Alexis Heraclides

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Alexis Heraclides (born 1952 in Alexandria, Egypt) is a Greek political scientist and public intellectual, currently Professor Emeritus of International Relations at the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. He is the son of ambassador Dimitris Heraclides and dentist Zina Ficardou. He taught at Panteion University from 1993 onwards, from 2004 until 2019 as Professor of International Relations and conflict resolution.

Contents

He has served as counselor on minorities and human rights in the Greek Foreign Ministry (1983-1997) and was also appointed as Greek Alternate Expert of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in the UN Commission on Human Rights (1990-1992).

Biography

Heraclides studied political science and International Relations at the Panteion University, at the University of London (M.Sc. at University College, under John W. Burton) and at the University of Kent (Ph.D. under A.J.R. Groom). His main publications cover intervention in secessionist conflicts, secession and self-determination, ethnicity and nationalism, the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, perceptions in foreign policy and specific conflicts mainly from a conflict resolution perspective, such as Kosovo, Southern Sudan, the Kurdish question, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the Cyprus problem and the Greek–Turkish conflict. His more recent publications are on humanitarian intervention in the nineteenth century, just war theory, the Macedonian question, human rights and the problem of cultural relativism, liberal Islam and human rights, and the history of Greek–Albanian relations.[ citation needed ]

Political activity

He has written hundreds of articles in Greek dailies and magazines (many of which have been republished in Greek Cypriot and Turkish newspapers) on minority issues, the resolution of the Cyprus problem (via a loose consociational bicommunal federation), the amelioration of Greek-Turkish relations and the comprehensive settlement of the pending Aegean dispute, the settlement of the vexing “Macedonian Question” between Athens and Skopje, and on Greek and Greek-Cypriot nationalism. On these issues he has also participated within various NGOs in Greece and Cyprus ("The Front for Reason Against Nationalism", "Centre of Minority Groups", "Cyprus Academic Dialogue" and others). [1]

In 1997 he was awarded the Abdi Ipekçi Peace and Friendship Prize for his newspaper articles on the resolution of the Greek-Turkish conflict. His repeated criticism of nationalism in Greece and in the Republic of Cyprus has earned him the opprobrium of key nationalist figures in both countries, and he has been repeatedly attacked in the conservative Greek and Cypriot press and by ultra-nationalist political parties (inter alia in the Greek Parliament) and organizations in Greece and Cyprus from mid-1990s until today (see e.g.Greek Helsinki Monitor, press release, 2 May 2009. See e.g. the attack in To Proto Thema (Greek Sunday newspaper) 29 March 2009, 5 April 2009, 12 April 2009, and Eleftherotypia (Greek newspaper) 25 April 2009. The attacks are also referred in Radikal (Turkish newspaper) 30 March 2009 and 28 June 2009).

Views

As counselor on human rights and minorities, he was preoccupied with the Muslim/Turkish minority in Western Thrace and was instrumental in persuading the Greek side to abandon its discrimination towards the minority in question. [2]

In 2004 he strongly supported a "Yes" vote to the Annan Plan, for the resolution of the Cyprus dispute, in which Turkish Cypriots voted "Yes" by majority and Greek Cypriots voted "No" by an overwhelming majority. [3] He has blamed the Greek Cypriot side and especially the Cypriot president Nikos Anastasiadis for the non-resolution of the Cyprus problem. [4]

Regarding the Macedonian dispute, Heraclides said in 2019 that the Prespa agreement was "good" for Greece, but less so for North Macedonia [5]

In 2022, Heraclides gave an interview to the Turkish state-run Anadolu Agency, [6] in which he said regarding the Aegean dispute that Greece should recognize the "rights" and "interests of Turkey in the Aegean Sea. [7] This statement drew criticism from some Greek media, in which he was denounced as a propagandist for Turkish interests. [7] [8] [9] In his books and articles on Greek-Turkish relations and in interviews he has argued again and again that Turkey is not "aggressive" towards Greece,. [10] He has also claimed that the Turkish casus belli against Greece, which was declared in 1995 by the Turkish parliament that unilateral action over territorial waters by Greece would constitute a reason for war) [11] may be a threat of violence but need not be taken literally. [9] [12]

