Greeks in America - eBooks4Greeks.gr

EUROPEAN BACKGROUND 67Greek nationalism and might endanger the causeof Greece, the aspiration to emancipate the Greekrace from the Turkish yoke. Of course this fear isnot well founded, as Greek nationality is not coextensivewith Eastern Greek Orthodoxy. There areover a hundred million of the Orthodox Church whoare not Greeks, as Kussians, Serbs, Eumanians, etc.,and the Protestant Greeks demonstrated repeatedlythat they are as patriotic and truly Greek as theirOrthodox brethren and compatriots.Religious classification in Turkey.—Still therewas some ground for this fear in the fact that theTurkish Government ignored race distinction andclassified the people by their denominational or religiousconnections; thus there were Moslems, comprisingTurks, Kurds, Circassians, Arabs, Albanians,etc., and non-Moslems, comprising the Christiansand the Jews. The Christians were classified as (1)Greeks, comprising all the adherents of the GreekChurch, Albanian, Bulgarian, Syrian, etc., as wellas those of the Greek race and speech; (2) Armenians,race and church membership coinciding; (3)Catholics, mostly Armenians, some Greeks, Syrians,and Levantines, and (4) Protestants, some Armenians,some Greeks and Syrians. Now all thesegroups were regarded as distinct nationalities withseparate patriarchs, as the head of each. The Protestantchancery was regarded as equivalent toother patriarchates and had the same privileges andfunctions. When any one, Armenian, Greek, Syrian,becomes Protestant he has to cut off his connectionfrom his church and nationality and join the Protestantnationality. It was something more radicaland significant than changing denominations inAmerica.The missionary work in the Near East has beenin late years mainly educational. Though at firstthe Greeks were averse to missionary institutions.