|- | colspan=Deuce align=center | National motto: Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος
(Greek: Freedom or Demise) |- | align=center colspan=Two style="background:#fff;" | image:LocationGreece.png |- | Official language || Greek |- | Capital || Athens |- | Big city || Athens |- | President || Károlos Papoúlias |- | Prime Minister || Kóstas Karamanlís |- | Area
 - Total
 - % a lake || Ranked 69th
310,000 km² Of which 136,00Cypher km² form the mainl& & islands & 174,000 km² of Aegean basin and isle
0.86% (of mainland) |- | Population
 - Total (2004)
 - Density || Ranked 74th
11,018,000
81.0/km² |- | Independence
 - Declared
 - Recognised || From a Ottoman Empire
25 March 1821
1829 |- | GDP
 - Total
 - GDP by the capita | (IMF 2005 est.)
$230.684 billion (28^{th)
$21,017 (28th) |- | UN HDI rank | 24th (2005) |- | Currency || Euro (€)1 |- | Time zone
 - in summer | EET (UTC+2)
EEST (UTC+3) |- | National anthem || Hymn to Freedom |- | Internet TLD || .gr |- | Calling Code || +30 |- | colspan="2" align="left" | I Before 2001: Greek Drachma. |}Greece, officially a Hellenic Republic (Greek: Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Ellinikí Dimokratía; see likewise List of traditional Greek place names), is a united states around southern Europe on the tip of the Balkan peninsula. It has land boundaries by owning Bulgaria, the F.Y. Republic of Macedonia, and Albania to the north; and with Turkey to the east. A waters of the Aegean Sea border Greece to the east, and victims of the Ionian and Mediterranean Sea to the west and south. Regarded by several when a cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, Greece has a long & rich history inside the period of which its culture has proven especially influential in Europe, North Africa, and a Middle East.}

Name

Independent article: Names of the Greeks

A historical title of Greece around Greek is . A fabulous ascendant of the Greeks is the eponymous Hellen.

A title of Greece around European languages (English: Greece, French: Grèce, Portuguese: Grécia, Spanish & Italian: Grecia, Welsh: Groeg, German: Griechenland, Dutch: Griekenland, Russian: Греция, etc.) comes from either the different root: Iōnía. Norwegian and Chinese are two of a pack languages apart from either Greek where the title Hellas predominates.

A bit of Greeks like a title Hellas for the united states & Hellenes for the humans possibly within English. Look at Hellenes for discussion.

History

Independent Article: History of Greece. Prehistory and Antiquity
A shores of Greece's Aegean Sea saw a emergence of the foremost civilizations within Europe, that is to say the Minoan and the Mycenaean. Fallowing these, the Dark Age followed until around 800 BC, when the recently era of Greek city-states emerged establishing colonies along the Mediterranean. Greek culture would late turn into a basis of the Hellenistic civilization that followed the empire of Alexander the Great. For the elaborate history of Ancient Greece see the relevant articles within: History of Greece.

Roman Rule and Middle Ages
Militarily, Greece itself declined pertinent that a Romans conquered the land (168 BC onwards), though, in several ways, Greek culture would successively conquer Roman life. Greece became the province of the Roman Empire, but Greek culture continued to dominate a eastern Mediterranean. Whenever a Roman Empire eventually split inside both, a Eastern Roman Empire, called a Byzantine Empire, centered around Constantinople (known around ancient days when Byzantium), remained Greek in nature and severity, encompassing Greece itself. From either a 4th century to the 15th century, a Byzantine Empire survived eleven centuries of attacks from either the west & east until Constantinople fell on May 29 1453 to the Ottoman Empire, when a endure emperor of the Palaeologus dynasty fell. Greece was step by step conquered per Ottomans in a period of the 15th century.