Heraclides has also argued that the mass killings and expulsions of Greeks in 1922, committed by the Kemalist government, was not a genocide and instead ethnic cleansing. For example, he said that the Burning of Smyrna wasn't an act of genocide because "it had been preceded (and caused) by a regular war between the Greek army and Kemal's nationalist forces. [13] Historian Erik Sjöberg explicitly criticized these assertions, stating that: "Heraclides' core argument was problematic, resting as it did in a somewhat misguided assumption of war and genocide as mutually excluding". [13] In 2006, he wrote an article regarding Armenian genocide denial in France, in which he defended it on freedom of expression grounds, and stated that its criminalization was "ahistorical" and was pushed by the "Armenian lobby of France" in order to stop the accession of Turkey to the European Union. [14] Nevertheless, he accepted the Armenian genocide as a fact. [14]

Writings

He has written ten books in English and eighteen in Greek, including: [15]

Contributions

His main political contributions to date are with regard to intervention in secessionist conflicts, [16] the reasons for separatism, [17] secession and self-determination, [18] human rights norm-setting in the CSCE process, [19] the Cyprus problem, [20] the Greek-Turkish conflict in the Aegean [21] and the history of humanitarian intervention.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-determination</span> The right of all people to freely participate in the political procedures of their government

Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage.

<i>Enosis</i> Modern Greek political movement

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greece–Turkey relations</span> Bilateral relations

Greece and Turkey established diplomatic relations in the 1830s following Greece's formation after its declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire. Modern relations began when Turkey was proclaimed a republic in 1923 following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. Rivalry has characterised their relations for most of their history with periods of positive relations but no underlying resolution of the main issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Greece</span>

The history of Greece encompasses the history of the territory of the modern nation-state of Greece as well as that of the Greek people and the areas they inhabited and ruled historically. The scope of Greek habitation and rule has varied throughout the ages and as a result, the history of Greece is similarly elastic in what it includes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aegean dispute</span> Series of controversies between Greece and Turkey over the Aegean Sea

The Aegean dispute is a set of interrelated controversies between Greece and Turkey over sovereignty and related rights in the region of the Aegean Sea. This set of conflicts has strongly affected Greek-Turkish relations since the 1970s, and has twice led to crises coming close to the outbreak of military hostilities, in 1987 and in early 1996. The issues in the Aegean fall into several categories:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turkish invasion of Cyprus</span> 1974 military conflict in Cyprus

The Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974 and progressed in two phases over the following month. Taking place upon a background of intercommunal violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and in response to a Greek junta-sponsored Cypriot coup d'état five days earlier, it led to the Turkish capture and occupation of the northern part of the island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Istanbul pogrom</span> 1955 state-sanctioned violence against minorities in Turkey

The Istanbul pogrom, also known as the Istanbul riots, were a series of state-sponsored anti-Greek mob attacks directed primarily at Istanbul's Greek minority on 6–7 September 1955. The pogrom was orchestrated by the governing Democrat Party in Turkey with the cooperation of various security organizations. The events were triggered by the bombing of the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece, – the house where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born in 1881. The bomb was actually planted by a Turkish usher at the consulate, who was later arrested and confessed. The Turkish press was silent about the arrest, and instead, it insinuated that Greeks had set off the bomb.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Population exchange between Greece and Turkey</span> 1923 agreement between Greece and Turkey

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greek genocide</span> 1913–1922 genocide of Greek Christians in the Ottoman Empire

