Comparing Greece and Turkey: A look at culture, economy, and history

Greece and Turkey. Often rivals, sometimes friends, but always neighbors. As any two other countries that exist next to each other, we tend to compare them, observing how each of them is in various aspects, and precisely comparing how each of them matches or doesn't match the other. In this video, I want to take a look at this, and find out how do Greece and Turkey compare. Let's jump right into it, taking a look at some of the basics. Both Turkey and Greece are located here. Greece is in Southern Europe, while Turkey is only partially located in the European continent with its region of Thrace and half of the historic city of Istanbul. The rest of its territory is in Asia and the Middle East, Anatolia to be more precise. Both countries had predecessors with much larger empires. Turkey controlled almost all the Middle East and great parts of North Africa through the Ottoman Empire, while Greece was part of one of largest empires in the world, the Empire of Alexander the Great. Both territories were also part of some of the same empires, the Romans, the Byzantines, Alexander the Great or even the Ottomans themselves. But today, their territory is much smaller in both cases. Greece is around 132,000 square kilometers, while Turkey is much larger at 783,000 square kilometers. Their land border is only here, in the region of Thrace, but their sea border is all the way through the disputed Aegean Sea. Despite most of its territory being continental, I would argue Greece could call itself an island nation as it controls over 6,000 islands or islets in the sea, although only 227 are inhabited. Turkey controls less, 500, and some are along the other coasts of Turkey, although some Turks claim they are due control over more of the Aegean islands as pretty much all of the major islands are Greek today, with only small islets and a couple actual islands being controlled by the Turks, but many claim this is just a topic of rhetoric used by them with no real desire to control further territory as they don't seem to offer any particular advantage other than the expansion of the exclusive economic zone at sea. We'll talk about this issue further ahead. But before we keep going, I have to take a quick minute to thank the sponsor who made this video possible, Kingdom Maker. Kingdom Maker is a free-to-play mobile game that offers in-depth customization and sim-like storytelling. It's available on iOS and Android through my link in the description. You can customize everything from where your city is placed to how your nobles look, which by the way impacts the way your whole royal family will look in the game, and everything in between. Customize your army with unique champions that give specialized bonuses every time you jump into battle. I recently installed it and I'm actually pretty into the game. The personalizable elements really set it apart and make it enjoyable to play. And as your character and settlement grows in the game, more gameplay options become available. For instance, at level 10, you can start raiding other player cities and help defend your allies, a social aspect of the game that really makes it even better. Great battles, kingdom creation and expansion, character customization, and socializing are, I would say, the four main qualities of the game. So try out Kingdom Maker through my link in the description and create your noble and kingdom today. And now, back to the video. So, speaking of the territory each country controls, who lives there? Greece has a population of around 10.4 million people, just ahead of Portugal and behind Sweden. While Turkey is significantly more populated, which makes sense since its territory is larger, the territory is about 6 times larger than Greece's, but the population is about 8 times larger, at around 84 million people, just behind Iran and just ahead of Germany, which, incidentally, has a large immigrant Turkish population. Greece has an average of 81 people per square kilometer, while Turkey has an average of 110, so despite huge population differences, they aren't too different in this aspect. The median age of Turkey is 33 years old, while the median age in Greece is 45, which means that Turkey has a younger population than Greece, which is also visible in their population pyramids, with Greece having almost an inverted pyramid with a much more aging population. When it comes to the previously mentioned Asian islands, they aren't really heavily populated, although one detail is important they are home to over 40,000 refugees which come from the Mediterranean, southern and eastern coasts attempting to seek refuge in Europe, a situation which Greece and Turkey have both faced in past years. The two countries' flags are very different, almost opposites. Greece's is blue and white with a cross on its top left corner and Turkey's is red with a white crescent and star in the center left. And these flags are a good transition to another aspect in which they are very different. Religion. Greece is predominantly Christian Orthodox, while Turkey is predominantly Sunni Muslim. Even though both states are secular and not directly affiliated with religious organizations, both of these take heavy importance in the countries and the way their institutions work. It's estimated that 81% of people in Greece identify as Orthodox, although the real number of practicing people is likely much lower. This very high value might have do with the fact that religion was a big thing that people held onto at the times of their wars and invasions by precisely the Ottoman Empire. In fact, in a 2017 survey, 76% of Greeks stated that their nationality is defined by Christianity. In Turkey, the government registers people as Muslim whether they are Muslim or non-religious. This causes their records to state that 99% of the people are Muslim, but again, the real number must be lower. But there is no doubt that religion plays a key role in both countries, as is evident from the two symbols being on their flags, which shows they are important in defining each of their nationalities and in reaffirming the differences between one and the other. And this need to reaffirm themselves has a lot to do with the rivalry that exists between the two countries. I mentioned this in a previous video about country rivalries. Greece and Turkey have a history of disputes and conflict between their predecessor states. The conflicts between Hellenic people of Greece and Anatolia in antiquity somewhat symbolize how far back the rivalry between these two regions goes, even though at the time the rulers of Anatolia weren't Turkish. But then we have further conflicts between the Kingdom of Greece and the Ottoman Empire, as well as current disputes in the Aegean Sea, its islands, Cyprus, in which Northern Cyprus is a Turkish protectorate. In addition