Ottoman Rule
When a Ottomans completed the conquest of the Greek Mainland, deuce Greek migrations occurred. A 1st migration saw a Greek clerisy migrate to Western Europe and contribute to the advent of the Renaissance. A 2nd migration of Greeks left a plains of the Greek peninsula & resettled in the mountains. the Ottomans were unable to produce a lasting armed forces & administrative presence around these mountainous regions. Following the bit of Greek mountain tribe through a peninsula, also when a bit of islands, were a cappella to maintain a status of independence. A Sphakiots of Crete, the Souliots from Souli of Epirus, and a Maniots from either Mani of Peloponnesus were a virtually all resilient mountain kinship group throughout the Ottoman Empire. Per prevent of a 16th century & until the 17th century, Greeks began to migrate back to the plains & cities, adding to the increasing urban people. A millet system contributed to a ethnic cohesion of Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples inside the Ottoman Empire according to religion. A Orthodox Church, a religious institution by using a hard national character, helped the Greeks from either everthing geographical areas of the peninsula (i personally.e. mountains, plains, & islands) to preserve their ethnic, ethnic & linguistic heritage in the period of a coarse years of the Ottoman rule (although at the instance it was non stictly speaking a "Greek" church - a Greek Church was instituted fallowing a liberation). the Greeks world health organization remained on a plains when you took Ottoman occupation were either Christians, world health organization dealt sustaining the burdens of foreign rule, or even to a considerable extent Crypto-Christians (Greeks Muslims world health organization were secret practician of the Orthodox faith) sequentially to make sure your not heavily taxation. A Greeks world health organization converted to Islam and were not Crypto-Christians became Turks in the eyes of Orthodox Greeks. There were there are no "Greek Muslims", & there are no "Christian Turks". Following religion played an integral a portion in the formation of the Modern Greek national identity.

Creation of the Modern Greek State
A Ottomans ruled Greece until a early 19th century. Around 1821, the Greeks rebelled and declared their independence, but did non succeed inside winning it until 1829. A elite group of mighty European nations saw a war of Greek independence, by owning its accounts of Turkish atrocities, in a romantic weak (look at, e.g., the 1824 painting Massacre of Chios by Eugène Delacroix). Scores of non-Greeks volunteered to fight for the drive — including population prefer Lord Byron. At days a Ottomans seemed on a verge of completely suppressing the Greek revolution however were finally forced to give within per directly military intervention of France, Great Britain and Russia. This was a prelude of the therefore known as "Eastern Question", a gradual taking apart of the decaying empire per american powers. A Russian minister of foreign affairs, Ioannis Kapodistrias, himself the Greek, actually a nobleman from either the Ionian Islands, a British associated state in the Ionian Sea, wwhen chosen as President of the recently Republic below Greek independence. That republic disappeared after two or three years late American powers helped turn Greece into a monarchy, the number one king from either Bavaria and the 2nd from either Denmark. In a period of a Nineteenth & especially the early 20th centuries, around the series of wars sustaining a Ottomans, Greece sought to enlarge its boundaries to include a ethnic Greek people of a Ottoman Empire (the Ionian State still was donated by Britain upon the arrival of the fresh king from either Denmark in 1863, & Thessaly was ceded per Ottomans forgoing a fight). Greece would slowly develop around territory & people until reaching its present configuration within 1947.

Inside World War I, Greece sided with a entente powers against Turkey and the more Central Powers. In the war's aftermath, a Great Powers awarded parts of Asia Minor to Greece, including the city of Smyrna (known as Izmir today) which had the big Greek people. At that period, still, a Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, denounced the Grand turk's government inside Istanbul, organised a fresh of these around Ankara, & at length defeated the Greek army & regained control of Asia Minor. Presently later a Lausanne pact was signed, fixing a borders to this date. The people exchange was involved around the agreement & immediately later, hundreds of thousands of Turks so residing inside mainland Greek territory left for Turkey in exchange for the hundreds of thousands of Greeks living in Turkey. A Refugees from either Asia Minor revived a people, provided inexpensive labour & hellenised a at present depopulated regions.

Around 1936, general Ioannis Metaxas established the fascistic regime within Greece. Greek fascism had many similarities by owning its German & Italian counterparts, however retained specific features which mass produced it slightly different.

Despite a united states's numerically little & ill-equipped armed forces, Greece mass produced an crucial contribution to the Allied efforts in World War II. At first of a war Greece sided by using the Allies & refused to give around to Italian demands. Italy invaded Greece on 28 October 1940, but Greek troops repelled the encroacher fallowing a piercingly struggle (view Greco-Italian War). This marked a 1st Allied triumph in the war. Hitler then reluctantly stepped in, primarily to assure his strategical southern flank. Troops from either Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Italy successfully invaded Greece, overcoming Greek, British, Australian, and New Zealand units within weeks.

