Speaking during a lecture on Greece’s political extremes at Deree – The American College of Greece- Mazower did not even hesitate to draw parallels between the Greek far right party and the nationalist socialist (Nazi) party of the 1930s. A report on Kathimerini quoted him as saying that:
“There is commonality of approach,” he said of the two parties stressing their emphasis on biological racism and violent street tactics that sets them apart from other European nationalist movements like Le Pen’s National Front party.So why does he fear a Greece for Greeks so much, why does he want to force a system on Greeks that they do not want, and never have wanted? The answer lies in his most famous book on Greek history, Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews 1430-1950 . The book portrays Salonica, today Thessaloniki, as a multicultural paradise where Jews and Muslims were able to reap many benefits from living there. Technically, this is true, the Sephardic Jews and Muslims of Salonica enjoyed great privilege, Jews in particular were especially close to Ottoman leadership. Because the Muslims were not interested in business affairs, while also not trusting Christians whose land they were raping, Jews were invited after expulsion from Spain to enjoy a virtual monopoly on Ottoman trade routes , rights to lend money, and held powerful roles as the merchant-monopoly class of the Turkish empire, their community was extremely prosperous because Greeks were not able to compete due to curtailment of liberties from administrators. Now, it’s true that Jews and Muslims in Greek land enjoyed great prosperity, but this was all at the expense of the indigenous Christian Greek population who were brutally enslaved by the blood thirsty descendants of Ghenghis Khan, where his legacy is held high and his title is still a popular boys name in Turkey today!
Any right-wing party worth its salt is keen to stress its nationalist credentials,” said 55-year-old Mazower, an expert on Greece and the Balkans who teaches history at Columbia University."
According to an article regarding Greek historians in Greece , Mazower’s interpretation of history is little more than Neo-Ottomanism. The Ottoman Empire was good for Jews (likely the ethnicity of Mazower, so it makes sense that he doesn’t have concern for the Greeks who suffered, only of his own who lost their privileges when the Greeks freed Thessaloniki in 1912) and Muslims in Salonica, but not for the Greek majority whose culture was raped away in 1430 by genocidal Ottomans, then obliterated again in 1821! It’s safe to also say, that if Mazower was around in 1821, he would without a doubt have supported any and all Ottoman killings to preserve their “multicultural paradise”!
Mazower’s views have been commonly understood as being not only historically unfound, but bluntly anti-Greek. While Mazower writes from the perspective of his own people, Jews, and their profit off the tragedy of Thessaloniki, Greeks.
In this presentation decided to write a counter from the point of view of the Hellenic majority of the city. Greek historians have dedicated themselves to debunking the shameless Ottoman/Turk apology by Mazower, in particular Yiannis Tachopoulos counter to the lies Thessaloniki, Mazower and the Ghosts of Ottomanism - http://infognomonpolitics.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/blog-post_7569.html?showComment=1358945687935#.USAa0PJOSSp - xaameriki katimerini
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