Browsing by Author "Grigoriadis, Ioannis N."

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Open Access
Between citizenship and the millet: the Greek minority in republican Turkey
(Routledge, 2021-04-01) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.
As one of Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities, Turkey’s Greeks have faced substantial pressures since the founding of republican Turkey. As its members could not claim their constitutional rights as citizens of Turkey, emigration soared and the minority reached a point of near extinction. Significant improvements were noted when the EU-supported reform transformed the Turkish state and society from 1999 to 2010, which were not reversed as Turkey relapsed to democratic backsliding in the following years. This article explores the social dynamics and ideological frameworks that have contributed to novel perceptions of the Greek minority since after 2002, the year the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi-AKP) came to power and have deterred a significant deterioration since Turkey’s democratic backsliding began. It also examines the state of Turkey’s Greeks by focusing on the state of the pious foundations, the Papa Eftim affair and the situation in the islands of Gökçeada (Imbros) and Bozcaada (Tenedos).
Open Access
Between escalation and détente: Greek-Turkish relations in the aftermath of the Eastern Mediterranean crisis
(Routledge, 2022-06-23) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.
This paper aims to evaluate the state of Greek-Turkish relations in light of recent developments in the reconfiguration of Turkish foreign policy. Following twenty years of détente and relative calm in bilateral relations, the year 2020 witnessed two escalations in Greek-Turkish relations, one in March involving refugees and immigrants on the Greek-Turkish land border and another in August involving military vessels of the two countries. The refugee crisis and potential military conflict regarding energy exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean have raised tensions at a moment the political and institutional tools for the promotion of conflict resolution between Greece and Turkey linked to Turkey’s EU membership perspective appear to be obsolete. This paper seeks an answer to the question of whether structural or ideational factors played the most prominent role in the recent escalation of the Greek-Turkish disputes.
Open Access
Between ethnic group and nation: Mihail Çakir's history of the Gagauz
(Sage Publications, 2021-08) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Shahin, Evgeniia
Following the 1918 annexation of Bessarabia to Romania, the Gagauz minority remained disconnected from centers of knowledge because of linguistic and institu tional barriers. In this context, Mihail Çakir, an Orthodox priest of Gagauz origin, manifested a rare capacity of introducing the Gagauz people to Romanian- and Gagauz-speaking audiences through his multilingual work on the history and the cul ture of the Gagauz. This article embarks from Anthony Smith’s work on ethnicity and nation-building and Benedict Anderson’s work on imagined communities to explore Çakir’s two main works and their contribution to the crystallization of Gagauz ethnic identity and its eventual transformation to a national one.
Open Access
Between ritual and restoration: Remembering and reclaiming Ionia's religious architectural heritage
(The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022) Amygdalou, Kalliopi; Asrav, Emine Çiğdem; Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.
Following the Balkan Wars, the First World War, the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War, and the 1923 mutual and compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey, millions left their towns and villages behind and their homes, schools, and religious buildings were re-used by incoming refugees from the other side or were left in ruins. In the last two decades, a number of old church buildings across Anatolia have been reused, on the initiative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as sites of sporadic or periodic religious services. During the same period, many of these buildings have been restored as cultural centers. A range of stakeholders were involved in these two processes, including the local authorities, religious bodies, and professional experts, all pursuing their own priorities and interpretations. How do rituals—in the form of religious services—and restoration activities become entangled in competing relationships with buildings and with the past? The situation in the Izmir region offers insights into the complex involvement of space, matter, form, and ritual in the making of meaning and heritage, and can inform discussions about the legacy of the Population Exchange and heritage preservation in regions overridden by antagonistic nationalisms and uncontrolled development.
Open Access
Developing archaeology and museology in the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, and Greece: Théodore Macridy, an Ottoman Greek ‘Liminal Scientist’
(Cambridge University Press, 2022-10-26) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.