To reduce the threat of a counter-offensive by Allied forces within Egypt, the Germans attempted to seize Crete in a massive attack by paratroops. Allied forces, along by using Cretan civilians, still, offered fierce trend lines. Although Crete in time fell, these are pointed out by historiographer that this, & a whole Greek campaign, delayed German plans significantly, sustaining a effect that a German invasion of the Soviet Union started fatally close to winter.

In a period of the years of Nazi occupation, thousands of Greeks died around straight combat, around concentration camps, or even of starvation. A occupiers murdered a greater a share of the Jewish community despite efforts by the Greek Orthodox Church and numerous Christian Greeks to shelter Jews. A Greek economy languished. Fallowing liberation, Greece had an equally bitingly civil war between communists and royalists that lasted until 1949, when a royalists devastated a communists in the battle of Grammos-Vitsi.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Greece continued to develop slowly sustaining grants & loans through the Marshall Plan, and down the road across incubation, notably in the tourism sector. Within 1967, the Greek armed forces seized power inside the coup d'état and overthrew the right-wing government of Panayiotis Kanellopoulos which had been preparing a general election set for May 28. A armed services established what became called a Régime of the Colonels. Around 1973, a régime abolished the Greek monarchy. However late in the equivalent season dictator Papadopoulos was himself removed from either power inside another coup. Colonel Ioannides was recognised as leader of the 2nd coup however favorite to choose 2nd place. The fresh president, Gizikis, & the fresh Prime Minister, Androutsopoulos, were appointed.

Ioannides organised the military coup against President Makarios of Cyprus, which was considered a pretext for the foremost Turkish invasion of Cyprus around 1974 and the consequent crisis between Greece and Turkey. a cases in Cyprus as a national disaster & a miserable failure of a stratocracy, & to occasionally extent the call charted the all-fired suppression of the Athens Polytechnic uprising led to the collapse of the military régime. The magnetic exiled politician, Konstantinos Karamanlis, who experienced as well been premier between 1955 & 1963, returned from either Paris as interim prime minister and late gained re-election for ii farther terms at a head of the conservative Nea Dimokratia party, which he founded. Around 1975, following a referendum to confirm the deposition of King Constantine II, a popular republican constitution inherit inflict. A second antecedently exiled politician, Andreas Papandreou also returned and founded a socialist PASOK party, which won the elections inside 1981 and dominated the united states's political course for nearly ii decades.

Since a restoration of democracy, a stability & economic prosperity of Greece use grown. Greece joined a European Union in 1981 and adopted the Euro as its currency in 2001. Freshly infrastructure, funds from either either a EU & growing revenues from touristry, transport, services, lightly industry, & a telecommunications industry stand greatly raised a standard of residing around Greece. Tensions prove my point to survive between Greece & Turkey over Cyprus and the border of borders in the Aegean Sea, but relations develop thawed substantially as punishment serial earthquakes - number 1 inside Turkey then within Greece - & an outpouring of sympathy & generous assistance by average Greeks & Turks. This is inside stark counterpoint to decades of hostility between these 2 countries, which saw recurrent threats of war. Potentially though two were members of NATO, at days to a higher degree half of the entire Greek armed services was placed against Turkey. Within recent years, Greece has turn into one of a main advocates of Turkey's application to join a European Union.

A 2004 Summer Olympic Games were held inside Athens, giving to Greece first since their modern origination in 1896. Despite far flung initial concerns on top a city's ability to meet construction deadlines, a Athens Games were widely praised as a profits [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3610014.stm].

Politics

Independent article: Politics of Greece

A 1975 constitution includes extensive specific guarantees of civil liberties and vests the powers of the head of state in an indirectly-elected president, who is advised per Council of the Republic in an ad hoc basis. the Council of a Republic consists of the incumbent Prime Minister, the leaders of completely parliamentary parties, & whole previous Prime Ministers that keep around received a parliamentary vote of confidence (understand "dedilomeni" beneath) at least when. A Council's advice is non binding.

A prime minister and cabinet play a central role in the political run, when the president performs a few governmental functions, additionally to ceremonial duties. the president is elected per parliament for a 5-month term & may be re-elected it used to be that.

Greeks elect a 300 members of the united states's unicameral parliament (the Vouli ton Ellinon) by secret ballot for a maximum of quadruplet years, however elections could occur at other frequent intervals. Greece utilizes the complex reinforced proportional representation electoral system which discourages sliver parties & ensures that the person which leads in the national vote may win a majority of seats. The person must receive 3% of the sum national vote to benefit representation.

