The Relationships between Greece and Romania

The beginning of the relations between these two countries goes back hundreds of years, with the Greek-Roman bastion in the Balkans. Later, they were improved further when Moldavia and Wallachia became a refuge for Greeks who were fleeing from the rapidly declining Byzantine Empire.

The Greek presence in Romania has always been strong. At times, such as the Phanariotes period, their power and influence on the area was remarkable. At other times, including today, the Hellenism there, is simply one of the many ethnic minorities.

To go back to Phanariotes, these were members of prominent families with power and influence in the political and economical scenery in Constantinople’s life. They took their name as they were residents of Phanar, the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is. Phanariotes, played an important role, also in the political and cultural life of modern-day Romania as well.

Of course they were considering themselves as Greeks and as Nicholas Mavrokordatos wrote in his famous Philotheou Parerga, ‘’We are a race completely Hellenic”.

Last but not least, is that the Greek revolution for independence in 1821 against the Ottomans, basically incited by the Phanariotes of Moldavia, Wallachia, the Danubian principalities and not within Greece itself.

Moving further, on 19^th and 20^th century, both of them quite intensive with constant wars and battles,  we could say that Romania became a less important destination for exiled Greeks, with the majority of them being integrated in Dobruja territory from 1878, when a new population of Greeks was created there.

After the WW2 and especially during the incidents of Civil War that hit Greece in the late 1940s, a new wave of arrivals appeared in the communities, as they were largely prosperous and maintained specific cultural institutions.

But how is the situation now? According to Romanian official documents, the towns and communes in Romania with the highest proportions of Greeks as of 2011 are Izvoarele and Sulina, both in Tulcea country. On 2002, the Greek community numbered 6.472 persons, with the majority living in Bucharest and the surroundings followed by Dobruja countries of Tulcea and Constanta and finally the Danube-facing ones of Braila and Galati. Nowadays and according to a department of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs which specializes in that kind of matters, the Greek community in Romania numbers around 14.000 people.

On the other part, how are things with the Romanians in Greece? After the fall of the Soviet Union and the return of the democracy in Romania, many of them have emigrated to Greece, mostly for economical reasons. The number as of today is estimated in more than 100.000 persons.

To sum up, the level of relations between the two countries is excellent as Greece supported warmly the request of Romania to be a NATO member and later a EU member. In addition, Greece is among the three top investors in Romania , with almost 800 active business and invested capital totaling 3 billion euros.