This article concerns the development of archaeology and museology, in the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, and Greece, through the life and career of Théodore Macridy. Macridy participated in knowledge transfer in more than one discipline and more than one country. Through his links with Western academic circles in archaeology and museology, he made a significant contribution to their development in the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, and Greece. Living between the Ottoman and Greek epistemic communities as an Ottoman citizen of Greek origin, he excavated numerous sites of the Ottoman Empire, worked at the Ottoman Imperial Museum, and contributed to the foundation of the Benaki Museum in Athens at the end of his career. This makes him a good example of an Ottoman Greek scholar whose liminal identity led to his relative neglect in both Greek and Turkish archaeology and museology.
Open Access
Distrusted partnership: Unpacking Anti-Americanism in Turkey
(Wiley, 2023-03) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Aras, Ümit Erol
The decline of US-Turkey relations has been one ofthe most striking developments within NATO and thebroader Western alliance. This article sheds light onthis distrusted partnership by studying anti-Americansentiment in Turkish public opinion since the Arabuprisings of the 2010s. Employing a typology of anti-Americanisms introduced by Keohane and Katzenstein,it examines views of the United States and US-Turkeyrelations in the Turkish media and among the public,and it explores the conditions under which the decliningrelations could be reset. In particular, it shows how theruling Justice and Development Party exploits anti-USopinion, the Turkish media’s role, the stances of Turk-ish opposition groups, and the long-term consequencesfor the strained bilateral relationship.
Open Access
The Ecumenical Patriarchate as a global actor: Between the end of the Cold War and the Ukrainian ecclesiastical crisis
(Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, 2022-06-14) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.
Following the demise of the Ottoman Empire and the advent of republican Turkey, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has struggled to maintain its existence and its ecumenical role, despite the obstacles that the Republic of Turkey has set before it. Yet, challenges have abounded within the Orthodox world as well. The Patriarchate has viewed Russian involvement in Orthodox ecclesiastical affairs with suspicion, if not outright opposition. This is like its former stance regarding Russian involvement in Orthodox religious affairs in the Balkans and the Middle East throughout the nineteenth century. This competition has been rekindled since the end of the Cold War, as the Patriarchate has grown in importance as a global actor. The Ukrainian ecclesiastical crisis, which brought the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Moscow Patriarchate to loggerheads, provides an additional opportunity to measure the extent of Russian influence on the Orthodox Church. This article explores the history of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the republican Turkish era and the challenges it has faced. It also examines the dynamics that have developed since the end of the Cold War in its relations with Russia and Turkey through its confrontation with the Moscow Patriarchate particularly in light of the Ukrainian ecclesiastical crisis. This study aspires to shed light on the extent of Russian influence on Orthodox ecclesiastical affairs and explore the role of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the global era.
Open Access
Elite universities as populist scapegoats: Evidence from Hungary and Turkey
(Sage Publications, Inc., 2023-10-20) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Canpolat, Ece Işık
This article explores the reasons for the recent populist assault against elite academic institutions in Hungary and Turkey. After exploring the literature on populism, social mobility, and social pluralism, it then focuses on the modalities of the attack against two elite academic institutions, established upon the U.S. liberal arts college tradition, the Central European University (CEU) and Boğaziçi University, respectively, and its implications for Hungarian and Turkish politics. Two arguments are put forward: First, such attacks have emerged in the context of a populist narrative against institutions facilitating social mobility. Social mobility undermines the “us versus them” populist narrative where the masses are permanently placed on the “losers” side and therefore depend on the charismatic populist leader. With social mobility facilitated through high-quality academic institutions, these “losers” have the chance to improve their material and non-material well-being through education. Second, these institutions promote social pluralism and critical thinking, cultivating a mode of reflection that contradicts the simplistic populist dichotomies and opposes democratic backsliding.
Open Access
Energy discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean: conflict or cooperation?
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2014) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.
