuscript, Department of Political Science, Ohio