The Greek genocide, which included the Pontic genocide, was the systematic killing of the Christian Ottoman Greek population of Anatolia, which was carried out mainly during World War I and its aftermath (1914–1922) – including the Turkish War of Independence (1919–1923) – on the basis of their religion and ethnicity. It was perpetrated by the government of the Ottoman Empire led by the Three Pashas and by the Government of the Grand National Assembly led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, against the indigenous Greek population of the Empire. The genocide included massacres, forced deportations involving death marches through the Syrian Desert, expulsions, summary executions, and the destruction of Eastern Orthodox cultural, historical, and religious monuments. Several hundred thousand Ottoman Greeks died during this period. Most of the refugees and survivors fled to Greece. Some, especially those in Eastern provinces, took refuge in the neighbouring Russian Empire.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macedonia naming dispute</span> Dispute between Greece and North Macedonia (1991–2019)

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References

  1. ↑ G. Bertrand, Le conflit helléno-turc: la confrontation des deux nationalismes à l’aube du XXIe siècle (2003), p.286. L. Karakatsanis, Turkish-Greek Relations: Rapprochement, Civil Society and the Politics of Friendship (2014), 101, 239, 242.
  2. ↑ T. Kostopoulos, The Forbidden Language: State Repression of the Slavic Dialects in Greek Macedonia (2000) [in Greek], pp.334-6.T. Michas, Unholy Alliance: Greece and Milosevic's Serbia (2002), pp.36, 127, 146, 156. D. Anagnostou, “Deepening Democracy or Defending the Nation? The Europeanization of Minority Rights and Greek Citizenship”, in K. Featherstone (ed.), Politics and Policy in Greece: The Challenge of Modernization (2005), p.134.
  3. ↑ "Σχέδιο Aνάν: 10 "Nαι" και 10 "Όχι" - Φεύγει ο εφιάλτης του τουρκικού στρατού κατοχής". ΤΑ ΝΕΑ (in Greek). 2004-04-03. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  4. ↑ Αλέξης Ηρακλείδης, Εθνικά θέματα και εθνοκεντρισμός. Μία κριτική στην ελληνική εξωτερική πολιτική, Ι. Σιδέρης, Αθήνα 2018, σελ. 57-64.
  5. ↑ "Αλέξης Ηρακλείδης, καθηγητής Διεθνών Σχέσεων στο Πάντειο Πανεπιστήμιο: / Αλέξης Ηρακλείδης: Η συμφωνία των Πρεσπών είναι καλή για την Ελλάδα, όχι για τους γείτονες". Αυγή (in Greek). 2019-01-21. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  6. ↑ "Turkish, Greek leaders are sincere and capable of achieving resolution to conflict between their countries: Greek expert". www.aa.com.tr. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  7. 1 2 "Αίσχος! Έλληνας καθηγητής "ξεπλένει" τον Ερντογάν". www.newsbreak.gr (in Greek). 2022-03-31. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  8. ↑ Σύνταξης, Αίθουσα (2022-03-31). "Ο Αλέξης Ηρακλείδης προτείνει να προσκυνήσουμε την Τουρκία και δεν ντρέπεται". Tribune.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  9. 1 2 Μίχας, Ζαχαρίας Β. (1 November 2022). "Μια απάντηση στο απίθανο άρθρο του καθηγητή Αλέξη Ηρακλείδη για τα ελληνοτουρκικά". www.defence-point.gr.