The discovery of oil and naturalgas reserves in the Middle East at the beginning of the twentieth century changed the fate of the region. From a backwater of international politics, the Middle East became central to international strategic rivalries. Almost a century later, energy discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean are unlikely to bring about such tectonic shifts in the strategic fortunes of the Levant. Yet they have generated a fresh interest in their potential impact on existing regional disputes and power constellations. The recent discovery of sizable quantities of natural gas in the seabed between Israel and Cyprus has added to the complexity of international politics in the region. Cyprus and Israel are expected to be the first two states to benefit, as they have already signed large contracts for exploration and drilling projects that would soon turn them into net energy exporters. The possibility of discovering further energy reserves has revived the question of delineating the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of all littoral states in the Eastern Mediterranean and added one potential regional dispute. Turkey’s role has been important, not only because it is one of the region’s littoral states and a large energy importer, but also because it could serve as a transport hub for the delivery of extracted hydrocarbons to the world market. Nevertheless, the Cyprus question, disputes over the delineation of the EEZ and Turkey’s frozen relations with Israel have deterred regional cooperation, despite the positive effect that it could have, not least for European energy security.
Open Access
The European Union in the Eastern Mediterranean in 2020: Whither strategic autonomy
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2021-09-13) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.
The Eastern Mediterranean has emerged as one of the new high-priority regions for EU foreign and security policy and an acid test for the EU's strategic autonomy. The monetization of the sizeable hydrocarbon reserves discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean about a decade ago hit the obstacles of the Cyprus problem, the crisis in Turkey's relations with Egypt and Israel, the Syrian and the Libyan civil wars. The signing of the Libyan-Turkish memorandum in November 2019 triggered further destabilization through the proliferation of Greek-Turkish disputes over the delimitation of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) from the Aegean to the Eastern Mediterranean. The recent escalation of Greek-Turkish maritime disputes and the Cyprus problem occurred at a time the debate on Europe's ‘strategic autonomy’ was burgeoning. Investing in European strategic autonomy was considered indispensable for successfully promoting European interests and values in the European neighbourhood and beyond. Yet, despite repeated political pledges on a more robust and coherent EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the establishment of institutions aiming to promote and serve common EU security and diplomatic interests, the European Union has been accused of lacking resolve and leadership in a crisis involving sovereign rights of two of its member states. The European Union was accused of either siding with the interests of individual member states or failing to take a clear stance on issues of primary significance. Some viewed that the European Union could not have a meaningful contribution to conflict resolution in the Eastern Mediterranean, as it was not a ‘neutral broker’: it had to side with its member states and defend their interests. Others argued that the European Union was unable to communicate a clear and coherent message to actors undermining key norms of the liberal international order such as respect for international law and the use of peaceful means for conflict resolution. This article is based on primary and secondary sources identifying the concept of ‘strategic autonomy’ and exploring how EU foreign policymaking has been tested in one of the most significant recent regional crises, affecting key EU security and diplomatic interests and whether the goal of EU strategic autonomy, as raised in several public statements and policy documents of the European Union has come any closer.
Open Access
For the people, against the elites: left versus right-wing populism in Greece and Turkey
(Taylor and Francis, 2020) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.
While the rise of populism has been a global trend in recent years, it has been prevalent in Greece and Turkey for longer, leaving a strong imprint on the politics of both countries. Left-wing populism has become one of the constitutive elements of the Greek political party system since the collapse of the 1967–1974 military regime. The 2009 outbreak of the Greek economic crisis set the stage for the radicalization of Greek politics through the rise of extremist far-right and far-left populist parties that professed populist agendas of different hues. Such populists accused old-party personnel of being members of a “treacherous elite” that sacrificed Greek national interests against foreign powers. The 2011 “indignados” movement is key for the better understanding of the social dynamics that facilitated the rise of the unusual SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government. Debates on Greek constitutional reform also highlighted the relevance of populism, especially as the SYRIZA-ANEL government sought topics to resonate with its disenchanted voters. On the other hand, a right-wing populist rhetoric has been one of the key instruments for the rise of Turkish political Islam and the establishment of the AKP hegemony in Turkey. Establishing a Kulturkampf-based narrative about the “secularist, ‘white-Turk’ elites” versus the “conservative, ‘black-Turk’ people” was of great political significance. The constitutional reform process proved again crucial for manifesting the relevance of populism in Turkish political discourse. This article explores the circumstances under which left- and right-wing populism have emerged into a dominant feature of Greek and Turkish politics. It also discusses the decreasing relevance of the established left-right political divide in party politics and suggests alternative classifications.
