It is, of course, true that there are still two bases in Crete which the US wants to remain in operation, at least for the time being, and an accord on these must yet be negotiated. The latest extension of the bases agreement terminated at the end of last year, allowing the US a further 17 months to remove them if an agreement is not reached. Political events in Greece, however, have prevented this decision being made. Like a great many other pressing matters, the issue will be dealt with by the government which takes over after the 8 April elections.
However casually the closures of the bases here are concluded, it is the end of a momentous era which began over 40 years ago. The American military presence here during all those years played a major role in the social awareness of Greece and in the evolution of its politics. For decades it has been the major factor in the relationship between the two countries, and provided at one time or another a whole arsenal of political weapons. Whether the bases forged a partnership or poisoned it is something future historians will decide one day when passions abate.
The slogan Yankides sta spitia sas splashed over rubble walls throughout Greece a third of a century ago was as much a colorful part of the local scene as Eli Lambeti, and the songs of Vassilis Tsitsanis. Despite whirlwinds of oligarchy, monarchy, dictatorship and socialist triumphs, the presence of the bases and the feelings they aroused were a constant in a sea of change. As these whitewashed walls came down and concrete ones rose in their place, as brush paints were superseded by more sophisticated psychedelic spray paints, so the Greece we know today grew up against a background of what came to known as “the Bases of Death”.
The menace of these military bases was a perpetual theme song of the Communists, whether their party was banned or legalized or split. Their removal was a major campaign promise that brought PASOK to power in 1981, In the end, that it was the US which pulled out unilaterally was not without its humorous side. Far from causing a wave of ethnic jubilation with Te Deums sung in all metropolitan cathedrals, the news of the imminent dismantling of the bases was even viewed with dismay.
Whatever may have been felt about the bases, they were the living proof that Greece was strategically placed and for a people who devoutly believe that they live at the very center of the universe the bases encouraged a sense of self-importance. So the idea got about that if the bases in Greece were shut, NATO would dissolve and the Free World collapse before the Communist juggernaut. The platitudes of the Cold War are not to be unlearned over night.
So there was some irony that the news of the closing of the bases was greeted with consternation by others than the proprietors of whiskey bars in Glyfada and landladies in the environs of Nea Makri. The idea that Greece might no longer be geopolitically important came as a shock, and frayed the nerves of those who take serious stock in the 7:11 ratio in military aid to Greece and Turkey.
Such events may have led the conservative daily Kathimerini last month to declare, “Greece is unpredictable, ungovernable and irrelevant.” In weighing this sweeping statement, it is necessary to keep in mind that the country is in the midst of its third election campaign in ten months and the conservatives, like satyrs in pursuit of nymphs that ever elude them, have grown dyspeptic with unconsummated desire for power, so near and yet so far.
Unpredictable? Yes. Greeks, like being unpredictable and nothing is more disconcerting to them than the rumor that a Baltimore-based firm which handles election campaigns abroad has the Greek character totally summed up on its computers and knows exactly what will happen on 8 April.
Ungovernable? Of course. Constantine Tsatsos, who was both philosopher and President of the Republic, maintained that the ungovernability of Greeks is what defined them as superior beings.
Irrelevant? This is where the philhellene must intervene. Greeks may be warned against over-optimism, but when they lose heart they are ridiculous. Just because the bases are going and the geopolitical map is being redrawn has nothing to do with Greece’s becoming irrelevant. Greece remains at the crossroads; it partakes of East and West, one of its feet squarely placed in the First World while the other drags in the Third World. Whatever its economic and social follies these days maybe, however awkward its period of redefinition, its social tensions are what keep it alert; its contradictions are the source of its particular genius, and the long view is more important than the short one.
Archbishop Serapheim has objected to the holding of elections on Palm Sunday. But in Greece, the ethnic experience and the religious one are much closer than in Western countries. And since both lead to passion, it is the most appropriate date of all.
