Democracy Returns to Its “Cradle”
By “AWAKE!” CORRESPONDENT IN GREECE
THE Mediterranean country of Greece has always been proud of its having been the “cradle of democracy.” However, it is interesting to see what the “infant” looked like in its Grecian cradle, back in the sixth to the fourth centuries B.C.E. During that period considerable progress was made in many fields of human knowledge. Philosophic thinking and the fine arts in general broadened out, yet the Greek style of democracy remained quite restrictive and applied only to individual city-states, which seldom had more than 10,000 inhabitants. And, even in these towns, only a small minority enjoyed this form of democracy, since voting was denied to slaves, women and all foreign-born.
For some two thousand years, as far as Greece was concerned, it seems that the “cradle” was empty. From the nineteenth century on, Greece had a number of different kinds of government—constitutional monarchy, republic, dictatorship, and foreign occupation during World War II. After the second world war, democracy again flourished, until April 21, 1967, when a military government robbed the “cradle.”
The colonels who formed this government severely curtailed civil rights, abolished elections, dissolved all political parties and ruled the country with an iron hand, declaring that the Greek people were not mature enough to live under democratic rule. As a result, the Christian witnesses of Jehovah had to carry on their work of Bible education underground, though they had no social or political affiliations. Foreign Witnesses traveling from Nuremberg to Athens in 1969 were searched at the borders and all their Christian literature, which they had hoped to bring to fellow believers in Greece, was taken from them. Other Witnesses, when they applied for passports to visit relatives abroad, or to attend Christian assemblies, were denied exit from Greece for “reasons of public order and interest.”
Another surprising event that occurred during this abnormal dictatorial period was the issuing of a circular by the Ministry of Interior on November 13, 1970, referring to marriages between Jehovah’s Christian witnesses as “non-existent” and ordering the country’s Registrars not to register these marriages or the children born thereby, because “the religion of Jehovah’s Witnesses is an unknown one”!
Only a dictatorial government could devise such a monstrous and manifestly unjust circular and thus cause a tremendous social problem. The religion of Jehovah’s witnesses, besides being well known in all countries of the world, has also been well known in Greece in every respect and for decades. The public attorneys at the Supreme Court, the Council of State and the law courts have all made pronouncements of the fact that Jehovah’s witnesses are a “known religion.” Moreover, the marriage unions solemnized according to the religious rites of the Christian witnesses of Jehovah were registered at the Greek State’s Registrar Offices for over seventy years. Four generations of children believing in this well-known religion had never had problems of registration!
But then, six years after the curtailing of civil rights, something unforeseen occurred. In November 1973 another military junta took over. It became even more oppressive, but it proved to be short-lived. Wretched economic conditions combined with political and social unrest to weaken its position. So when severe difficulties developed over the Cyprus issue, and the government felt the need to mobilize the country because of the trouble with Turkey, the junta faced complicated problems.
They felt that there was nothing for them to do but to plead with Constantine Karamanlis, self-exiled former prime minister, to return to form a government, which he did on July 24, 1974. He had governed from 1955 to 1963, when, having disagreed with the then Royal Court, he went abroad and resided in Paris. So without any strife and bloodshed, an uncrowned democracy was brought about by free parliamentary elections on November 27 and a referendum on December 8, 1974.
The new government has three big jobs on its hands: (1) Restoring political, social and economic conditions to normal. During the rule of the juntas the country lost about $400 million in tourism, foreign remittances and shipping, and had considerable drop in industrial production. (2) Establishing the Constitutional Charter of the “Hellenic Democracy” by the parliament. (3) Resolving the many thorny problems arising from the Cyprus issue and related ones.
As a result of the return of democracy to its onetime “cradle,” the Christian witnesses of Jehovah can again meet in the open. Late in 1974 the Witnesses rented a large basketball stadium for a special meeting, but, apparently due to religious, not political, pressure, the management at the last minute canceled the contract. Arrangements were then made to hold a series of meetings in a hall of a large hotel owned by a Witness. Another meeting was held two days later in a basketball gymnasium. As a result, a total of 11,644 Witnesses were able to attend a special program to hear two members of their governing body from Brooklyn, New York.
Needless to say, the Witnesses here in Greece were thrilled. It was the first time in more than seven years that they were able to meet in the open, thanks to Jehovah and a change of government from military to democracy. Not that the Witnesses were idle while under a ban. Year after year they continued with zeal their preaching work.—Isa. 54:17.
At present, under the democratic government in Greece, the Witnesses are free to hold public lectures, and they hope that in the near future they will also be able to have their own places of worship known as “Kingdom Halls.” They are also making plans for expanding their publishing facilities to care for the increased demand for Bible literature in Greece. Now that the government is forming a new Constitutional Charter safeguarding human rights, they hope that their problem concerning registration of their marriages will also finally be resolved.