Open Access
From silicon valley to the levant: Innovation in the eastern mediterranean
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc., 2023-08-21) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Dervişler, Olgu
Market economies in the eastern Mediterranean are notcounted among ideal-typical innovators. But this pic-turemaybechanging.Thisarticleexplorestheemerginginnovation systems in the eastern Mediterranean byexamining recent data and the literatures on varieties ofcapitalism and innovation systems. Through the casesof Cyprus, Israel, and Turkey, the study argues thatthe varieties of capitalism framework, by focusing onperformance at the macro level, disregards the subna-tional performance of these outlier markets, which havepromising regional or local innovation systems. Fos-tering cooperation among these emerging innovationsystems could become a valuable instrument for over-coming deeply rooted conflicts in the eastern Mediter-ranean, which has turned into a “crisis zone” due torecent energy discoveries.
Open Access
Hype, disillusionment and capacity problems: Turkish Cypriot media and the European Union
(Routledge, 2019) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Felek, C.
Open Access
Imagining Turan: homeland and its political implications in the literary work of Hüseyinzade Ali [Turan] and Mehmet Ziya [Gökalp]
(Routledge, 2020) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Opçin-Kıdal, Arzu
While scholarly interest in the influence of Tatar intellectuals on Turkish nationalism has been strong, less attention has been paid to the interactions between Russian Azerbaijani and Ottoman Turkish intellectuals. This study applies theoretical tools developed by Benedict Anderson in the study of ethnic nationalism in the late Ottoman and Russian Empires. In doing so, this study focuses on the works of one leading intellectual from each side, Hüseyinzade Ali [Turan] and Mehmet Ziya [Gökalp]. Particular attention is paid to the concept of Turan, which they defined and elaborated as both a political ideal and a key element of the nationalist ideology they espoused through four poems they authored, two of which have homonymous titles. Their different views of the limits of the Turanian ‘imagined community’ and the political operationalization of the concept shed light on the development of ethnic nationalism in the declining Ottoman and Russian Empires. Ever since, Turan has become a significant symbolic conceptual tool that has fired the imaginations of Turkic nationalists (without, yet, having led to the establishment of a serious political movement).
Open Access
Minorities
(Routledge, 2012) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Heper, Metin; Sayarı, S.
The Ottoman Empire was not a “multicultural heaven,” as Turkish nationalist nostalgia often portrays it. According to the Sharia law, non-Muslims were second-class subjects, and this did not change until the Tanzimat years. The very existence of the millet system as an organizational principle and founding block of the Ottoman Empire has sparked considerable controversy among historians.2 On the other hand, without being tolerant in the contemporary meaning, the Ottoman Empire was more tolerant toward religious minorities than Christian empires and states contemporary with it. It is worth remembering that refugee waves were crossing the Mediterranean in both directions. While a part of the Byzantine Greek elite ﬂed to Western Europe following the collapse of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, thousands of Sephardic Jews of the Iberian peninsula found safe haven in the Ottoman Empire, following their expulsion in the late ﬁfteenth century. Certain segments of Ottoman administration and trade were open to non-Muslims. For generations, Phanariot (prominent Istanbul) Greeks manned key positions in the Danubian provinces and the foreign service of the Ottoman Empire. Greeks, Armenians, and Jews controlled large parts of Ottoman trade. The advent of the Enlightenment would transform the empire forever. Nationalism and republicanism spread ﬁrst among non-Muslims, who enjoyed a closer link with Western and Central European ideological trends due to their commercial relations and large diaspora communities. While early revolutionaries like Rigas Velestinlis envisioned the replacement of Ottoman despotism with a republican “commonwealth” inclusive of all ethnic and religious communities, their project was soon scaled down to liberation from Ottoman despotic rule and the carving out of republican nation-states (Grigoriadis, 2011: 168-69). The outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 