Contenu du sommaire : La Grèce aujourd'hui

Three themes are dealt with in this issue. The first concerns the ideological foundation for the integration of the Greek nation into its present-day territorial limits. The second relates to the contry's territorial organisation, with its central axis and peripheral regions. The third deals with population. From being a source of emigrants, in the space of ten years, the country has become a destination for immigrants, representing a gateway to the European Union for people from the Balkans and Asia.

The notion of Hellenism has been widely used in literature and the human sciences as well as in the view of Greek politicians and the Greek media. In fact, it covers several distinct ideas which have varied over time. The notion also designates a nation without a territory, which has stood the test of time and which refers to several spatial and temporal identities. It also has a universial dimension, indicating a way of life, of thinking, of understanding nature and culture, a manner of believing, all supported by a language which has strawn exceptional continuity from antiquity to the present day. Such a polysemic richness does not exist for other peoples or languages. This article considers the reasons for the existence and destiny of such a notion, with its strong sense of identity and universal aim, and the links it has with the idea of territory, particularly with respect to the Greek nation-state and the diaspora.

Mountain areas are a safeguard for authentic values which link modern Greece with antiquity. They are a source of refuge for populations and civilisation. In theses areas resistance against the Turks was organised. Following indépendance central government considered mountainous regions as an obstacle to modernisation and to the exercise of its authority. After the First World War, these regions were studied by agronomists as birthplaces for social systems of production (nomadic populations or transhumance). Then historians sought to study the real functionning of mountainous societies (as opposed to a mythical view) through different periods of history. Today rural depopulation, changes to pastoral activities and tourism development give a new image to Greek mountains.

This article presents the autobiographical account of the changing events of a Greek family from the Epire region during the Second World War. These events are relived by a young boy who, in relation to fluctuations in the front line of the war zone, to the actions of the Italian and German occupying forces, the Albanian minority and the Greek resistance, is abruptly forced to change home on several occasions. This story illustrates the fragile nature of borders and the instability of populations in relation to political circumstances.

Important events for Greece such as its membership of the European Union and renewal of exchanges with its Balkan neighbours have affected the country's regional organisation. Until the beginning of the 1980s emigration and rural depopulation emptied the Greek countryside, accentuating disparities between a macrocephalic capital and a weakened periphery resulting from the lack of dynamism of the border zones. Since then growth of incomes and economic activity have helped reverse migrational flows and produce a more balanced pattern of spatial development favouring cities such as Salonika, coastal peri-urban zones, islands such as Crete or Dodecanese, or indeed more isolated or rural regions.

construction and the compensation system in the form of housing offered to the owners of building land, have enabled new residents to be absorbed rapidly within an increasingly large urban area. These new residents maintain much stronger links with their native villages than with their new urban environment. The holding of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens is an opportunity to improve the city's transport infranstructures of which the main elements are the new airport, metro and urban motorways.

Peri-urbanisation in Greece occurs in three major ways. First, around the two cities of Athens and Salonika with the outward spread of industry and the extension of residential zones. Second, by the progressive diffusion of activities around small and medium-sized towns. Finally, along coastal zones and in the islands, in more less discontinuous form, linked to tourism. The study of two villages in the region of Corinthia in the Peloponnese illustrates peri-urbanisation around Athens : population increase, a change in agricultural specialisation and the development of second homes.

as well as from the constant mixture of populations and from a turbulent history. The present process of Hellenization and economic improvement involues a dual policy of urbanisation and development of the region's water resources. However, the results of the water policy are mixed, notably in the Evros valley, handicapped by its border position. Further West, the valleys and piedmonts between the Evros and Nestos deltas have also been the subject of similary intense improvement projects but have encountered numberous problems, ranging from inadequate river flow to increases in the salt content of the coastal plains. In spite of strong migrational movements since 1960 and the low level of incomes which characterise notably the Turkish and Pomak minorities, the results from water development and urbanization policies are positive and provide a major contribution to the regional and urban dynamic.

The department of Evros in the north-eastern extremity of Greece benefits from the opening up of its borders since 1991, new investments in urban areas and in the port of Alexandroupoli and the construction of the Néa Via Egnatia motorway. At the local scale the ways in which irrigation policy has been introduced has led to differences. In villages where irrigation was introduced at an early date, agricultural activity has been intensified and cattle rearing has diminished. Where irrigation does not exist emigration of the population towards Germany has been encouraged and the cultivation of cereals continues. Many farms and farm workers live in urban areas. Some are married to women coming from Bulgaria.

The transport network of Greece has been improved substantially, with the roads accounting for the largest part of the traffic. The bus network, known as KTEL, is a decentralised, co-operative organisation serving all the towns and villages. It provides a vital link between urban and rural areas. Until 1970 the activities of KTEL expanded. Since then the number of passengers has declined but not the number of lines. Traffic is still increasing between the major towns but is falling on the lines serving villages, as the number of private cars has risen and the rural population has declined. An example of the network is given by the department of Ioannina, with 80 different routes. Profits from the Ioannina-Athens line finance local loss-making routes.