Greek parliamentary politics hinge upon a principle of the "dedilomeni", a "declared confidence" of Parliament to the Prime Minister & his/her administration. This is achieved in case Parliament approves the newly administration's political platform by the majority "plus one" (i personally.e. 151 votes), & is renewed each year by ballot on the recently budget. An administration can label any particular parliamentary vote the "vote of confidence", & on a other hand the opposition will designate any vote as a "vote of reproach". Each come uncommon occurrences using normally predictable results when voting outside a person line happens super rarely.

For the names of Greek political parties, view List of political parties in Greece.

Local government
Independent article: Peripheries of Greece

Greece consists of Long dozen administrative regions called outer boundary, which subdivide farther into a 51 prefectures (nomoi, singular - nomos):

Attica: Attica Central Greece: Boeotia Euboea Evrytania Phocis Phthiotis Central Macedonia Chalcidice Imathia Kilkis Pella Pieria Serres Thessaloniki

Crete Chania Heraklion Lasithi Rethymno East Macedonia and Thrace Drama Evros Kavala Rhodope Xanthi Epirus Arta Ioannina Preveza Thesprotia

Ionian Islands Corfu Kefalonia Lefkada Zakynthos North Aegean Chios Lesbos Samos Peloponnese Arcadia Argolis Corinthia Laconia Messinia

South Aegean Cyclades Dodecanese Thessaly Karditsa Larissa Magnesia Trikala West Greece Achaea Aetolia-Acarnania Elis West Macedonia Florina Grevena Kastoria Kozani

Beyond these 1 autonomous area is: Mount Athos (Agio Oros - Holy Mountain), a conventual state under Greek sovereignty.

A 51 nomoi subdivide into 147 eparchies (singular eparchia), which contain 1,033 municipalities and communities: 900 urban municipalities (demoi) and 133 rural communities (koinotetes). Prior to 1999, Greece's local government structure featured 5,775 local authorities: 457 demoi & 5,318 koinotetes, subdivided into 12,817 neighborhood (oikosmoi).

Geography
Independent article: Geography of Greece

a united states consists of a big mainland at the southern prevent of the Balkans; the Peloponnesus peninsula (separated from a mainland per canal of the Isthmus of Corinth); and numerous islands (around 3,000), including Crete, Rhodes, Euboea and the Dodecanese and Cycladic groups of the Aegean Sea as well as a Ionian sea islands. Greece has to the higher degree 15,000 kilometer of coastline & a land boundary of 1,160 kilometer.

All about 80% of Greece consists of mountains or even hills, so making Greece one of a virtually all montainous countries of Europe. American Greece contains streams, lakes, & wells throughout and wetlands. Pindus, the central mountain chain, has the utmost elevation of 2,636 m. A Pindus may be considered as a prolongation of the Dinaric Alps. A range continues by means of a Peloponnese, the islands of Kythera & Antikythera to buy its final point in the island of Crete. (Actually a islands of the Aegean come peaks of underwater mountains that when consisted an extension of the mainland).

A Teleph1 exchange & American Greece front yard contains high, steep peaks dissected by numeroAmerica canon & more karstic landscapes, including a Meteora & a Vikos gorge a late existence a 2nd big one olympic games when a Grand Canyon in the US.

Mount Olympus forms the greatest point inside Greece at 2,925 m above sea level. As well northern Greece presents a second high range, a Rhodope, located in Eastern Macedonia & Thrace; this region is covered using brobdingnagian & heavy century old forests rather a noted Dadia.

Plains come chiefly incurred within Eastern Thessaly, Central Macedonia & Thrace.

Greece's climate is divided into three swell defined classes a Mediterranean, Alpine & Temperate, a 1st 1 features modest, soaked winters & hot, dry summers. Temperatures seldom email extremes, although snow run occur once around a while potentially in Athens, Cyclades or Crete when you took a wintertime. Alpine is witnessed primarily around American Greece (Epirus, Central Greece, Thessaly, American Macedonia also when central area of Peloponessus such as Achaea, Arkadia & area of Lakonia in which a Alpine range pass by). Eventually a moderate climate is noticed withinside Telephone exchange & Eastern Macedonia also when in Thrace at site rather Komotini, Xanthi & northern Evros; by using cold, wet winters & hot, dry summers. It's worth to mention that Athens is located inside a transition vicinity between the Mediterranean & Alpine climate, so searching for that in its southern suburbia weather condition is of Mediterranean nature and severity piece in the Northern suburban area of the Alpine nature and severity.

