TheGreek community inFrancenumbers around between 35,000 - 50,000 people (in 2015). They are located all around the country but the main communities are located inParis,MarseilleandGrenoble.[3]
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 Family tomb of George Coronio ofSyros,Pere-Lachaise Cemetery | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 35,000[1]- 50.000 (2015)[2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Paris,Grenoble,Marseille,Corsicaandsouthern France | |
| Languages | |
| French,Greek | |
| Religion | |
| Greek Orthodoxy,Catholicism,Atheism,Judaism |
Demographics
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The Greeks of Marseille
editMarseille, known as Massalia in Greek, was founded by Greeks from Ionia in 600 BC. The Massaliot Greeks are believed to have introducedviticultureto France. Notable ancient Greeks from Massalia included the great explorer and scientistPytheas.
Historically the Greek community was composed of merchants, ship-owners, intellectuals and international traders. They participated in the city’s political life or became patrons of its cultural life and the philanthropic activity of some of them was crowned by theLégion d’Honneur.
The Greeks of Corsica
editCorsican Maniots are descendants ofManiots,who migrated to Corsica during the 400 yearOttomanrule over most ofGreece.To this day theCargèseregion of Corsica is referred to asCargèse la Grecque(Cargèse, the Greek). The origins of the Greek Maniots community inCorsicadates back to the end of the 17th century, whenGreecewas then underOttoman Turkrule and there was a flow of Greek refugees from theOttoman Empire.The Maniot Greeks were settled on the island and given lands for farming and animal grazing by the then ruling power, Genoa, as part of a Genoese policy to limit the spread and impact of an emergent Corsican nationalism violently opposed to foreign rule. The Maniots founded their four new villages in Paomia with their own church and culture. As a consequence, the pro-Genoese Greeks in Corsica became the targets of sustained attacks by Corsican nationalists and resentful farmers, and so had to be re-settled several times before finally being given territory around Cargese. Attempts at integrating Greeks into Corsican society involved the establishment of a mixed Greek-Corsican gendermerie. Many Corsican Greeks subsequently left the island for French-ruled Algeria, in a wave of south European settlement of the North African colony sponsored by the French government, but returned to Corsica and elsewhere in France following Algerian independence. They have now become fully assimilated into Corsican and French society, through both intermarriage and education. In general this has resulted in Corsican Greeks losing their separate ethnic-religious identity and knowledge of the Greek language, with even older Cargese inhabitants of Greek ancestry having little if any ability to read or speak Greek, while some inhabitants still possess Corsicanized Greek names (like Garidacci etc.) and attend services in the Greek-Catholic church of Cargèse.
Notable people
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- Vincent, Count Benedetti[6]
- Vassilis Alexakis
- Nikos Aliagas
- Constantine Andreou
- Anna Mouglalis
- Eugène Michel Antoniadi
- Roger Apéry
- Antonin Artaud
- Helene Ahrweiler
- Kostas Axelos
- Charles Denis Bourbaki
- Michel Dimitri Calvocoressi
- Jean-Christophe Cambadélis
- Cornelius Castoriadis
- André Chénier
- Joseph Chénier
- Iris Clert
- Georges Corraface
- Jacques Damala
- Diam's
- Dimitri from Paris
- Adèle Exarchopoulos
- Jean Focas
- Costa Gavras
- Romain Gavras
- Pierre Gripari
- John Iliopoulos
- Laure Junot, duchess d'Abrantès
- Taïg Khris
- Apo Lazaridès
- Clément Lépidis
- Georges Moustaki
- Savitri Devi Mukherji
- Anna de Noailles
- Gabriella Papadakis
- Georges Panayotis
- Nicos Poulantzas
- Gisèle Prassinos
- Mario Prassinos
- Nicolas Rossolimo
- Nicolas Sarkozy
- Joseph Sifakis
- Demetrio Stefanopoli
- Patrick Tatopoulos
- Tériade
- Agnès Varda
- Antonis Volanis
- Antonis Rikka
- Alexandre Desplat
- Ken Samaras
See also
editReferences
edit- ^"Présentation de la Grèce".
- ^"La France attire beaucoup moins les Grecs que l'Allemagne".slate.fr(in French). 9 July 2015.
- ^"Présentation de la Grèce".
- ^(in French)QuidGéographie humaine (France) - Étrangers en FranceArchived2007-07-09 at theWayback Machine
- ^(in French)Quid 2003,p. 624
- ^Crankshaw, Edward (2011).Bismarck.A&C Black. p. 1710.ISBN9781448204878.
Napoleon's ambassador to Prussia, a rather solemn and self-important little Corsican of Greek origin, comte Vincente Benedetti.
Bibliography
edit- Gérard Blanken,Les Grecs de Cargèse (Corse). Recherches sur leur langue et leur histoire.T. I. Partie linguistique,Leyde, 1951 (recensioninRevue des études byzantines)
- Marie-Anne Comnène,Cargèse: une colonie grecque en Corse,Société d'édition "Les Belles lettres", 1959, 92 pages
- Mathieu Grenet,La fabrique communautaire. Les Grecs à Venise, Livourne et Marseille, 1770-1840,Athens and Rome, École française d'Athènes and École française de Rome, 2016 (ISBN978-2-7283-1210-8)
- Jean Coppolani, « Cargèse. Essai sur la géographie humaine d'un village corse »,Revue de géographie alpine,Année 1949, Volume 37, n° 37-1, pp. 71–108
- Nicolaos Stephanopoli de Comnène,Histoire de la colonie grecque établie en Corse,Éditeur A. Thoisnier-Desplaces, 1826 (full scanned version on line)
