A very good question that we should ask ourselves primarily concerns what Hellenism was in the previous century. It was clearly not something specific, since the Greek revolution was carried out by Albanian Christians. So what was Hellenism? Was it the Orthodox Christian religion since the Phanariotes Greekized everyone which was useful to them and could participate in their phanariotic circles such as the Bulgarian Stefanos Vogoridis and the Casanova Franks of the well-known family?
The answer to this very important question about what Hellenism is, will be given to us by the well-known Einstein through his diaries in the year 1915 and is as follows:
May 30, 1915 – I spoke with the military attaché of the Greek Embassy, colonel Franzis, about Hellenism. Hellenism for him is not a race or a religion, but an idea. The Albanians are steeped in it (Hellenism) and the colonel finds similar sentiments among the Greek Jews. He mentioned to me a Persian who said that if Alexander the Great lived another 25 years Christ would not be necessary in the world. I like the secretive, patriotic faith of the Greeks, which everyone shares in equal measure. The people here (the inhabitants of Anatolia) mourn the decline of Hellenism. Others in free Greece have a broader understanding compromised and magnified with other ideals than the local Greeks (inhabitants of Anatolia) whose Nationalism is the religion and is centered around the Patriarchate.
Einstein
This text is an excerpt from a very cute book that was published in Athens in 1918 with the title “What happened in Constantinople in 1915”. Of course, this is not about Albert, well known to all of us, but about Lewis Einstein of the American embassy in Istanbul and his diaries.
But Einstein I daresay, and we will all agree on this, that he is an idea.
Like Hellenism.
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