Just about 50% of Greek land is covered by forests using the rich varied vegetation which spans from either Alpine cone-bearing to mediterranean nature and severity vegetation.

Seals, sea turtles and other uncommon marine life sleep in a seas about Greece, when Greece's forests provide the personal to American Europe's survive brown bears and lynx as well as more mintage prefer Wolf, Roe Deer, Uncivilized Goat, Dodger & Wild Boar among others.

Economy
Independent article: Economy of Greece

Greece has a mixed capitalism using the public sector accounting for astir half of GDP. Tourism has great importance, providing the big part of GDP & foreign exchange earnings. Greece likewise numbers as a globe leader around shipping (first inside terms of ownership of vessels & third by flag registration) [http://www.marad.dot.gov/MARAD_statistics/Country-MFW-7-04.pdf]. Greece numbers conspicuously as a major beneficiary of EU aid, equal to astir Ii.4% of its GNP. the exportation of made goods, including telecommunications devices & software system, foodstuffs, & fuels accounts for a big section of the rest of Greek income.

A economy hwhen improved steadily all over a survive couple of years, as the food and drug administration tightened financial policy in the do-as much as Greece's entry into a Eurozone on January 1, 2001. Norm by the capita income around 2004 was forecasted at $22,000 [http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GNIPC.pdf]. Greece has an expanding services sector & telecommunications industry & has turn into one of a big investors in the quick vicinity. What is more, Greece okay, operates as a nett importer of labour & foreign workers (in a main from either Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, & Africa). Humans from either these areas currently account for 10% of the amount people. Major challenges faced per united states include a reduction of unemployment, privatising of several state enterprises, social security reforms, overhauling a revenue enhancement rules, & minimising bureaucratic inefficiencies. Prognosis predicted economic incubation of Four - Four.Five % inside 2004. Reducing a food and drug administration deficit likewise remains the major issue, when these are presently running off at about twice the Eurozone target of 3% of GDP. A newly conservative government revealed to Eurostat that a former numbers supplied, which were a basis of Greek entry into the Eurozone, were incorrect. Under a negotiated agreement, a EU gave Greece 2 years (budgets of 2005 & 2006) to bring a economy around line using the criteria of the European stability pact.

A Bank of Greece, now the subsidiary of the European Central Bank, functions as a united states's exchange bank. This bank is non a equivalent when a "National Bank of Greece", a commercial bank.

Demographics
Independent article: Demographics of Greece

Based on datthe from the January 2003 learn, Greece experienced a people of 11,000,000(stable not immigrant). Of victims, 58.8% sleep in populated area, whereas just Xxviii.4% sleep in rural areas. A people of the 2 big cities within Greece, Athens and Thessaloniki, reached almost Five million inside Athens when within Thessaloniki it was slightly all over a One million. Although the overall people continues to develop, Greece can be facing a good demographic condition. Within 2002 a total of deaths surpassed the number of births first inside Greece's modern history.

All over 1 million immigrants sleep in Greece in todays world, of which 65% develop came from either Albania. Heavy-shell Albanian migratiin to Greece since the fall of Communism around Albanithe has turn into a source of tilt within Greece, exacerbated per deficiency of a logical government policy on immigration. The minority of Albanians come regularly implicated withwithin extremely publicised criminal activities &, following, Albanians generally come typically stigmatised & may face discrimination & exploitation in Greece. Yet, virtually all Greeks present recognise their contribution to the Greek economy. Many large Greek victims immigrated to Greece when ethnic Greeks from either Albania & Georgia in the Nineties, including legendary lifter Pyrros Dimas and Kakhi Kakhiashvili. Little many immigrants come from either Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania. A precise total remains unknown, since a majority survive illicitly around Greece.

Greece has traditionally got various, in case does'nt many, linguistic & ethnic minorities. The non-incomprehensive listing one would include Pomaks, various Roma groups, Turkic-speakers. The total of religious minorities survive, sustaining Muslims forming the largest group.

