"text":"Greece achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. During the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, it gradually added neighboring islands and territories, most with Greek-speaking populations. In World War II, Greece was first invaded by Italy (1940) and subsequently occupied by Germany (1941-44); fighting endured in a protracted civil war between supporters of the king and other anti-communist and communist rebels. Following the latter's defeat in 1949, Greece joined NATO in 1952. In 1967, a group of military officers seized power, establishing a military dictatorship that suspended many political liberties and forced the king to flee the country. In 1974 following the collapse of the dictatorship, democratic elections and a referendum created a parliamentary republic and abolished the monarchy. In 1981, Greece joined the EC (now the EU); it became the 12th member of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in 2001. Greece has suffered a severe economic crisis since late 2009, due to nearly a decade of chronic overspending and structural rigidities. Since 2010, Greece has entered three bailout agreements with the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the IMF. The Greek Government agreed to its current, $96 billion bailout in July 2015, which will conclude in August 2018."
"text":"one-third of the population lives in and around metropolitan Athens; the remainder of the country has moderate population density mixed with sizeable pockets of urban agglomeration"
"text":"Santorini (elev. 367 m) has been deemed a Decade Volcano by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, worthy of study due to its explosive history and close proximity to human populations; although there have been very few eruptions in recent centuries, Methana and Nisyros in the Aegean are classified as historically active"
}
},
"Environment - current issues":{
"text":"air pollution; water pollution"
},
"Environment - international agreements":{
"party to":{
"text":"Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands"
},
"signed, but not ratified":{
"text":"Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds"
}
},
"Geography - note":{
"text":"strategic location dominating the Aegean Sea and southern approach to Turkish Straits; a peninsular country, possessing an archipelago of about 2,000 islands"
"text":"2.3 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2016 est.)"
},
"Population distribution":{
"text":"one-third of the population lives in and around metropolitan Athens; the remainder of the country has moderate population density mixed with sizeable pockets of urban agglomeration"
"text":"the English name derives from the Roman (Latin) designation \"Graecia,\" meaning \"Land of the Greeks\"; the Greeks call their country \"Hellas\" or \"Ellada\""
"text":"3 February 1830 (from the Ottoman Empire); note - 25 March 1821, outbreak of the national revolt against the Ottomans; 3 February 1830, signing of the London Protocol recognizing Greek independence by Great Britain, France, and Russia"
"text":"Prime Minister Alexis TSIPRAS (since 21 September 2015); note - Vassiliki THANOU-CHRISTOFILOU served as interim prime minister beginning on 27 August 2015 after the resignation of Alexis TSIPRAS on 20 August 2015; she was Greece's first female prime minister"
"text":"president elected by Hellenic Parliament for a 5-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 18 February 2015 (next to be held by February 2020); president appoints as prime minister the leader of the majority party or coalition in the Hellenic Parliament"
"text":"unicameral Hellenic Parliament or Vouli ton Ellinon (300 seats; 288 members directly elected in single- and multi-seat constituencies by proportional representation vote and 12 seats are filled from nationwide party lists; 50 seats allocated to the party with the highest total valid vote count and remaining seats are apportioned according to each party's or coalition's vote percentage; members serve up to 4 years)"
"text":"last held on 20 September 2015 (next to be held by 2019); note - snap elections were called because of upheaval in the governing SYRIZA party over a new bailout deal with international creditors"
"text":"percent of vote by party - SYRIZA 35.5%, ND 28.1%, Golden Dawn 7.0%, PASOK-DIMAR 6.3%, KKE 5.6%, To Potami 4.1%, ANEL 3.7%, EK 3.4%, other 6.3%; seats by party - SYRIZA 145, ND 75, Golden Dawn 18, PASOK-DIMAR 17, KKE 15, To Potami 11, ANEL 10, EK 9; note - only parties surpassing a 3% threshold are entitled to parliamentary seats; parties need 10 seats to become formal parliamentary groups but can retain that status if the party participated in the last election and received the minimum 3% threshold"
}
},
"Judicial branch":{
"highest court(s)":{
"text":"Hellenic Supreme Court of Civil and Penal Law (consists of 56 judges)"
"text":"judges selected by the Supreme Judicial Council, which includes the president of the Supreme Court, other judges, and the prosecutor of the Supreme Court; judges appointed for life following a 2-year probationary period"
"text":"Anticapitalist Left Cooperation for the Overthrow or ANTARSYA [collective leadership] ++ Coalition of the Radical Left or SYRIZA [Alexios (Alexis) TSIPRAS] ++ Communist Party of Greece or KKE [Dimitrios KOUTSOUMBAS] ++ Democratic Left or DIMAR [Athanasios (Thanassis) THEOCHAROPOULOS] ++ Golden Dawn [Nikolaos MICHALOLIAKOS] ++ Independent Greeks or ANEL [Panagiotis (Panos) KAMMENOS] ++ Movement of Democratic Socialists or KIDISO [Georgiose PAPANDREOU] ++ New Democracy or ND [Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS] ++ Panhellenic Socialist Movement or PASOK [Fofi GENIMMATA] ++ Popular Unity [Panagiotis LAFAZANIS] ++ To Potami (The River) [Stavros THEODORAKIS] ++ Union of Centrists or EK [Vassilis LEVENTIS]"
"text":"Supreme Administration of Civil Servants Unions or ADEDY [Spyros PAPASPYROS] ++ Federation of Greek Industries or SEV [Dimitris DASKALOPOULOS] ++ General Confederation of Greek Workers or GSEE [Ioannis PANAGOPOULOS]"
"text":"nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white; a blue square bearing a white cross appears in the upper hoist-side corner; the cross symbolizes Greek Orthodoxy, the established religion of the country; there is no agreed upon meaning for the nine stripes or for the colors; the exact shade of blue has never been set by law and has varied from a light to a dark blue over time"
},
"National symbol(s)":{
"text":"Greek cross (white cross on blue field, arms equal length); national colors: blue, white"
},
"National anthem":{
"name":{
"text":"\"Ymnos eis tin Eleftherian\" (Hymn to Liberty)"
},
"lyrics/music":{
"text":"Dionysios SOLOMOS/Nikolaos MANTZAROS"
},
"note":{
"text":"adopted 1864; the anthem is based on a 158-stanza poem by the same name, which was inspired by the Greek Revolution of 1821 against the Ottomans (only the first two stanzas are used); Cyprus also uses \"Hymn to Liberty\" as its anthem"
"text":"see entry for the European Union for money supply for the entire euro area; the European Central Bank (ECB) controls monetary policy for the 18 members of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU); individual members of the EMU do not control the quantity of money circulating within their own borders"
}
},
"Stock of broad money":{
"text":"$260.9 billion (31 December 2014 est.) ++ $264.6 billion (31 December 2013 est.)"