1821 and the recognition of the independence of a Greek nation-state in the southern Balkans and the Aegean in 1830 were big shocks and milestone events. Nationalism shook the foundations of the ailing empire. Although it had been losing territory to the Russian and Habsburg Empires for more than a century, this was the ﬁrst time one of its subject populations succeeded in gaining its independence. This led to the intensiﬁcation of Westernization reform eﬀorts. The comprehensive Westernization reform program, which took the name Tanzimat, aimed to strengthen the ailing empire, as well as win the loyalty of non-Muslims, who would for the ﬁrst time be treated as equal subjects. The 1839 Imperial Rescript of the Rose Garden (Hatt-ı S¸erif-i Gülhane) and the 1856 Imperial Rescript (Hatt-ı Hümayun) were path-breaking documents. In the Hatt-ı S¸erif-i Gülhane, the Sharia-based discrimination of non-Muslims was abolished, and equality for all Ottoman subjects regardless of religious and ethnic aﬃliation was proclaimed. In the Hatt-ı Hümayun, protection of fundamental human rights and civil liberties and their extension to non-Muslims were speciﬁed. The administrative authority of non-Muslim religious institutions was reinforced, and all Ottoman bureaucratic positions became accessible to non-Muslims-at least on paper3-while preferential links between non-Muslim and Western European entrepreneurs allowed for the ﬂourishing of a powerful non-Muslim bourgeoisie (Issawi, 1982). Meanwhile, as Enlightenment ideas were rapidly spreading within Ottoman Muslim elites, three alternative state ideologies were adopted at diﬀerent times. Ottomanism, which gained appeal between 1839 and 1876, promoted a civic version of Ottoman identity, devoid of any religious and ethnic underpinnings. Pan-Islamism, which grew in popularity in the era of Sultan Abdülhamid II, aimed to unite all Muslims under the rule of the Ottoman sultan, who had meanwhile reclaimed his title as caliph.4 Pan-Turkism aimed to unite all Turkic populations dispersed in the Balkans, the Middle East and Central Asia, and gained impetus in the very last years of the Ottoman Empire, following the outbreak of the Balkan Wars in 1912. While Ottomanism appeared to be the choice of liberal reformers such as Midhat Pas¸a, the growing appeal of irredentist nationalism among non-Muslims and consecutive military defeats contributed to the derailment of the reform process and the rise of Hamidian autocracy. When pan-Islamism was turned into the oﬃcial ideology of the Ottoman Empire, interethnic tensions began to rise. The 1894-96 Armenian massacres were the harbinger of a violent “unmixing” of Muslim and non-Muslim populations. While the 1908 Young Turk Revolution raised brief hopes for a restoration of Ottomanism and peaceful coexistence of diﬀerent religious and ethnic groups on the basis of equal rights,5 the outbreak of the Balkan Wars and World War I led to the growing appeal of pan-Turkism. Non-Muslims were collectively seen as the “enemy within,” willing collaborators to the partition of the Ottoman Empire and obstacles to the establishment of a Turkish nation-state. The tragic events between 1911 and 1923 that sealed the end of the Ottoman Empire dramatically changed the ethno-religious map of Anatolia. While hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees were killed or ﬂed from lost Ottoman territories in the Balkans, hundreds of thousands of Greeks and Armenians were either killed or forced to ﬂee Anatolia as a result of military operations and atrocities. The 1915 Armenian massacres and the 1923 Greek-Turkish population exchange agreement were milestone events in that process. While non-Muslims represented more than 20 percent of the overall population of Anatolia in the early twentieth century, their numbers had fallen to approximately 2.5 percent as of 1923 (Aktar, 2003: 87). Nonetheless, their sharp demographic decrease failed to appease fears about the loyalty to Republican Turkey of those who remained. While Republican Turkey attempted to extricate itself from its Young Turk legacy, in eﬀect it followed the Young Turk paradigm when it came to non-Muslims. Non-Muslims were not deemed ﬁt to become full-ﬂedged citizens of Republican Turkey. They were seen as “foreign citizens,” “local foreigners,”6 or “ﬁfth columnists,” ready to collaborate with foreign powers to partition Turkey. Hence state policies aimed to socially and economically marginalize non-Muslims and eventually force them into emigration.7 The establishment of a Muslim Turkish bourgeoisie was considered as critical for the success of Turkish state building.
