The departure of most Greeks from Egypt at the beginning of the 1960s raised questions in the community about how it should readjust its presence at an institutional level. This article examines... Show moreThe departure of most Greeks from Egypt at the beginning of the 1960s raised questions in the community about how it should readjust its presence at an institutional level. This article examines how the Greek Koinotēta of Alexandria (GKA) operated as both a local and diasporic institution in periods of contraction, in terms of size and finances, and analyzes the adjustment policies it undertook concerning its institutional property and real estate. Despite the community’s demographic shrinkage in the 1960s and 1970s, the GKA was assigned its role as the value keeper and moral guide for the children of the community through its educational institutions and orphanages, having the support of the Greek representatives, in this case the consular authorities.Even though the GKA faced serious financial difficulties in the 1960s, it strived to find strategies of adaptation to maintain its agency and social, political and economic capital. Show less
This dissertation examines the continued, yet hitherto overlooked, engagement of the Greek community in Egypt from the period after the en masse departure of most of its members (1962), until the... Show moreThis dissertation examines the continued, yet hitherto overlooked, engagement of the Greek community in Egypt from the period after the en masse departure of most of its members (1962), until the implementation of the infitāh policies in 1976 by Anwar Sadat. Beyond Departure: The Greeks in Egypt, 1962-1976 explores the Greeks’ multiple personal, local and institutional histories that make up the Greek presence in history after 1962. It reveales the diversity of Greek experiences based on geographical, socioeconomic and individual context. It analyzes the motivations and strategies they employed to respond to the economic and social changes in Egyptian society, such as the end of the Capitulations, WWI and WWII, the formation of the post-colonial state, and the 1961 Nationalization laws, among others, and the relations these events formed between Egyptian nationals and non nationals and the Egyptian state. It also explores how Greeks negotiated their presence, identity and feelings of belonging, in mind and practice, as a diaspora with a transnational agency. Show less