"text":"country code - 30; landing point for the SEA-ME-WE-3 optical telecommunications submarine cable that provides links to Europe, Middle East, and Asia; a number of smaller submarine cables provide connectivity to various parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Cyprus; tropospheric scatter; satellite earth stations - 4 (2 Intelsat - 1 Atlantic Ocean and 1 Indian Ocean, 1 Eutelsat, and 1 Inmarsat - Indian Ocean region) (2015)"
"text":"Broadcast media dominated by the private sector; roughly 150 private TV channels, about ten of which broadcast nationwide; 1 government-owned terrestrial TV channel with national coverage; 3 privately owned satellite channels; multi-channel satellite and cable TV services available; upwards of 1,500 radio stations, all of them privately owned; government-owned broadcaster has 2 national radio stations (2014)"
"text":"1,565 km 1.435-m gauge (764 km electrified)"
},
"narrow gauge":{
"text":"961 km 1.000-m gauge; 22 km 0.750-m gauge (2014)"
}
},
"Roadways":{
"total":{
"text":"116,960 km"
},
"paved":{
"text":"41,357 km (includes 1,091 km of expressways)"
},
"unpaved":{
"text":"75,603 km (2010)"
}
},
"Waterways":{
"text":"6 km (the 6-km-long Corinth Canal crosses the Isthmus of Corinth; it shortens a sea voyage by 325 km) (2012)"
},
"Merchant marine":{
"total":{
"text":"860"
},
"by type":{
"text":"bulk carrier 262, cargo 49, carrier 1, chemical tanker 68, container 35, liquefied gas 13, passenger 7, passenger/cargo 109, petroleum tanker 302, roll on/roll off 14"
},
"foreign-owned":{
"text":"42 (Belgium 17, Bermuda 3, Cyprus 3, Italy 5, UK 6, US 8)"
},
"registered in other countries":{
"text":"2,459 (Antigua and Barbuda 4, Bahamas 225, Barbados 14, Belize 2, Bermuda 8, Brazil 1, Cabo Verde 1, Cambodia 2, Cayman Islands 9, Comoros 4, Curacao 1, Cyprus 201, Dominica 4, Egypt 8, Gibraltar 8, Honduras 4, Hong Kong 27, Indonesia 1, Isle of Man 62, Italy 7, Jamaica 3, Liberia 505, Malta 469, Marshall Islands 408, Mexico 2, Moldova 1, Panama 379, Philippines 5, Portugal 2, Saint Kitts and Nevis 2, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 42, Sao Tome and Principe 1, Saudi Arabia 4, Singapore 22, UAE 3, Uruguay 1, Vanuatu 3, Venezuela 4, unknown 10) (2010)"
"text":"Hellenic Army (Ellinikos Stratos, ES), Hellenic Navy (Elliniko Polemiko Navtiko, EPN), Hellenic Air Force (Elliniki Polemiki Aeroporia, EPA) (2013)"
},
"Military service age and obligation":{
"text":"19-45 years of age for compulsory military service; during wartime the law allows for recruitment beginning January of the year of inductee's 18th birthday, thus including 17 year olds; 18 years of age for volunteers; conscript service obligation is 1 year for the Army and 9 months for the Air Force and Navy; women are eligible for voluntary military service (2014)"
"text":"Greece and Turkey continue discussions to resolve their complex maritime, air, territorial, and boundary disputes in the Aegean Sea; Greece rejects the use of the name Macedonia or Republic of Macedonia; the mass migration of unemployed Albanians still remains a problem for developed countries, chiefly Greece and Italy"
"text":"a gateway to Europe for traffickers smuggling cannabis and heroin from the Middle East and Southwest Asia to the West and precursor chemicals to the East; some South American cocaine transits or is consumed in Greece; money laundering related to drug trafficking and organized crime"
