Geographical name changes in Greece

The geographical name change in Greece was an initiative by the Greek government to replace non-Greek geographical and topographic names within the Greek Republic with Greek names as part of a policy and ideology of Hellenisation.^[1]^[2]The main proponent of the initiative has been a Greek homogenization social-engineering campaign which aimed to assimilate or obliterate geographical or topographical names that were deemed foreign and divisive against Greek unity or considered to be "bad Greek".^[2] The names that were considered foreign were usually of Ottoman, Albanian, Slavic and Turkish origin.^[2] Most of the name changes ocurred in the ethnically heterogenous northern Greece and the Arvanite settlements in central Greece. Place names of Greek origin were also renamed after names in Classical Greece.^[2]

The policy commenced after the independence of Greece from the Ottoman Empire in the early 1830s, after the territorial expanses of Greece and continued into the Greek Republic.^[2] To this day use of the old Turkish, Albanian or Slavic placenames by authorities, organisations and individuals is penalized under Greek law.^[3]

Notable geographical name changes

Central Greece

Central Greece is home to the Arvanites, an Albanian speaking people who migrated to the area in the 14th century. Till the 19th century most of Attica and Boeotia was populated by Arvanites, many of the placenames were also Arvanite, after the establishment of Greece in 1830 most of the names have been changed, especially to unused names since antiquity, from Classical Greece.

Old name	Named changed to:	Notes
Liopesi	Paiania	Old name was Arvanitic. Liopesi: 'Place of cows' or 'of the cow'. From the Albanian word lopë or cow and the suffix ës indicating belonging to a place, or quantity of something.
Menidi	Acharnes	Old name was Arvanite.
Kriekouki	Erythres	Old name was Arvanite. Kriekouki: 'Red Head'. From the Albanian word Krye/Krie(in some dialects) meaning 'head' and Kuq or red.
Dervenosalesi	Pyli, Boeotia	Old name was Arvanite . Dervenosalesi: 'The thigh mountain pass'. From the word Derven meaning 'mountain pass'(itself a local borrowing of the Turkish word 'Dervend' meaning the same thing) and Shalës or 'thigh', due to the narrowness of the area resembling the length or shape of a thigh.

Epirus

Epirus had a heterogenous population of Greeks, Albanians and Aromanians till 1912, it was home to the community of Cham Albanians who were expelled from the area after WWII by the Greek government. Since the early 20th-century all Albanian place names of Epirus have been systematically changed to Greek, thereby erasing the former Albanian presence in the landscape.^[4] An unknown number of Aromanians and Orthodox Albanians still live in the area, who today identify mostly as Greek.

Old name	Named changed to:	Notes
Densko, Denicko	Aetomilitsa	Old name was in Aromanian
Briaza	Distrato	Old name was in Aromanian

Aegean Macedonia

Till 1912, the area had a very heterogenous population consisting of Slavic, Turkish, Greek, Jews and Wallachian people. Most of the geographical names were of non Greek origin, the Greek government planned to change this. Between 1913 and 1928 the Slavic names of hundreds of villages and towns were Hellenized by a Committee for the Changing of Names, which was charged by the Greek government with "the elimination of all the names which pollute and" [1] Between 1912 (Balkan Wars) and 1928 (after the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey), the non Greek inhabitants were largely gone and instead of them Greek refugees from the Ottoman Empire settled in the area thereby changing its demography.

Western Thrace

Since 1977 all Turkish village names of Western Thrace have been changed to Greek names.^[5] Western Thrace is home to a large Turkish minority.

Old name	Named changed to:	Notes
Gümülcine	Komotini	Gümülcine was the Ottoman version which derives from the older original Byzantine name, Koumoutzina
Dedeagach	Alexandroupoli	Turkish name of Dedeagach remained the official name of the city until 1920 when it was renamed Alexandroupoli in honor of King Alexander of Greece.
Sari Saban	Chrysoupoli	During the Ottoman era, population was mostly Turkish, the old name was Sari-Saban in Turkish, it was renamed from 1913 till 1929 as Sapaioi, later renamed again.

References

^ Tsitselikis, Konstantinos (2012). Old and New Islam in Greece: From Historical Minorities to Immigrant Newcomers. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 49. ISBN 9789004221529.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Zacharia, Katerina (2012). Hellenisms: culture, idenitity, and ethnicity from antiquity to modernity. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 230-233. ISBN 9789004221529.
^ Tsitselikis, Konstantinos (2012). Old and New Islam in Greece: From Historical Minorities to Immigrant Newcomers. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 50. ISBN 9789004221529.
^ Silverman, Helaine (1990). Contested Cultural Heritage: Religion, Nationalism, Erasure, and Exclusion in a Global World. Springer. p. 114. ISBN 9781441973054.
^ Whitman, Lois (1990). Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Turks of Greece. Human Rights Watch. p. 1. ISBN 9780929692708.

[1] Tsitselikis, Konstantinos (2012). Old and New Islam in Greece: From Historical Minorities to Immigrant Newcomers. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 49. ISBN 9789004221529.

[Zacharia-p230-233-2] Zacharia, Katerina (2012). Hellenisms: culture, idenitity, and ethnicity from antiquity to modernity. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 230-233. ISBN 9789004221529.

[3] Tsitselikis, Konstantinos (2012). Old and New Islam in Greece: From Historical Minorities to Immigrant Newcomers. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 50. ISBN 9789004221529.

[4] Silverman, Helaine (1990). Contested Cultural Heritage: Religion, Nationalism, Erasure, and Exclusion in a Global World. Springer. p. 114. ISBN 9781441973054.

[5] Whitman, Lois (1990). Destroying Ethnic Identity: The Turks of Greece. Human Rights Watch. p. 1. ISBN 9780929692708.

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