  10. ↑ Κωνσταντίνου, Κωνσταντίνος Πουλής, Μηνάς (2020-08-14). "Συνέντευξη με τον καθηγητή Αλέξη Ηρακλείδη: "Η Τουρκία δεν είναι επιθετική"". The Press Project - Ειδήσεις, Αναλύσεις, Ραδιόφωνο, Τηλεόραση (in Greek). Retrieved 2023-09-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ↑ "Turkey urges Greece not to extend territorial waters to 12 miles in Aegean - Türkiye News". Hürriyet Daily News. 2022-01-08. Retrieved 2023-09-09. The Turkish Parliament declared in 1995 that unilateral action over territorial waters by Greece would constitute a casus belli, which means reason to go to war.
  12. ↑ "Συμμαχίες-εξοπλισμοί: αναγκαία επιλογή;". ΕΦΣΥΝ (in Greek). 2021-10-30. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  13. 1 2 Sjöberg, Erik (2016). The Making of the Greek Genocide: Contested Memories of the Ottoman Greek Catastrophe. Berghahn Books. p. 86. ISBN   978-1-78533-326-2.
  14. 1 2 "ΤΡΙΤΗ ΑΠΟΨΗ: Ανιστόρητη πράξη [THIRD OPINION: Ahistorical act]". ΤΑ ΝΕΑ (in Greek). 2006-11-02. Retrieved 2023-09-08. Η πρόσφατη ποινικοποίηση της μη αποδοχής της Αρμενικής Γενοκτονίας από τη Γαλλική Βουλή είναι πράξη ανιστόρητη, με προφανή ατζέντα να τεθούν εμπόδια στην τουρκική πορεία προς την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση. Επιπλέον αποτελεί καταπάτηση της ελευθερίας της έκφρασης και της γνώμης... [The recent criminalization of Armenian Genocide denial by The French Parliament is an ahistorical act, with an obvious agenda to put up obstacles in the Turkish path towards the European Union. Additionally it infringes upon the freedom of expression and opinion...]
  15. ↑ Panteion University, library catalogue. LSE library catalogue. Princeton University library catalogue.
  16. ↑ D.Carment, P.James and Z.Taydas, Who Intervenes? Ethnic Conflict and Interstate Crisis (2006), pp.2, 13-14, 110, 218; R.Taras and R.Ganguly, Understanding Ethnic Conflicts: The International Dimension (2002), pp.10, 15-16, 18-19, 22, 41, 44, 46-8, 51-4, 58, 60, 63-64, 66, 73-4, 77, 79-82; L. Belanger et al., “Foreign Interventions and Secessionist Movements: The Democratic Factor”, Canadian Journal of Political Science (2005), pp.435, p.439, 457.
  17. ↑ T.R. Gurr and B. Harff, Ethnic Conflict in World Politics (1994), pp.140-1, 178-80; Taras and Ganguly, op.cit.
  18. ↑ G. Welhengama, Minorities' Claims: Autonomy and Secession (2009), pp.237, 242-3, 245; B. Coppieters & R. Sakwa (eds), Contextualizing Secession: Normative Studies in a Comparative Perspective (2003), pp.231, 237-51; L. Bishai, Forgetting Ourselves: Secession and the (Im)possibility of Territorial Identity (2004), pp.46-7, 54.
  19. ↑ V-Y. Ghebali, L'OSCE dans l'Europe post-communiste, 1990-1996 (1996), pp. 37, 40, 49, 72, 100, 133, 145, 449, 451-2, 454, 457-8, 464. E. Adler, Communitarian International Relations (2005), pp.204, 311-12, 315. A. Wenger and V. Mastny, Origins of the European Security System: The Helsinki Process Revisited, 1965-1975 (2008), 195.
  20. ↑ N.Loizides, “Ethnic Nationalism and Adaptation in Cyprus”, International Studies Perspectives, 8, 2 (2007), p.187. P. Polyviou, The Diplomacy of the Invasion (2010) [in Greek], p.218; Y. Papadakis, Echoes from the Dead Zone: Across the Cyprus Divide (2005), p.256.
  21. ↑ T. Bahcheli, in South-East European and Black Sea Studies, 11,2 (2011), pp.211-13 and in Turkish Studies, 13, 2 (2012), pp.269-71; E. Athanassopoulou, in Nations and Nationalism, 17, 4 (2011), pp.872-3; I.D. Stefanidis, in Diplomacy & Statecraft, 22,4 (2011), pp.768-70.
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