Open Access
Minority debates on the future of the Ottoman Empire: Greek and Armenian nationalist thought
(Verlag, 2018) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Gutmeyr, D.; Kaser, K.
Nationalist revolutions claimed the secession of parts of the Ottoman territory and the establishment of sovereign nation-states. Greeks and Armenians were two among the biggest minority groups which straddled over a part of the Ottoman territory. They were both influenced by the presence of strong Diaspora communities in Western, Central and Eastern Europe (including Russia) that proved critical in the dissemination of nationalist ideas. Nevertheless, there is a striking difference in the way the two nationalist movements unfold. This paper aims to discuss the reasons why Greek and Armenian nationalism developed along different lines.
Open Access
The Nabucco Project: implications for the EU strategic energy review
(Notre Europe, 2010) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Fabry, E.; Ricard-Nihoul, G.
Energy is a key issue of this year’s European political agenda. Article 194 (1) of the Lisbon Treaty states that the Union energy policy will aim – amongst others things – to “ensure the functioning of the energy market,” “ensure security of energy supply in the Union” and “promote the interconnection of energy networks”. Article 194 (2) declares that the European Parliament and the Council will “establish the measures necessary to achieve the objectives in paragraph 1”. The development of a Southern Gas Corridor has also been declared in the 2nd EU Strategic Energy Review to be essential to EU energy needs. Energy projects in South- Eastern Europe, the Caspian and the Middle East, which used to be hampered by regional conflicts, are now facing the additional challenge of the global economic crisis. The signature of the Intergovernmental Accord for the Nabucco project was a positive step and a success of the last European Trio Presidency, yet much remains to be done. A strong European energy strategy would not only limit the scope for individual member state energy strategies and provide a clear example of European solidarity towards smaller member states and the rest of the world; it would also increase the probability that crucial projects such as the Nabucco are realised. Such a success would increase EU legitimacy in foreign policy-making, which is all the more useful as the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty come into force.
Open Access
On the Europeanization of minority rights protection
(Taylor & Francis, 2015) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Güney, Aylin; Tekin, Ali
This chapter discusses the rational-choice and sociological institutionalism to shed light on the impact of Europeanization on minority rights in Turkey. It aims to explain the significant bifurcations that emerged in the field of minority rights as far as progress achieved since the slowdown of Turkey's European Union (EU) accession negotiations. The study of minority rights reform helps to suggest two points: the relevance of rational-choice institutionalism appears strong, as major legislative initiatives are normally linked with critical junctures in EU-Turkey relations and the establishment of conducive opportunity structures in Turkish politics; and reform can be also explained in terms of the prevalence of ideational frameworks that may or may not be linked with the European Union and Turkey's EU membership process. The case of minority protection provides an opportunity to think about the applicability of different theoretical tools in Turkey's Europeanization experience.
Open Access
The political economy of Kulturkampf: evidence from imperial Prussia and republican Turkey
(Springer New York LLC, 2018) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Grigoriadis, T. N.
This paper analyzes the political incentives of Kulturkampf and the implementation of secularization in imperial Prussia and republican Turkey. A game-theoretic model defining Kulturkampf as a static game between priests and the executive is proposed. The willingness of priests to accept the government’s offer and be transformed into bureaucratic experts varies. Individualist priests are easier to recruit as they care more about their personal welfare than social distribution by the church, whereas the reverse holds for collectivist priests. Nevertheless, the long-run success of the Kulturkampf depends on the effective recruitment of collectivist priests and their entry into formal politics in favor of the executive.
Open Access
Securitizing migration in the European Union: Greece and the Evros fence
(Routledge, 2019) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.; Dilek, Esra
This article focuses on the securitization of migration in Greece through the case of the Evros anti-immigrant fence. The fence was constructed in 2012 with the aim to limit the flow of irregular migration from Turkey to Greece. This paper explores the reasons why the Greek government decided to build the fence and its political implications by focusing on the securitization of migration in Greece both through practices and through securitizing rhetoric. The paper argues that the construction of the Evros fence is closely associated with changing perceptions of threat and the framing of migrants as risky and threatening both at the national and the EU levels.