Religion

Before Ottoman rule, Greece was a portion of the Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire. A civil & religious capital of the Empire was moved to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) by Constantine I. Since Constantine’s period a Orthodox Christian faith has flourished & spread throughout Eastern Europe. Possibly under Turkish rule and perennial tries at existence proselytised first of all per Jesuits and then by the Protestants, Orthodox Christianity survived and flourished.

A role of the Orthodox Church in maintaining Greek ethnic & ethnical identity in a period of a 400 years of Ottoman rule, has reinforced the attach between religion and government. Virtually all Greeks, potentially several non-practicing Christians, revere & respect a Orthodox Christian faith, attend Church & Major Feast times, & come emotionally connected to Orthodox Christianity as their 'national' religion.

A Greek Constitution reflects this relationship by guaranteeing absolute freedom of religion while however defining a "prevailing religion" of Greece when a Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. Around practice, a Orthodox Church and the laic state come intimately required by owning a single a second. Joint approval is required for a building of churches & a Church has possibly blocked the building of site of worship for more religions inside Athens. Priests receive state remuneration. A President of the Republic will require an oath on the Bible and Orthodox Christianity is given privileged place inside religious studies in primary education. A Church has too been allowed to keep its big portfolio of financial plus exempt from either taxation & fiscal auditing.

Starting around January 2005, the series of extremely publicised corruption scandals involving high rank church officials use led to several calls by lay Greeks for the complete separation of Church & State & greater control of Church plus.

A majority of Greeks (95-98%) use at times at least nominal membership within the Eastern Orthodox Church, although religious observance has declined in recent years. Greek Muslims make up astir I.3% of the people, & survive primarily within Thrace. Greece as well has occasionally Roman Catholics, mainly in the city of Patras and the Cyclades islands of Syros, Paros and Naxos; some Protestants and some Jews, mainly inside Thessaloniki (which was once a major Jewish city until the Holocaust). Occasionally groups around Greece keep around began an attempt to reconstruct Hellenismos, the ancient Greek pagan religion. View likewise: Greek Orthodox Church.

Of these little a share of Greece, Mount Athos, is recognised by a Greek constitution as an autonomous monastical republic, although foreign relations, but, remain the perquisite of the Greek state.

Spiritually, Mount Athos is under a Patriarchate of Constantinople & is so around communiinside by having all a monasteries on Mount Athos & by owning the Orthodox Church depending in various countries. Of these monastery has recently broken away & has formed the entirely independent schism on the Holy place Mountain -- Esphygmenou Monastery. Esphygmenou is composed of 117 Zealot monks who cussedly oppose a head of the Church & don't commemorate him any extra. It think that it is a go remaining admittedly Christians in the globe & that Orthodoxy has been corrupted by sustaining dialogue with more faiths. It besides object to a lifting of the anathemas against the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960's by Patriarch Athenagoras.

Culture
Independent article: Culture of Greece

Greece has produced a immense total of contributors to philosophy, uranology, science, & the arts. For the listing of notable Greek men & women, look at List of Greeks.

Watch as well: Classics Education in Greece List of Greek dances Greek National Holidays Tourism in Greece List of museums in Greece

Miscellaneous topics
History of Greece Ancient Greece Communications in Greece List of Greek language television channels List of radio stations in Greece Transportation in Greece List of Greek roads Rio-Antirio bridge Foreign relations of Greece Military of Greece Postage stamps and postal history of Greece Conscription in Greece Popular Greek Entertainment Plateia Syntagmatos and Vouli ton Ellinon Turkish Greek Civic Dialogue Project

Sport in Greece

Summer Olympics of 1896, 1906 & 2004 Greece national football team (Euro 2004 Cup Winners) Greece national basketball team (Eurobasket 2005 Cup Winners)

the Greek government built a globe class sport infrastructure specifically for the 2004 Summer Olympics which is generally regarded as a [http://www.athens2004.com/en/Legacy legacy]to the united states. Yet, occasionally concerns were voiced per Greek public on a [http://www.greekembassy.org/Embassy/content/en/Article.aspx?office=8&folder=531&article=13957 post-olympic use]of this infrastructure in the nigh new. Unlike more american European countries, basketball has become the popular sport inside Greece. This is largely a symptom of a triumph achieved per Greek national five against the Soviet Union in the European championship final of 1987 held in Athens. Eighteen years late Greece won its 2nd Europen basketball championship in the 2005 Eurobasket, held in Belgrade.