to the national identity reaffirming, this causes both countries to have a strong investment in their military forces. So, how do the armies of each country compare? It's always difficult to get accurate measures on armed forces, so be aware I am basing this off the Wikipedia articles for each of them. Both the armed forces are made up of a ground army, a navy, and an air force, as is the case for pretty much all countries. So keep in mind the numbers presented here are mostly general and about the three branches together. The military age in Greece is 19, while in Turkey it is 21. Greece currently has universal mandatory military service for males over 19 years of age. Under Greek law, all men must serve in the armed forces for a period of 9 to 12 months. Women can serve on a voluntary basis, but cannot be conscripted. In Turkey, military service also seems to be mandatory for men from 21 to 41, but apparently you can pay to get out of it. Greece has 143,000 soldiers in active personnel and 222 in reserve. Turkey has 355 active and 380 in reserve. Not only are Turkey's regular numbers bigger, but in the case of a general conscription, their larger population size is an advantage. Turkey spends around 15 billion US dollars per year on their military expenses, while Greece spends around 7 billion, less than half. However, Greece spends a higher percentage of their GDP, 3.8%, on defense, while Turkey only spends 2.1%. But both countries are also members of the same NATO alliance. Speaking of percentages of GDP, what is the GDP of these countries and how do they compare economically? Greece has a GDP of around 220 billion US dollars, while Turkey has one of around 700 billion, according to IMF projections for 2022. However, Greece has a smaller population, so despite having a smaller GDP, their GDP per capita is larger at around 20,000 dollars, while Turkey's is only of around 8,000. But the GDP per capita is a simple division of the total GDP by the number of people. It doesn't mean that each person actually gets this amount per year, it's just an estimate. In order In order to better understand the wealth distribution in a country, we need to take a look at their Gini Index or coefficient, which takes into account various factors in order to measure inequality. A value of 0 in the index means perfect equality, while a value of 1 or 100% means maximal inequality, meaning all the money would be concentrated in very few people. Greece's Gini coefficient is of 3.14, while Turkey's is 4.19. This means that there is a greater wealth inequality in Turkey, although not by a lot, with the country's wealth being less distributed among its people. And it might be even more, this number for Turkey is from 2019 and their economy has been going through a tough time lately, meaning that inequality might in fact have increased. In fact, the World Inequality Report for 2022 states that the richest 1% in Turkey hold 37% of the country's wealth, while the poorest 50% only hold 3.7%. The average income of the bottom half of the population is only 6,500 dollars, less than the GDP per capita. This report doesn't cover Greece in detail, but this survey conducted by the Greek Federation of Enterprises states that the richest 10% of Greeks hold 42% of the wealth. Pretty similar, perhaps a little better than Turkey. Although we could say none are doing too terrible, they're not doing too amazing either. The minimum wage in Greece is of 713 euros, while in Turkey it is of approximately 440, Approximately because, and this is a key detail for all of these statistics just to find some of the big differences, Turkey doesn't use the same currency as Greece. Greece is a part of the European Union and the Eurozone, therefore it uses the Euro, while Turkey uses its own currency, the Turkish Lira. Turkey has been going through a severe financial crisis over the past years and the value of its currency is the biggest proof of this. In August of 2017, one Turkish Lira was worth 24 cents. Today, in August of 2022, 5 years later, it is worth 0.054 euros, just over half a cent. According to official stats, Turkey's inflation this year was of 78%, although some people claim the real value is tremendously higher. In Greece, it has increased a lot, as it has mostly everywhere due to current events, but it's still at around 12%, much less than Turkey. In these, income and wealth distribution inequalities, as well as inflation and increasing of prices and cost of living impact the quality of life of people, as well as the resources they have available to them, such as access to education, healthcare, etc. So another interesting comparison we can make is the Human Development Index, which measures precisely the average achievements of a country in three basic aspects of human development – health, education, and standard of living. Greece's HDI is 0.88, while Turkey's is 0.82, here the ideal is 1.0, so we can state that despite all the troubles Turkey has been facing, they're still apparently even on this aspect. Although again, some of the numbers predate Turkey's economic crisis. There's many other ways in which we could compare the two countries, such as the type of culture that their people each have, which despite being very unique and different from each other, also has some common aspects, as is traditional with neighboring countries. Although uncommonly with neighboring countries, but something that makes sense in this case, the languages they use are very different. Greek is an Indo-European language with its own alphabet, while Turkish is a Turkish language, using the Latin alphabet. Turkey now exists in Anatolia, where Greek civilizations existed in the past, in antiquity. And so, just like in other areas where Greek settlements had some impact up to today, be it through ruins or actual cultural impact, I would dare say that in Anatolia there also exists some Greek inheritance, especially due to the fact that the Byzantine Empire lasted until much later than in other places. And so, if the impact of Greek culture in Iberia or Italy is noticeable today, it must be the case in Anatolia as well. So, those are some of the differences between Greece and Turkey, how they compare in a number of factors, political, economic, religious, social, military, and more. Understanding that Turkey is a bigger country, but that they are in many ways similar, despite the many other ways in which they differ a lot. Two countries that are often seen as rivals, but which have at times also been friends and today coexist peacefully in the same alliance, despite underlying tensions and issues that are not yet fully resolved. Leave a comment with your opinion about this topic and any suggestions of which other countries I should compare in a video. Thanks so much for watching this video, subscribe if you want and I will see you next time for more General Knowledge.